President Bush last night held his first primetime news conference in over a year and a half.

It was scripted and reporters who would have asked hard question s were either banned from the conference or relegated to the back row. Not a single reporter asked a question about the monumental story the London Observer broke on Sunday, that the US is spying on U.N. Security Council Members.

But President Bush had a thing or two to say about alleged Iraqi government spying:

• President Bush, speaking to reporters last night.
• Russell Mokhiber, editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. He co-authors the weekly Focus on the Corporation column with Robert Weissman.