Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Visti dagli altri: Berlusconi tenta di convincere Bush

Berlusconi: «Ho cercato di convincere Bush»
A meno di sei mesi dalle elezioni politiche, il primo ministro Silvio
Berlusconi ha fatto sapere di essere da sempre contrario alla guerra in
Iraq. Alla vigilia del suo incontro a Washington con George W. Bush, il
Cavaliere ha detto di avere più volte provato a convincere il governo
statunitense a cercare una soluzione diplomatica della crisi: «Ho detto a
Bush che la guerra non è il modo migliore per rendere democratico un paese e
ho tentato una mediazione con il leader libico Muammar Gheddafi». L'ennesima
capriola diplomatica di Berlusconi è dovuta all'impopolarità della guerra in
Italia. Il leader dell'opposizione Romano Prodi ha detto che le affermazioni
di Berlusconi confermano che governo non conta niente sulla scena
internazionale.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article323478.ece
Less than six months away from a general election, the Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi has urged his voters to believe that he opposed
the Iraq war from the outset. His declaration came in a television interview
as he was preparing to fly to Washington for talks with President Bush.
Italy did not participate in the invasion but sent 3,000 "peacekeepers" to
Nasiriyah soon after the fall of Saddam. The war has been unpopular. Three
hundred Italian soldiers came home in the summer in the first stage of a
phased withdrawal.
"I was never convinced that war was the best way to make a country
democratic or to enable it to escape from a bloody dictatorship," he told
Omnibus, a morning show on the private channel La Sette, to be broadcast
today. "I tried numerous times to persuade the American President not to go
to war. I tried to find other ways and other solutions, including through a
joint initiative with [Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar] Gaddafi. But we
didn't succeed and there was the military operation."
Mr Berlusconi's opponents were quick to seize on his claims as brazen lies
or proof of impotence in the international arena, or both. Romano Prodi, who
will challenge Mr Berlusconi for the prime ministership next April, said
mockingly: "What on earth has happened? He's finally realised this was a
mistaken war? And he said as much to Bush? Which goes to show that he counts
for nothing, nothing, nothing!"
Marco Rizzo, a Communist MEP, said: "Berlusconi the pacifist? ... He wants
the wine bottle full, the wife drunk and the money in his wallet ...
Berlusconi has made his choice. His reconsideration, on the eve of the
election, is a case of crocodile tears."
The controversy drew further attention to claims made in La Repubblica, the
Roman daily, this week that Italian military intelligence had fabricated
documentary "proof" that Saddam Hussein purchased uranium from Niger - a
claim, cited by President Bush in the run-up to war, which was a vital plank
in the charge that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The Italian government has denied the claims in La Repubblica, but was
forced to admit that Nicolo Pollari, head of Sismi, the Italian military
intelligence, met Stephen Hadley, assistant to President Bush for National
Security Affairs, on 9 September 2002, shortly before the file on Niger's
alleged uranium deal with Iraq was made public.
The government said Mr Pollari had also met Condoleezza Rice, then National
Security Adviser, though only for 15 minutes, and discussion was restricted
to "problematic scenarios in the international arena". According to La
Repubblica, Mr Pollari was under pressure from Mr Berlusconi to make a
powerful contribution to the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Un incontro quello di Bush e Berlusconi con i giornalisti
al quanco comico.
Berlusconi quando parla si guarda le scarpe e non ha il
coraggio di guardare i giornalisti che gli stanno difronte
in faccia.
E' il classico comportamento dei bambini quando stanno
per dire una bugia.
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