Taheri is a liar, always was one. Lies when the truth would serve him better. But I'm not particularly alarmed or horrified, those people lie all the time. It disgusts Westerners, but it shouldn't.

We take lies very seriously, here in the West, particularly in the tightass US of A. Someone gets caught in a lie, oh the harrumphing, oh the outrage. But that's unique in world societies. Japanese have two words, Honne and Tatemae. Honne is how you really feel, the honest truth of things. Tatemae is the superficial, external, polite reading. Fact is, our insistence on the baldfaced truth in our society forces us to lie to ourselves. Look at how blatantly partisan we are here, how incredibly religious, how dogmatic we are in our beliefs. If we're confronted with inconvenient truths, we'll stand there and act like someone's trying to put us down, deny our beliefs.

Nobody else in the world acts like us. People laugh at us behind our backs. The Iraqis in charge are scamming us, billions of dollars a month, those gonifs are getting rich. When's the last time you saw one of them in anything but a bespoke suit? They don't get a clothing allowance: suits like that come from Savile Row in London, and it's all paid for with bribes and kickbacks, and if they steal, what makes you think they won't lie, too?

The Iraqis are gaming us. They gamed Bush for two terms now. They're trying to game Obama. They know if Obama's elected, their free ride will come to an end. So if they put out some lie about how he's trying to stopper up progress, that's a sly jab. Even if it were true, and none of us know for sure, it's not like Ronald Reagan didn't do the same thing with Iran with the hostage crisis, telling the Ayatollah to make sure the hostages weren't released before the election.

I suggest hitting the participants at this site w. a memory charm.

It's still garbage. But I'm sure the next five updates will make it less so. Or not. Hey, I don't blame you. Anything is better than talking about the week McCain is having.

I have to take AA's analysis at face value as I don't read Arabic and can't follow the Arabic press the way he does. He's seemed very accurate as long as I've been reading him.

Obama? The site? You? What?

why is that, well two reasons

1. when John had the opportunity to exit early, he stayed with his mates. in general we value that kind of loyalty.

2. when John came back to the states, he didn't sh^t all over his mates.

Spin, please fell free to do the math.

I'm curious.

That's another answer I'd like to see you look up. Plural pronouns of the They sort always leave me mystified. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

The Obama campaign's official response:

This article bears as much resemblance to the truth as a McCain campaign commercial. Barack Obama has consistently called for any Strategic Framework Agreement to be submitted to the U.S. Congress so that the American people have the same opportunity for review as the Iraqi Parliament," said Obama spokeswoman Wendy Morigi. "Unlike John McCain, he supports a clear timetable to redeploy our troops that has the support of the Iraqi government. Barack Obama has never urged a delay in negotiations, nor has he urged a delay in immediately beginning a responsible drawdown of our combat brigades."

MSNBC, June 16, 2008:

He said he told Zebari that negotiations for a Status of Forces agreement or strategic framework agreement between the two countries should be done in the open and with Congress's authorization and that it was important that that there be strong bipartisan support for any agreement so that it can be sustained through a future administration. He argued it would make sense to hold off on such negotiations until the next administration.

This diary needs to be updated, and an apology issued.

it is the seriousness of the issue.

Nah. I'm assuming his willingness to lie like this will come in handy a couple more times. Hey. He could write copy for McCain campaign ads!

The Shiites are playing both sides against the middle, and Zebari is the worst among them. Zebari is mere bafflegap, a waste of space. He doesn't know anything, and if he claims to, he's lying.

Have you ever read this guy's history?

He lies like a rug. He's been exposed time and again and folks still publish him.

Why would Zebari talk to him and no one else?

How many times does he have to "demonstrate" that he makes sh*t up?

is not a negotiation IMHO. Obama has no true standing at this point. I also don't assume that we don't do things in non-partisan ways outside the US by design and with full knowledge of the current Administration and State department. I would hope that at times it is even done on purpose or we are less smart and sofisticated than we should be.

What're you, the National Enquirer? :)

I will give you the qualifiers. It would beg the question of cutting ones face off for their head.... Their is no upside on the issue. Iraq is a large issue but one that will have minimal impact on the election as far as policy solutions at this point.

Ideology alone puts this in the questionable motives arena. We will see if the foreign minister backs up this story with other outlets. I am not sure on his own motivations which would have to be looked at as well. It does not pass the smell test and I am sure that Obama was never alone with these guys to guard against just this thing.

and the caveat, Obama isn't quilty but he should be investigated and then proceed for there.

BD was the poster and just read it to quick I guess... Still the same view I posted above holds...