Is Petraeus Lying? (Is Bush an Idiot?)

[BurtWorm]

Received via E-mail


Is Petraeus Lying?

RICK ROWLEY, [e-mail]
Just back from a month and a half in Iraq, Rowley is a journalist
with Big Noise films. He said today: "When Gen. Petraeus says that he's
merely applauding the new Sunni militia allies from the sidelines, he's
lying. While embedded with the U.S. military, I filmed U.S. commanders
handing wads of cash to tribal militias. And when he says that the U.S.
military is facilitating their integration into Iraq's security forces,
what he means is that the U.S. military is pressuring Iraq's government
to incorporate these militias wholesale into the police forces. In fact,
that's one of the promises that these tribes are given -- that after
working with the Americans for a few months, they'll become Iraqi
police, be armed by the Iraqi state and be put on regular payroll."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/11/1424208
Rowley co-produced a special report "The Ghost of Anbar" with
journalist David Enders which aired on Al-Jazeera English:
<http://www.bignoisefilms.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=1>;
on YouTube: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naJQc6vFlFY>.

A.K. GUPTA, [e-mail],
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=13744
Gupta, who just wrote the piece "Meet Gen. David Petraeus: His
Militia Strategy Plunged Iraq into a Civil War, and Now He's Back for
More," said today: "Just as the U.S. government backed both sides in the
Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, it has armed both sides -- militant Sunnis
and militant Shia -- in Iraq today. ...
"Gen. Petraeus told Congress that 'the fundamental source of the
conflict in Iraq is competition among ethnic and sectarian communities
for power and resources. ... Malign actions by Syria and, especially, by
Iran fuel that violence.'
"Instead of taking him at face value, Congress needs to examine
Petraeus's record in fomenting the 'ethno-sectarian' violence that he
decries. For if any one general is responsible for the disaster that is
Iraq, it is Gen. Petraeus.
"Not only was his previous tenure organizing training for all Iraqi
military and police forces in 2004-05 a complete failure, Petraeus
helped organize, arm and train the Special Police Commandos that operate
as anti-Sunni death squads to this day, and which plunged the nation
into civil war. ...
"Petraeus is compounding the sectarian chaos by funding and arming
Sunni militias. While these militias' stated purpose is to go after the
Sunni-based Al Qaeda in Iraq, they are also attacking Shiite militias
with the encouragement of U.S. commanders. It's a strategy of arming
every side against the other, which is both crippling an already
dysfunctional Iraqi government and making 'reconciliation' virtually
impossible."
Gupta is editor of The Indypendent newspaper, a bimonthly based in
New York. He is currently writing a book on the history of the Iraq war.

RAY McGOVERN, [e-mail]
Available for a limited number of interviews, McGovern works with
Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior
in Washington, D.C. He was an Army infantry/intelligence officer in the
early sixties and then a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990.
McGovern wrote yesterday: "'Swear him in.' That's all I said
in the
unusual silence this afternoon as first aid was being administered to
Gen. David Petraeus's microphone at the hearing before the House Armed
Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.
"It had dawned on me that when House Armed Services Committee
Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, invited Gen. Petraeus to make his
presentation, Skelton forgot to ask him to take the customary oath to
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I had no
idea that would be enough to get me thrown out of the hearing.
"I had a flashback to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in early
2006, when Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, reminded chairman Arlen
Specter, R-Pennsylvania, that Specter had forgotten to swear in the
witness, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; and how Specter insisted
that that would not be necessary."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/091007a.html
McGovern also wrote the recent piece "Is Petraeus Today's
Westmoreland?" http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/090707b.html

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, [phone]; or David Zupan, [phone].

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[PDJane]

2. Is Petraeus Lying?

Are his lips moving?

[emilyg]

3. Yes and Yes

[BurtWorm]

4. Joe Biden and Tweety Matthews know he's lying.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/11/hardball-what-do-you-say-why-did-they-fall/

I don't think they're just grandstanding here, though they both certainly love to do that. I think there's genuine anger in this clip.

[spiderpig]

5. Is water wet?

:shrug: