Bush Promises No Lying on U.S. Defense Policy
After a storm of criticism over the Pentagon’s new strategic information office, President Bush vowed that Washington will not lie to Americans about defense policy.
Bush made his promise as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered the Pentagon to study whether the office should be scrapped based on concern that the military might use it to spread false information to foreign journalists and others to bolster U.S. policy.
Bush was asked at a White House photo opportunity whether he had told Rumsfeld to get rid of the Office of Strategic Information, formed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I didn’t even need to tell him this; he knows how I feel about this,” the president said.
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