It was hardly news to hear someone in Washington claiming that the Bush administration had decided to go after Saddam Hussein before the September 11 attacks, with or without evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
But that a former cabinet member - the second-highest ranking - levelled the charges, makes them a little more interesting. True, a treasury secretary is not always 'in the loop' on foreign-affairs issues, but somehow Paul O'Neill's story rings true.
He was certainly present for all those early meetings in the White House when the style of the new administration was being set, when the 'new guys on the block' were looking for ways to define themselves as 'tough guys' despite - or because of - the closeness of the election.
They had lost the popular vote, after all, and won the White House only because appointees in the Supreme Court put there by former president George Bush Snr tipped the balance in their favour.
There were three sets of forces present in the new administration that wanted to see Hussein toppled, no matter what: the neo-conservatives, Vice-President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush. Each had separate but powerful motives, which were there just as much prior to September 11 as after the event.
The neo-conservatives, led by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, had, in Mr Bush Snr's administration, managed to push through the labyrinthine Washington process a defining defence policy paper.
It argued for enough American military superiority to stand up to any foreseeable combination of other forces. It also forced through the new idea of pre-emption, something that had never been considered tenable - or acceptable -to the American mind.