Again and Again, White House Falsely Described Coming Iraq Report As Solely The Work Of Petraeus
August 15, 2007 -- 5:37 PM EST // //
By now you've probably heard the news that the report on Iraqi progress we've been expecting in September from General Petraeus is actually going to be written by the White House, with "input" from "officials throughout government."
As the Los Angeles Times, which broke the story today, suggests, this revelation is at odds with "Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker." In other words, the White House has repeatedly said that this report will represent the Gospel According To Petraeus -- except, of course, that it won't. At the White House gaggle today, deputy press secretary Dana Perino was asked to confirm or deny this -- and she dodged the question.
In light of this news, we thought it would be interesting to go back and look at just how comprehensive, thorough, and coordinated the White House effort to convince the American people that this report will represent Petraeus' exclusive word has been until now.
So TPM's Eric Kleefeld and I went back to see just how many times White House officials said the report would be the work of Petraeus, or of Petraeus and Crocker. It wasn't hard to find examples. In fact, we stopped at ten. If you look at them all together, it really becomes clear just how premeditated -- and how audacious -- the White House's deception campaign here really has been.
This isn't just some academic exercise, by the way. It goes directly to the heart of the credibility of the report itself -- something which a tremendous amount is being staked on in advance of the showdowns between the White House and Congress on Iraq that are coming this fall. Anyway, here goes:
Obviously, there is going to be a report from Ambassador Crocker and General David Petraeus in September. We'll have to take a look at those.Tony Snow, August 1:
MR. SNOW: Now, let us keep in mind that the full burden of this report does not fall on his shoulders. A lot of the key judgments, especially about politics, will fall on Ambassador Crocker. So this is — although I know a lot of people talk about "the Petraeus report," in fact, you have a report that is a joint report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. And so we trust him.Dick Cheney, July 30:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't want to make those judgments. I think those really turn more on the kind of advice we get from the military. We're all waiting to see what General Petraeus produces by way of his report back, in September. But in terms of achieving our objectives, I think it's very important that the United States not withdraw from Iraq, not adopt a posture of some of our friends on the other side of the aisle who are calling, in effect, for accepting retreat as the outcome.Tony Snow, July 24:
MR. SNOW: The fact is that Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus will be putting together a plan — not really a plan, but a report — that will assess the success to date of the surge, militarily, economically, diplomatically, politically, and so on. And that's really what you've got to look for.Tony Snow, July 23:
Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus will be issuing a report, again pursuant to that legislation, that's due September 15th. I think the first thing to do is to figure out, when you have a brand new operation underway, how's it doing. I think the American people want to know that, as weTony Snow, July 20:
MR. SNOW: You know what, I'm not going to try to prejudge. It is the business of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to provide a full report to Congress. It is — those are their — it is their call to make in terms of trying to measure against the metrics that are outlined in the benchmarks, as well as providing other supporting data. I do not — I don't think it's their business to prejudge; what they're supposed to do is to provide a full and factual report.Tony Snow, July 18:
It's important for members of Congress to get a fuller sense of how the surge is working, or also where they think it's not working. They're going to get a report — they want a report on September 15th from Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus; they'll get that. And at that point, people will be able to make further assessments.Stephen Hadley, July 13:
There is a process for doing an orderly consideration in September about where we are in Iraq. It starts with a report from General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, but it's, as the President said, it will be a process that will be an inclusive one, and will include Republicans and Democrats in Congress.Tony Snow, July 13:
What happens is, is that the report you're going to get is going to be a joint production between the two, so it will reflect their combined judgment.President Bush, July 12:
And you asked, how long does one wait? I will repeat, as the Commander-in-Chief of a great military who has supported this military and will continue to support this military, not only with my — with insisting that we get resources to them, but with — by respecting the command structure, I'm going to wait for David to come back — David Petraeus to come back and give us the report on what he sees. And then we'll use that data, that — his report to work with the rest of the military chain of command, and members of Congress, to make another decision, if need be.There's an amusing irony here worth noting. The effort to pump up this Petraeus report was all about putting a new public face on the war, in order to separate it from all the people who lied us into it in the first place. But as it turns out, this effort was itself just a continuation of the same old mendacity. In a sane world, this would, you know, cast just a bit of doubt on the credibility of the report itself.
Relatedly, here's a question. Will the big news orgs keep referring to this as the Petraeus report even though we now know that it's a misnomer? Seems worth keeping an eye on.