Durbin: Iraq report 'manipulated'
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Days before Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress on the progress of the troop "surge" in Iraq, the Senate's number two Democrat is accusing the administration of manipulating information in its highly anticipated Iraq report that will be released next week.
"By carefully manipulating the statistics, the Bush-Petraeus report will try to persuade us that violence in Iraq is decreasing and thus the surge is working," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said at a Washington think tank.
Durbin, a war critic, said that for a long period of time he has exchanged e-mail with civilian employees who were gathering data for the report and writing draft portions of the findings.
"Some of them I correspond with almost on a daily basis. And when they sent a discouraging report about things that were happening in Baghdad, they were reminded by their superiors that's unacceptable; we need a positive report. They were sent back for editing changes. Now that's a fact," Durbin said.
Petraeus is expected to testify next week that the troop buildup has produced progress on the ground.
In recent days, congressional Democrats have engaged in a coordinated effort to minimize the impact of the testimony, which could undermine their ability to convince wavering Republicans to vote for troop withdrawals.
Also on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got personal, questioning Petraeus' credibility:
"He's made a number of statements over the years that have not proved to be factual," Reid said. "I have every belief that this good man, General Petraeus, will give us what he feels is the right thing to do in the report that is now not his report. It's President Bush's report."
"My guess is that it's an attempt to discredit the witness," a Senate Republican leadership aide responded to the Democrats' broadsides. "The problem is Petraeus' approval rating is about four times higher than the Democrat Congress."
The statistics that Durbin is questioning deal with the accounting of sectarian violence - which Petraeus is expected to report has gone down in recent months.
But in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday, David Walker, the head of the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, also raised questions about how those statistics were compiled. He said he is "not comfortable" with the methodology used to count the death toll from sectarian violence.
Specifically, he said he questions the fact that if a body is found with a gunshot wound in the front of the head it is classified as an ordinary crime but if the wound is in the back of the head it is considered sectarian violence.
Walker said he would "fully expect" such a methodology would reflect a reduction in sectarian violence.
He said those statistics are kept by the Multi-National Force-Iraq, which is commanded by Petraeus. Noting that the details of methodology are classified, he urged senators to push for the information be made public.
- CNN's Dana Bash and Ted Barrett
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David Petraeus is nothing but an honorable man, and for Dick Durbin to say otherwise is downright asinine, as well as a lie. The man has not even delivered his report that WILL be debated, and already we see our incompetent leaders spewing their venom. Quit silencing the honorable people of this country before they speak and undermining the integrity our military; which, sadly, goes for both parties.
Not to be 'stinky', but this woman CLEARLY lacks the tact and class needed to be a first lady. She also seems jealous of her husband's success and her little 'real life' rants about her husband are killing his chances of being president. It's very unfortunate because he seems like a great choice until she opens her mouth.
Of course it must be manipulated, Senator Durbin said so!!
I could have told you in April, he would say that the report was flawed.
Some Democrats are disgraceful. This is like a bad legal plea. "The report is bad. BUT in case it is not, the Bush administration is lying!" Durbin has no shame. It's nice to have 1/2 of the country pulling against America in this war. Every dead soldier and every bad report equals more votes for people like this and they are well aware of that.
That is correct... if you want the truth, see the GAO Senate Foreign relations committee report testimony on cspan. It is a grim reality and explains why the Administration had a little tussle over adding to the benchmarks. Even rep Tom Davis at a townhall meeting said the Administration would likely tweek the report. Bush better start having an ear open to Murtha and Warner. Falsified reports aren't good for our soldiers and aint gettin us no closer to killing Bin Laden. We are expending resources thin, oh but the contractors over there love it. They've made so much money and havent accomplished anything.
Great! I am glad we are going to get all the lies we have been told in writing. It is easy for the numbers to be fudged when Bush's people are writing the report.
UH OH!!! Looks like bushi is in some trouble now if those emails come to the open. Bush- what an idiot.
Without regard to what is happening in Baghdad or elsewhere, the critical path limitation on this war is our number of troops, which cannot sustain the pre-surge level much beyond Spring 2008. If Webb's bill for minimum R&R succeeds, the drawdown must be even faster.
He may be our last hope for peace. It seems Pelosi is off being a fasionista, and holds the purse strings to the war.
What part of NO MORE FUNDING do they not understand?
