State Department Disagrees With Michael O'Hanlon, White House, Pentagon About GAO Iraq Report
August 31, 2007
It'll be interesting to see if this gets any attention.
Right now pro and anti-war forces are battling over the new nonpartisan Government Accountability Office report that leaked yesterday which says that the Iraqi government is falling short of virtually all the benchmarks that have been set for it. Because this new GAO report will be an effective weapon to use against the positive assessment that General Petraeus is likely to deliver next month to Congress, the pro-war forces are eager to discredit it
Check out this little nugget buried in an article in today's Washington Post on the GAO report:
The draft has circulated within the State and Defense departments for comment before its publication.
Although the State Department proposed some changes, it did not dispute the basic conclusions, said an administration official involved in Iraq policy. The Pentagon, however, "made some factual corrections" and "offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades," Morrell said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083001942.htmlSo officials at the State Department read a draft of the report and didn't dispute its "basic conclusions" -- unlike the White House and O'Hanlon.
Because this was sourced to an anonymous administration official, I put in a call to State to verify the story. A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment -- which probably means that we can assume for the time being that this is true.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/08/state_departmen.php
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