Bush to veto Defense Bill - Was this in the works for the past few weeks?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/bush-to-veto-de.html

ABC's Jon Garcia reports: President George Bush today said he intends to veto the $696 billion defense authorization that would include a pay raise for military personnel and fund the overhaul of veterans' health care program.

Why the veto? Because the bill includes a provision that would "imperil Iraqi assets held in the United States," the White House statement released Friday said.

A provision in the bill would permit lawyers to freeze Iraqi funds in the US and would expose Iraq to "massive liability in lawsuits concerning the misdeeds of the Saddam Hussein regime," the White House argues.

"The new democratic government of Iraq, during this crucial period of reconstruction, cannot afford to have its funds entangled in such lawsuits in the United States," according to Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel. ''(It is) too important an issue to allow this to go forward because it would tie up millions of dollars in Iraqi funds for months."

...

Democratic leaders quickly blasted the expected veto.

"We understand the President is bowing to the demands of the Iraqi government, which is threatening to withdraw billions of dollars invested in U.S. banks if this bill is signed," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid wrote in a statement. "The Administration should have raised its objections earlier, when this issue could have been addressed without a veto. The American people will have every right to be disappointed if the President vetoes this legislation."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/holding-new-ira.html

ABC News' Kirit Radia and Matt Jaffe Report: The Iraqi government is reportedly furious with a measure passed by Congress that could hold the new Iraqi government responsible for torture or terror acts committed by the Saddam Hussein regime.

Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Samir Sumaida'ie told journalists Tuesday he has written a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to complain about the measure, passed as an amendment to defense policy legislation last week.

The Iraqi ambassador said the amendment would remove any immunity that covered the new Iraqi government against responsibility for acts committed by the Saddam Hussein regime.

...

Sumaida'ie told reporters he believed the amendment was quietly slipped into the legislation. It isn't clear who on Capitol Hill sponsored the amendment.

When asked about the amendment, an official in Senate Republican leader's Mitch McConnell's office said the amendment was part of the Defense Authorization Act the Senate passed last week, and blames the uproar on problems with the precise wording of the legislation, language that they are now trying to change: "There is an effort to fix it before it gets to the President," said the official.