HOME / chatterbox: Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics.

Whopper of the Week: Condoleezza RiceAbroad at home.

"The overwhelming bulk of the evidence was that this was an attack that was likely to take place overseas."

White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, in a May 16 news briefing.

"Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

Title of the CIA's Aug. 6 briefing memo to President Bush, according to "Aug. Memo Focused on Attacks in U.S." by Bob Woodward and Dan Eggen in the May 18 Washington Post. Woodward and Eggen reported that "sources made clear yesterday that the briefing presented to Bush focused on attacks within the United States."

Got a whopper? Send it to . To be considered, an entry must be an unambiguously false statement paired with an unambiguous refutation, and both must be derived from some appropriately reliable public source. Preference will be given to newspapers and other documents that Chatterbox can link to online.

Whopper Archive:
May 17, 2002: Robert Mueller
May 9, 2002: Karl Rove
May 3, 2002: Gen. Richard Myers
April 25, 2002: Donald Rumsfeld
April 18, 2002: George W. Bush
April 11, 2002: The Rev. Robert J. Banks, archdiocese of Boston
April 5, 2002: George W. Bush
Mar. 29, 2002: Major League Baseball
Mar. 21, 2002: Billy Graham
Mar. 14, 2002: INS commissioner James W. Ziglar
Mar. 8, 2002: Robert Zoellick and the U.S. steel industry
Feb. 28, 2002: Al Sharpton
Feb. 22, 2002: Olympic skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne
Feb. 14, 2002: Kenneth Lay
Feb. 8, 2002: Enron spokeswoman Peggy Mahoney
Jan. 31, 2002: Monsanto
Jan. 24, 2002: Linda Chavez
Jan. 17, 2002: George W. Bush
Jan. 10, 2002: Simon & Schuster
Jan. 4, 2002: The Associated Press

(Click here to access the Whopper Archive for 2001.)

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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