We already knew that the Maliki “clarification” came only after pressure from the White House & CENTCOM, and that that “clarification” largely just reaffirmed his point that Obama’s time frame is more in line with the views of the Iraqi government. We also already knew that the original translation was done by Maliki’s official translator, not Der Spiegel. Well, now TNR is reporting that Maliki’s office personally reviewed the translation and signed off on it.
But it turns out that Maliki actually got a copy of the interview before it was printed and had the option to make any changes. A writer at Der Spiegel sent us this tidbit of info:
The reason the magazine scores so many high level interviews is that the editors agree to allow the subjects to “authorize” the interviews before they go to press. It wasn’t just a slip of the tongue, in other words: Maliki not only endorsed Obama’s plans for withdrawing from Iraq, but his office then explicitly approved the endorsement before it was printed. The denials, then, were doubly facetious. Spiegel couldn’t say so, though, without revealing its embarrassing authorization policy.
We can all debate Der Spiegel’s policy of allowing it’s subjects to “authorize” what gets published, but the fact that Maliki enorsed Obama’s position is now, unequivocally, beyond dispute.
Just so we’re clear, the sovereign government of Iraq explicitly embraces the idea of withdrawing US troops by the end of 2010 — directly in line with the plan put forth by the so-called “unexperienced” Barack Obama. The only conclusion that can be drawn from the entire episode, besides that Maliki wants US forces out of his country, is that George Bush and John McCain want the opposite, despite any rhetoric to the contrary. It’s hard to overstate how monumental a game-changer this all is, but Matthew Yglesias does a pretty good job of summing it up.
[McCain had] spent, several weeks with the main theme of his campaign being, quite literally, to criticize Barack Obama for not having been physically present in Iraq recently. This (of course) got Obama to go to Iraq, thus setting up a dilemma. Either Obama would survey the “progress” in Iraq and change his position, thus making him a flip-flopper, or else he would refuse to change his position, thus making him obstinate and out of touch with reality.
But instead of either of those things happening, Obama went to Iraq and Iraqi leaders said he’d been right all along! That’s about as close to “game, set, match” as you get in terms of real world events influencing your political campaign. What’s more, given the domestic situation and John McCain’s inability to talk about domestic issues persuasively, he can’t afford to play for a draw on Iraq.
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Campaigns/Elections, Iraq
Tags: George Bush, Iraq Timetable, John McCain, Nouri al-Maliki
No Trackbacks To “Confirmed: Maliki’s Timetable Endorsement NOT Lost In Translation“
Frist
All aboard the McCain express to crazy fail land!
I can hardly wait for the next right wing spin.
if you love and support the troops then bring ‘em home, NOW
The biggest terrist in Iraq is Dick Cheney..
tjb @ 3:
Yes! I want to ask when does the sixteen month countdown begin?
Kerry redux “how do you explain this to the last Iraqi to be KILLED by US troops what their loss means”, 16 months from now or 16 months from 1-21-09 ?
Does that dude ever smile? NO! He’s got Bush’s hand up his ass!
Sorry, this is going to be off-topic:
There’s an article on Yahoo’s home page that says, “Economists think McCain better for Wall Street.” which is funny considering Wall Street has performed better for the last 50 years when a Democrat is in the White House.
But, but, but, the Administration said Maliki mis-spoke and he didn’t, what a shock!
amygdala blog () has more of the maliki interview. it reinforces and expands on the sound bite.
see “why is iraq calmer?” july 22, 2008
http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/
McCain is in a pretty tough spot on this one. It absolutely shows that the Republicans are either lying, ignorant, or not listening to the Iraqi government. How long till they start pushing the ‘characters’ who think the Maliki government isn’t good for the Iraqi people to the forefront? I’m thinking it should start happening before the weekend.
this is an iraqi time table…..they want us out
if i remember correctly didn’t bush something on
the order if they want us to leave will leave
it’s difficult to trust this administration they will
essentially cheat and lie
This scares me because I have to wonder what the administration is going to do to counter it. I hope Malaki has great guards around him at all times.
But is anybody paying attention out there? The right wing lies [spin] will continue while people who have lost their jobs are too busy looking for work and trying to feed their families to hear the news. They barely know who the candidates are. Sad.
I am all for declaring victory, getting the hell out, and letting the Iraqi’s figure out their own future course. McCain wont leave until the big hand is on 100years and that what the Iraqis say is what they really mean, only he knows what they really mean.
