Der Spiegel: Maliki’s office approved withdrawal quote before article was published.
Der Spiegel: Maliki’s office approved withdrawal quote before article was published.
On Sunday, after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki indicated support for a 16-month U.S. withdrawal, the U.S. military distributed a statement from Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh saying Maliki was “misunderstood and mistranslated.” But The New Republic reports 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 TNR the following statement:
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.
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The correct translation would’ve been: “Get the f***k out of my country.”
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 pmNo matter. It was said and this attention it is getting from them trying to push it under the rug only makes it blare even louder.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:10 pmI just love the smell of Repug Flop Sweat!
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pmDer Spiegel is GOOD, TRUTHFUL, journalism…like the BBC and everything not in the US MSM!
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pmOn Sunday, after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki indicated support for a 16-month U.S. withdrawal, the U.S. military distributed a statement from Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh saying Maliki was “misunderstood and mistranslated.”
Because he knows and spoke an unheard of form of Iraqi ?
Lying sacks of crap…………
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 pmYo JimW,
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 pmCare to comment. Or you still going to stupidly claim Maliki did not endorse Obama’s view?
So anything after the article is a straight up lie by the ratty right.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:52 pmAnd we mustn’t forget that the translators were employees of the Iraqi government. Not Der Spiegel. One would think, unless they are truly using the Bush model of government, that the translators would make sure their efforts were accurate.
Plus, the “denial” was issued by CENTCOM. Not al-Maliki’s office.
http://www.juancole.com/ 2008/ 07/ obama-in-iraq-der-spiegel-proves-al.html
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 pmSo what will be the next line of attack from McBushCo? That in Iraq, months are not measured by the same calendar used in the West?
I’m dizzy from all the spin…
PEACE
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pmExcusez-moi, but “facetious” means to jest. I don’t think the US military was jesting.
1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious
Keith Says:
Excusez-moi, but “facetious” means to jest. I don’t think the US military was jesting.
1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish
2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’m not so sure Keith. Everything Bushco has touched has become a “cruel joke”. Facetious sounds right up their alley.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 pmWow. I bet the Corporate Media is all over this.
**crickets**
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 pmBut did Malaki approve the article in German (let me assume he doesn’t speak German), or in his native tongue. If the former, the endorsement doesn’t count !!!!
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 pmLinguistic nuance is not one of our armed forces strengths. Have you ever heard of the ultimate oxymoron; military intelligence?
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pmMapleStreet Says:
But did Malaki approve the article in German (let me assume he doesn’t speak German), or in his native tongue. If the former, the endorsement doesn’t count !!!!
/snark
There fixed it for you.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pmHow do you say “Spin That!!” in German?
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 pmYo JW,
From IHT
After Obama sat down with al-Maliki in Baghdad’s heavily protect Green Zone, government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh, who is very close to the Iraqi leader and sat in on the meeting, said Baghdad was not interested in troop withdrawal plans that arise out of the American presidential campaign but “in a real timetable the Iraqis have set.”
When asked for a date, al-Dabagh said, “up to 2010.”
That would match Obama’s pledge to remove U.S. combat troops within 16 months of taking office and reinforces al-Maliki’s reported support for that timetable in an interview published last week in Der Spiegel, a German magazine.
“After a day spent meeting Iraqi leaders and American military commanders, Mr. Obama seemed to have navigated one of the riskiest parts of a weeklong international trip without a noticeable hitch and to have gained a new opportunity to blunt attacks on his national security credentials,” Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Jeff Zeleny write in The New York Times. “The central tenet of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy is suddenly aligned with what the Iraqis themselves now increasingly seem to want.”
Buhbye
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:13 am>Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the dramatic >turnaround in U.S. fortunes
uhm, dont you mean the architect of the massive bribery campaign to make millionaires out of allies of al-queda with american blood of thier hands? let me ask you somethign jimbob, how to do you feel about betrayus using your hard earned tax dollars to bribe out soldiers killers to stop kiling them?
oh, and you claim that malikis 7 month diffeence with obamas timeline is “signifgant” …how does that 7 month difference compare to the 99 year difference between malikis and mccains?
oh and how do you feel about the government we’ve helped set up in iraq throwing royal welcomes for iranian heads of state? does that figure into your definition of ‘victory’?
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 am>Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the dramatic >turnaround in U.S. fortunes, “does not want a timetable,”
betrayus is an administration puppet and a consorter with convicted felons and other criminals like ahmed chalabi. can you name ONE, just ONE thing on which betrayus have ever diverged with white house policy?
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:23 amCJ,
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 amGo easy on Jim the Troll. Only one question at a time, otherwise he might hurt himself.
oh and how do you feel about the government we’ve helped set up in iraq throwing royal welcomes for iranian heads of state? does that figure into your definition of ‘victory’?
I am curious CJ. How do you feel about that? They are a soveriegn country. Allbeit, a puppet democracy right now. But as such. I think it is within thier rights.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:33 amMichael Ware and Peter Bergen (both CNN) say the drop in violence is due to the US putting 100,000 insurgents on the payroll. Army War College says you need about 700,000 troops to control a country the size of Iraq—not 160,000.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 amMcCain got wind of this and simply bad-mouthed Maliki for making an “inartful” comment. That McCain sure knows how to win friends and influence people. I’m sure Maliki was glad to hear that he is inartful in speech. But McCain has a great deal of luck with MSM. Just yesterday McCain’s own inartful (false) comment about the awakening counsel’s forming in Iraq as a consequence of the surge didn’t make it in CBS’s news coverage. Oh, the question did but the comment used was a response to a different question.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 am