Tom Lantos confirms Pelosi was asked by Olmert to deliver THE message to Assad.

[in_cog_ni_to]

San Mateo congressman defends Pelosi's Mideast trip
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, April 6, 2007

<snip>

Lantos, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the criticism from President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials and allies, was particularly out of line because Republican House members also met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus just before and after the delegation led by the Democratic speaker.<snip>


<snip>
Pelosi also carried a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for Assad, saying that Israel is ready for peace talks with Syria if the Syrians stop sponsoring terrorism. Pelosi got into some hot water for conveying Olmert's message when he later publicly disavowed it.

Pelosi told the Associate Press Friday that she was unaware of the dust-up. Lantos, during his interview with The Chronicle, confirmed Pelosi's view that the Israeli prime minister asked her to take the message to Assad.

Pelosi and Lantos and their delegation are scheduled to arrive home today . In addition to Syria and Israel, they visited the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. <snip>

More at link:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/06/BAG3GP482D9.DTL

[originalpckelly]

1. Olmert is known to say one thing offhand, and then publicly contradict it...

I refer to the knowledge of Israel's nuke program, once hidden until it was disclosed by Bob Gates, and then later confirmed by Olmert himself in an offhand way. Then later he publicly changed his story.

I think considering that, it is probable Mr. Olmert is not being honest in this case, he has a motive to not be honest while Pelosi really doesn't. There is no reason she'd have any reason to lie about it, and I'd hardly believe anyone even dumb ass Bush, would get an important diplomatic message wrong, mainly because they probably have assistants who knew to help them remember.

[babylonsister]

2. So what's Olmert's beef with Pelosi? It's all pretty confusing imo, and

perhaps that's how Olmert wants it to be.

http://bbsnews.net/article.php/2007040604324192

[mitchtv]

3. He's just following orders

from Cheney, Neither want peace

[babylonsister]

4. Boy, you nailed that. Here's someone who agrees with you:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x598707

[malaise]

6. Bingo n/t

[madrchsod]

5. i fuck`n knew she got set up

i could`t believe she or her staff would make this kind of mistake and lantos is above reproach. finally olmert has been exposed for just what he is-a snake in the grass

[Behind the Aegis]

7. "(H)e later publicly disavowed it."

No, Olmert didn't disavow the message, it was corrected. The one thing I saw in this article that I didn't see an any earlier article about Pelosi's meeting with Assad was that while delivering the message to Assad, she included the "prerequisites" to those peace talks. Every article I read about Pelosi's meeting only state she said Israel was ready for peace talks, this includes follow up articles after the PMO released its statement. This is the only article, to date, that I have seen that Speaker Pelosi's message also included Israel's conditions.

[Canuckistanian]

13. How is this being covered in Israel?

What are they saying about Pelosi and Olmert?

[pscot]

8. Pelosi made a mistake

by telling the press about it. That put Ohlmert on the spot with Israeli full mooners. He made the Weasel move to shift blame.

[mitchtv]

9. she made a mistake

talking to Ohlmert it is beginning to appear. She might as well have talked to Cheney, if she wanted medacity.

[mainer]

10. Olmert's stupid. He tried to screw the party of the next administration.

And now he's on the democrats' shitlist. Could he be that idiotic?

[Tom Joad]

11. Olmert also told the people at aipac that if they support Israel, they must not let the US

withdraw from Iraq "prematurely".
olmert is not our friend

[cascagraphic]

12. kick