Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2006 > October > 10 > Entry
Big bang theories
This one could develop during the day, but White House Press Secretary Tony Snow this morning took some steps toward downplaying the significance of the nuclear test that North Korea announced Sunday.
As part of announcing that U.S. intelligence still has not confirmed whether there was a nuclear test, Snow said the realm of possibilities includes that North Korea simply used something “old and off the shelf” and not something new and nuclear.
“This is a question simply worth posing,” he said.
During a morning session with White House reporters, Snow got into a discussion with the New York Times’ Jim Rutenberg about whether the North Korean claim of a nuclear test was a “big deal.”
Rutenberg, in a question, referred to it as a “massive event.”
“A massive event?” said Snow, spokesman for a White House that urged the U.N. Security Council into emergency session on Monday to deal with it.
Rutenberg then said it was “a big-deal event.”
“A big-deal event?” Snow said.
“It’s not?” said Rutenberg.
“It was an event,” Snow replied, adding, “The earth moved,” a reference to seismic measurements that recorded the event.
In the end, Snow said it was “an important deal” because North Korea, merely by claiming to have set off a nuke, had defied international cautions against such behavior.
Asked if the White House now is trying to play down the significance of the North Korean announcement, Snow said, “No. I was just being snarky with Rutenberg.”
Permalink | |
