Interesting small development. Probably means next to nothing. But what the hoo.
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PSYOPS
You may have seen the kerfuffle yesterday that arose when the New York Post published an opinion piece by Amer Taheri in which he reported that Barack Obama was secretly negotiating with the Iraqi government to delay the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The McCain camp (which is, remember, opposed to the quick withdrawal of U.S. troops) seized on this report, issuing a statement by Randy Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy adviser:
If news reports are accurate, this is an egregious act of political interference by a presidential candidate seeking political advantage overseas. ... The charge that he sought to delay the withdrawal of Americans from Iraq raises serious questions about Senator Obama's judgment and it demands an explanation.
If the news reports are accurate, and therein lies the rub. We'll have more on what exactly Obama has said on this issue, publicly, in a bit. But you need to know a bit more about Taheri, who runs in the same neocon circles as Scheunemann.
Taheri was the guy who back in 2006 fabricated the story that the Iranian government was requiring Jewish citizens to wear yellow badges to identify them as such. That story, which also ran in the Post, was completely discredited.
As we reported at TPMmuckraker at the time, Taheri has a long history of such bamboozlement, although it hasn't kept from advising the White House on Middle East issues.
More soon ...
--David Kurtz
talkingpointsmemo.com |
