Der Spiegel is sticking with their story RE: Maliki supports Obama's plan

[JackORoses]

In the interview, Maliki expressed support of Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months. "That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of changes."

Maliki was quick to back away from an outright endorsement of Obama, saying "who they choose as their president is the Americans' business." But he then went on to say: "But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that's where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited."

A Baghdad government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said in a statement that SPIEGEL had "misunderstood and mistranslated" the Iraqi prime minister, but didn't point to where the misunderstanding or mistranslation might have occurred. Al-Dabbagh said Maliki's comments "should not be understood as support to any US presidential candidates." The statement was sent out by the press desk of the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq.

A number of media outlets likewise professed to being confused by the statement from Maliki's office. The New York Times pointed out that al-Dabbagh's statement "did not address a specific error." CBS likewise expressed disbelief pointing out that Maliki mentions a timeframe for withdrawal three times in the interview and then asks, "how likely is it that SPIEGEL mistranslated three separate comments? Matthew Yglesias, a blogger for the Atlantic Monthly, was astonished by "how little effort was made" to make the Baghdad denial convincing. And the influential blog IraqSlogger also pointed out the lack of specifics in the government statement.

SPIEGEL sticks to its version of the conversation.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,566914,00.html

This is getting good.

As if the German's don't have it all on tape.
Mistranslated, my ass.

[high density]

1. "How likely is it that SPIEGEL mistranslated three separate comments?"

Good question.

[Ian David]

2. The word for "withdrawal" is only one syllable different from the word for "inhalation."

No, not really.

I just made that up.

[Top Cat]

3. Der Spiegel is sticking with their story RE: Maliki supports Obama's plan

The Republicans are pulling shit out of their ASS, but guess what it's not going to work this time. The article speaks for itself to late for damage control on their part.:evilgrin:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Do we have to guess which part was mistranslated?

The Republicans are crowing about this, claiming that the entire interview was incorrectly translated and that al-Maliki made none of the statements. By keeping his denial vague, al-Maliki can still give the impression that he meant what he said about withdrawal in 16 months for internal Iraqi consumption. He's worried about the October elections in Iraq and the fact that al-Sadr and others have called for immediate withdrawal and al-Maliki also must favor withdrawal in order to remain competitive. But the non-specific denial gives his Chimp masters something to be triumphant about, and claim that none of the comments were correct as far as internal U.S. political consumption is concerned.

[vaberella]

5. Once the BBC gets a hold of it, they'll make things clear. Then laugh at the repubs.

Damage is done. Bush is over and McCain can retire to where ever Cindy McCain's family loot is stashed.

[grantcart]

6. great now we will have it back in the news over and over again