Stephen Hadley, National Security Adviser to the President, lied outright when he said the following yesterday during a press conference with the White House Press Corps:
"And what we've done with the Baghdad security plan that is now being -- beginning to be executed by the Iraqi government is a new approach that we believe learns from that prior experience and corrects the defects.
It's an Iraqi plan; they're in the lead; different operational concept to bring security to the population of Baghdad, not just simply sweep through looking for bad guys, following on with economic assistance that arrives in time and promptly, and adequate forces -- U.S. and Iraqi -- and having those forces working in a configuration that would be more effective."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070202-6.html (A video and full transcript are available on that web page.)
However, that is direct contradiction to the story offered by the American Enterprise Institute and one of its scholars, Frederick W. Kagan. In fact, on
AEI's own website, the publication at the link
"AEI study on the path to victory in Iraq" clearly shows this plan was being discussed by Dr. Kagan 5 days before it was disclosed by the Administration as an "Iraqi plan". It should be noted, that on January 11th Secretary of State Rice, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Pace, and Secretary of Defense Gates all referred to this as an Iraqi plan as well.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070111.html (This is the January 11th press briefing aforementioned.)
One has to wonder why the Administration is forwarding such a claim, when it is so easily falsifiable. Of course, knowing that the President, himself, admitted lying to the White House Press Corps on November 8, 2006, this is not that surprising.
"Q Thank you, Mr. President.
Last week you told us that Secretary Rumsfeld will be staying on. Why is the timing right now for this, and how much does it have to do with the election results?
THE PRESIDENT: Right. No, you and Hunt and Keil came in the Oval Office, and Hunt asked me the question one week before the campaign, and basically it was, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the Vice President?
And my answer was, they're going to stay on. And the reason why is I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign.
And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061108-2.html
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