And to top it all off he hit a trio of perfect 3 pointers….swish……..swish……….Soo-wish.
Take that Gramps.
So the woman in the rape joke wants the gorilla out and off. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated that.
All this talk about Obama’s inexperience in foreign affairs. Just exactly what was George W. Bush’s “experience” in foreign affairs before he was elected President?
What’s more, if this Administration has experience in foreign affairs, this is the kind of experience this country cannot afford.
Frankly I find Bush’s Manichean cowboy view of the world simplistic, and completely out of touch with reality.
We need a new perspective.
Even after the fan has been unplugged it keeps spinning for a while. We will continue to pay for the damage we have done in Iraq and the the damage we have done to our own military and the damage we have done to our standing in the world community for a long time to come. SHIT!!
AndrewK @ 10:
You can just hear the hamsters running in the wheel inside William “The Bloody” Kristol head right now, cant you. We know it wont be Robert “I didn’t even see him your honor” Novak wont be writing it, he had a senior momement behind the wheel and hit some 60 yr old guy this morning in DC.
“That’s about as close to “game, set, match” as you get in terms of real world events influencing your political campaign.”
Real world events gets em every time.
pissed off patricia @ 12:
Patricia, why you gotsa do me like this?! I was so happy until you reminded me that they’re not above retribution killings… I’m gonna cry now! ;-(
Let’s hope that does not happen.
Its all about the oil stupid! We will never leave there without control of it, and the 35 year old soccer mom’s are O.K with that. Give me my gas for my SUV to protect MY children in. Its the “mother bear” syndrome. Watched it for years, absolutely hated PTA meetings. had to see all of the “my children are better (and somehow more important) than yours” crap.
On People, I can’t call it mother bear syndrome.
Mother bears haven’t forgotten the instinct that keeps the bear population down. Mother bears will occasionally even reprimand one cub by hurting it, to serve as an example to the rest of the childer that ’shit like that’ll getcha killed’. And mother bears don’t drive SUV’s, and take only what they can carry. Mother bears? WAAYYY more up the evolutionary scale than soccer-moms.
((but humor aside it’s a good point))
If this is true why is McPain so close to Obama in the polling 42%/45% respectively. I can’t figur eout why Ole Johnny McPOW hasn’t been blown out of the water yet. It is that they’re holding out for Divine Intervention for the God-loving, Bible-thumping, Family Values Rethuglicans?
ALEJCARO @ 17:
Bush was already a concubine for the House of Saud.
do you people seriously want more of this
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/.....d-pakistan
All of this would be very compelling if anybody but political junkies were paying attention.
These narratives are too complex to catch the attention of the Tiny American Mind. McCain-War-Hero versus Obama-Weirdo is the one that really resonates.
President McCain. Get used to it.
Clearly, this is yet another bit of evidence that Steve Guttenberg is with the terrorists.
My non-sequitor fu easily defeats your facts and reality-based observations, liberal scum!!! Hahaha! Hahaha! Hahaha!
[WHOOSHWHOOSH! WAAAPIIIISHT!]
Once again, the reich-wing is on the wrong side of yet another issue.
Big Red Will, I can’t back this up at all, but I’m extremely skeptical of polling… it’s just like voting, but without half of the scrutiny. There’s psychological aspects about how to ask the question, where you are doing your ‘random’ polling, how the answers are interpreted (if they require interpretation, it’s a bad sign, too), etc. Don’t trust the polls, ever. Even if they are in your opinion’s favor. I still think that (again, I can’t prove it) somehow the results are being skewed in the polling about Bush’s 20-ish%’ers. Somehow I think that number lives on fairydust and lies alone; people only continue to believe it because they continue to see that number, and feel like their faith or what-have-you should put them in the same position. How else can the polls about Congress go lower than the President who started this mess, and who is also responsible for not letting anything decent get through to law when the Congress does something? How can 20-something% roughly still be happy with that, and yet hate Congress more? Nope, FUCK the polling, the more mainstream and accepted poll it is, the more skeptical I am of its answers.
John Doheny @ 27:
You…you are right! [SOB! WEEP!] I will give up right now! And then I will vote for McCain in November so that I can be in the winning side an’ I can scream, “SCOREBOARD, MOTHFRAKKER!!!!”, in the faces of all my friends and family and passing strangers and babies!
