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Gen. Petraeus "Softened" Reports of Violence in Iraq

Posted by Faiz Shakir at 12:00 PM on August 28, 2007.


Faiz Shakir: The Washington Post reports that Gen. Petraeus has altered the latest National Intelligence Estimate to downplay the level of violence in Iraq.
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This post, written by Faiz Shakir, originally appeared on Think Progress

The Washington Post reports that Gen. David Petraeus, after reviewing an early draft of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, succeeded in altering the document's judgments about the violence in Iraq:

The NIE, requested by the White House Iraq coordinator, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, in preparation for the testimony, met with resistance from U.S. military officials in Baghdad, according to a senior U.S. military intelligence officer there. Presented with a draft of the conclusions, Petraeus succeeded in having the security judgments softened to reflect improvements in recent months, the official said.

The first line of the key judgments of the NIE reported that there had been "measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq's security situation," but cautioned that violence will remain high over the next six to 12 months. The Washington Post's report today suggests that the intelligence community's initial judgment about the security situation was harsher.

Petraeus and other military officials have repeatedly suggested that sectarian killings in Iraq are down, touting the decline as proof of security progress in Iraq. Media reports, however, dispute the military claims, and the military has thus far refused to provide its statistics to resolve the matter:

U.S. officials say the number of civilian casualties in the Iraqi capital is down 50 percent. But U.S. officials declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim. [McClatchy, 8/15/07]

[T]he death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago. ... Brig. Gen. Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said violence in Iraq "has continued to decline and is at the lowest level since June 2006." He offered no statistics to back his claim. [AP, 8/25/07]

Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) suggested recently that the White House would "tweak" the upcoming "Petraeus report." But if Petraeus is so willing to alter intelligence findings, it appears the White House may not have much tweaking to do.

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Tagged as: iraq war, petraeus

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.


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View:
Petraeus: use terrorism to force passage of hydrocarbon law
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on Aug 28, 2007 12:43 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Petraeus said it himself during an interview with Charlie Rose on April 26, 2007:

"We have gone to great lengths to practice what every counterinsurgency manual ever published says, and that is if you want to secure a population, you have to live with it. You have to be there with an enduring presence so that they know you're not going to leave....And then we have to use population control methods, if you will, barriers to prevent vehicles from just moving freely so that, in fact, once you've cleared a neighborhood, you can, indeed, actually hold it. Now, hopefully with the support of the population you're securing."

Think about that... "hopefully"

"...and then gradually get a grip on neighborhood after neighborhood, employ population control techniques, and get the population to support what's going on."

"Sometimes, in fact, what comes out of all of them is a bit discordant. So it's not enough to pressure Maliki. It's not to say, Prime Minister, you must produce this legislation. You really have to help him encourage all the different factions and political parties to get something done in Iraq"

Gosh, General, what legislation would that be?

"...the Council of Ministers approved hydrocarbon law, or any of these other activities that they have actually successfully concluded."

"...I think the dog closest to the sled is the hydrocarbon law, as it's called....Iraq is generating enormous oil wealth on a daily basis, a yearly basis, and it needs to distribute those - it has committed in the law that was approved by the Council of Ministers that those revenues would be distributed .."

"...they just discovered it, say in Anbar province within the last month or so, which by the way will take Iraq to the second highest oil reserves we believe in the world."

Oh, that legislation! The one that the vultures in Dubai are so eagerly awaiting!

"General David Petraeus: Yes. So this is colossal potential, and the potential wealth and the -- the wealth right now is substantial."

So, what can we expect from the good General in September?

" I walked down the street of the city of heat, which you couldn't have fought your way down a couple of months ago, eating an ice cream cone with a soft cap on next to the mayor..."

Wow! Peace has been established in Iraq? Got any more bald-faced lies for us, General? Keep smiling... how many Iraqis have your covert ops teams killed this week, you oily bloodstained psyops monkey?

By the way, we can be sure that Maliki's failure to pass the hydrocarbon law is the real reason that Democratic! senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin called for his removal and replacement by Allawi (aka "the Tool").

Update on the oil law - the puppet leaders of the Cabinet have approved it, but the Parliament still refuses to ratify it, and the Iraqi oil unions remain completely opposed.

Petraeus will now ramp up the terror in a desperate attempt to beat the Sept 2 Dubai deadline.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Summer is still here.
Posted by: Slmncty on Aug 28, 2007 7:14 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's snowing in Washington & Iraq

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]