Where is Howard Dean? Do any of our democrats have the guts to stand up
to Lindsey Ann Graham.
Jack Jett
The character asassination of Gen. Petraeus by Democrats has begun. First Schumer, now Durbin. They can't accept anything that might be good news about the war. Can we hear about the report before we decide how we feel about it??
What if you get shot in the side of the head?
I don't understand where the outrage is with the American people. The obsfication and mis-information delivered by this administration is truly outrageous and alarming.
We have been lied to from the beginning and there seems to be no end in sight.
We can not allow this to continue!
The cost of this war, by the time we withdrawl our troops, pay for their rehabilitation, replace our equipment, and bury the dead, will far exceed 1 Trillion Dollars.
That is over $2,000 for every man woman and child in the US. $8,000 for a family of 4.
In addition to the dire financial cost we have cost ourselves much more in relationships and repectability around the world.
Its time we put an end to this and find the people who actually attacked us.
Anybody that doesn't already know that ALL information regarding Iraq has been so bent,spindled and mutilated that it is completely useless to anyone.This war STARTED with a pack of lies.Why on earth does ANYONE think that this rogue president and his thugs have changed?
To cite a joke about what should have been on Nixon's tombstone is a phrase that the "Good ship Georgie Boy" has taken to a whole new level:Here LIES George W. Bush!
I don't know who to believe anymore. If data shows the surge is working then the democrats look like fools. If data shows the surge isn't working the administration looks like fools. Both groups have a vested interest in manipulating or spinning the data being present.
It doesn't surprise me at all that a leading democrat would start the spinning process even before the data is published.
"Some of them I correspond with on almost a daily basis" makes me wonder who's trying to manipulate whom.
Poor DICK here is just a classic liberal who has made up his mind that despite proven progress, there can be no positive remarks about the progress THAT HAS BEEN MADE AND IS BEING MADE in Iraq. You Bush haters really need an education (beyond your moveon.org bible). Your hatred of the President only divides the country even further. Why are liberals so intent on making sure we lose this war? Can you at least HEAR the report before you discredit it? And when did it become the Bush-Petraeus report? Last I checked, the general was running the operations on the ground. Your treasonous Bush hatred has blinded most liberals into actually believing the "Bumper sticker" terrorist mentality of idiots like Edwards and little Dick Durbin here. Please, enroll in a history course and research what happens to nations when they simply ignore threats and stick their head in the sand.
Typical Democrats statements. Can't handle success or the truth, just sit back and hope America loses, nice!
Just plain terrible these Lefties are.
Posted By Tim, Cincinnati, OH : September 7, 2007 6:25 pm
Tim, Did you get that memo?.
Any body capable of breating air and having a tiny bit of the oxygen go to its brain already knows the infamous report is crap.
You Repugs can place Petraeus up there next to your god(s) and worship him until you feel good about yourselves. Enjoy and good luck.
Consistently – ANY good news about Iraq is summarily dismissed by many in Washington.
General Patraeus has an impecable reputation and was approved by the senate 81-0. One would THINK the General should get an opportunity to first present his findings BEFORE democrats begin their onslaught of character assassignation and maligning this good man??
I'm afraid there are some in Washington who are routing for terrible losses as opposed to progress in Iraq. "Losses" help their political position – so they think.
Why is this senator 'corresponding' with private civilians on a daily basis other than to attempt to manipulate what they report? Lovely that he even says he's doing stuff he shouldn't.
Unfortunately Tim, distrust of everything coming out of this morally bankrupt administration is its' only legacy. It's very hard to cull unadulterated fact from political spin when spinning is all Bush/Cheney/Rove have been competent at.
No surprise here!
The Cheney/Bush Adm. has been manipulating the intel all along!
Why would they stop now?
Prove your sources Durbin...Another baseless accusation from a Dem that is trying to score political points about Iraq. I'm really starting to believe that they want us to lose the war in an effort to win elections. And if the last election is any example, they will do little different.
WOW – George Bush goes over to Iraq to compare notes with General Petraeus and now George's war is looking rosy!
We the people don't believe a word of it! We have been lied to for over 6 years on a variety of subjects, now we're supposed to believe that we are finally winning the Iraq civil war? Just who is winning and who is getting long term oil contracts?
Figures. The neg spin from the dems begins befor the report is even out. Perhaps if the dems tried to make America better instead of cheerleading for our enemies then something useful could get accomplished in the Federal gov't.