Thanks! I feel so much better now!
wait……..rezzz-oh-naaates…..gotta go look that word up now…I’ma so stoopid!
Hm, is it so unusual for serious print news publications to have interviews checked and signed off on by the person interviewed to make sure it accurately reflects what was said? I can understand that not being the case in TV, but in print? Really? I worked for Der Spiegel in New York and later in Hamburg (many years ago, not as a journalist), and never considered that policy to be unusual. It seemed merely a matter of courtesy to me, especially when Der Spiegel really has an excellent reputation and frequent interviews with experts and well-known personalities in a wide variety of fields - and often in different languages of origin, as well. It is not difficult to make a mistake in the transcription from an audio file, which I sometimes have to do in my work as a translator, and which Der Spiegel’s staff usually handles - or did at that time, anyway. So I think your statement “We can all debate Der Spiegel’s policy…” is beside the point. I assume bloggers check their work, too, before they post it. So what is the difference? I love C&L, don’t get me wrong, but I really disagree with this (admittedly minor) criticism. PS: I live in Germany and would love to be in Berlin tomorrow, but that isn’t possible.
OT:
Robert Novak runs down a pedestrian in DC, tries to run for it, gets caught.
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....11985.html
John Doheny @ 27:
McGrampa is the furthest thing from a war hero.
President Obama….Get use to it
Annoyed Canuck @ 33:
He’ll be on faux news tonight claiming this is a librul conspiracy.
I have only two words for McCain, and they are follows:
HA HA!
Right On, Woodstock… I found that a little odd, as well. I’d like to understand that policy better, myself. Does that mean that if the person doesn’t sign off on the content, they can still print it as ‘unauthorized’ and not use direct quotes? Or what? Are the interviewers allowed to disagree if the person interviewed doesn’t like, say a gaffe they made in the middle of the interview, and wants it removed? Somehow, I don’t think this practice, however you slice it up, really tends to discredit them, so much as show professional courtesy though. Kinda like a big neon sign saying ‘just so you can see it coming…’
Big Red Will @ 24:
Is it a CBS poll?
wow. talk about comma splices in my posts! it’s too early for me to try to connect so many thoughts coherently. ;P sorry for the choppy reading.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 35:
Cited for failure to yield to the RIGHT of way, soooooo many ways to take that staement.
For a more in-depth perspective on this, check out my blog today:
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
Big Red Will @ 24:
Because the MSM is doing everything it’s power to keep McGrampa in this race.
I am glad that this story has become more mainstream as it will be important to show that Obama`s foreign policy dwarfs Mc Bush`s.I never doubted the Der Spiegel report because I am half German ancestry and I know how meticulous my German half is.My Irish half wanted to know what such an article was doing in the Spiegel Catalogue.
Dubyah’s war was always a disgrace, now it’s up to Obama to put in the time table and restore some dignity to this country.
Bush and Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq by the end of July to set the basis for a US troop presence beyond December this year when the UN mandate runs out.
But discussions appeared to be deadlocked last month amid strong opposition from Iraqi politicians both Sunni and Shiite, with some Shiite leaders denouncing the proposed agreement as “eternal slavery.”
Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who has a broad popular base among the Shiite poor in cities across central and southern Iraq, has been particularly outspoken in his demands for a US withdrawal timetable.
Iraqi politicians have not only bristled at the duration of any continuing defence pact with the United States. They have also expressed reservations about how many bases Washington should retain, what powers the US military should continue to hold to detain Iraqi civilians, and what immunity US troops should have from US law.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has said that Washington has agreed to one key demand from Baghdad, the scrapping of immunity from prosecution in Iraq of the tens of thousands of foreign security contractors operating in the country.
Wise_Fool @ 30:
I’m not sure of the poll, it was on MSNBC so it was Rasmussen or some such nonsense. While I am also skeptical of polling and their “random samples”, how is it that they still manage to find people who support McCodger? Are they that enamored with seeing headlines like President Yells at Cloud, Complains of Difficulty Chewing Corn in the near future? Statistically speaking, with the whole country snapping back to the center after being pulled to the right for years, how is it that 42% of the people would vote for someone who is exactly like the person receiving 20% approval ratings?! Either polling is f-ed up (yes!) or more people get their news from Faux than anyone thought.
Exactly, Big Red… exactly. I really think that polling is just a putty-knife for public opinion, and if you know how to use it well, you can shape the populace up any way you want, and make them think it was actually what THEY wanted to be and do.