Bremer Eager to Defend Record Overseeing Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2603.html

Bremer Eager to Defend Record Overseeing Iraq

By: Mike Allen
February 3, 2007 08:09 PM EST


L. Paul Bremer III, former administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, plans to point to unexpectedly chaotic conditions in post-Saddam Baghdad as he defends his record at a hearing on Iraq spending before House Democrats on Tuesday, according to sources familiar with his testimony.

This is the first aggressive exploration of the administration's Iraq contracts since Democrats took control of Congress last month. Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has billed it as a "hearing on waste, fraud and abuse," one some administration officials have been dreading.

Bremer, the civilian in charge of all of Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004, told Politico the looks forward to committee members' questions, but also plans to give them a 5,000- to 6,000-word treatise in addition to his five-minute opening statement.

"I welcome the opportunity to go up and talk about it," he said in a telephone interview. "In the letter of invitation, the committee spoke about their interest in lessons learned. Given the difficulty that we've encountered in reconstruction in Iraq, I think it's helpful to look at lessons learned. That's a good approach to have. I look it as a constructive opportunity for me to do that."

Bremer calls his longer, written statement "a more extensive explanation of the circumstances we faced on the ground and how we tried to deal with those circumstances - how they complicated everything we did."

The questioning from Waxman's committee is likely to get rough, but Bremer seemed unfazed. "If they can come up with some ways to provide some lessons learned from the experiences we had in Iraq, or how we approach this kind of a problem in the future," he said, "that would be a very helpful contribution to American government."

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[annabanana]

1. This oughta be good. . .

Remember how he high-tailed it outta there, lickety split?

[Fresh_Start]

3. Actually I thought Bremer was one of the good guys

Rumsfeld did everything he could to undermine Bremer and Bremers plans.

[fooj]

4. Yep. Suitcase in hand.

Wonder what type of souvenirs he was bringing home with him. Of the GREEN variety, perhaps?

[Sherman A1]

2. Saw him speak on Thursday in St. Louis

Well spoken, organized presentation and certainly articulate. He seemed to be toting the "We needed to invade because Saddam was such a really rotten guy" line. Mentioned that he was told by a friend at RAND Corp that some 400K troops would be needed to secure Iraq.... Well, Gosh things just got messy.

My impression was that he like his Boss -- were in way over their heads....

[spindrifter]

5. Just about every oneof the Neocons has taken a

recent opportunity to kick Bremer's butt and talk about how horrible he was and what a total mess he made of things. It looks very much as though they were setting him up in advance as the whipping boy. The video of Richard Perle pontificating as he, in a moment of domesticity, made coffee for his interviewer is an illustration of their spincraft. Screw the neocons and the Hummer they rode in on.