Report from Patraeus To Be Done In Private?

The Bush administration will do anything it can to avoid telling the American people the truth about Iraq. First we learned that the anticipated report due out in September will not be written by General Petraeus but by the White House. What that says is that the report will be a political one and have no basis in truth. You can be guaranteed that the report will talk glowingly of the success of the surge while ignoring the daily bombings, political turmoil and lack of reconstruction.

Now we learn that the Bus administration does not want General Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker to testify in public.

Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.

White House officials did not deny making the proposal in informal talks with Congress, but they said yesterday that they will not shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding legislation President Bush signed in May. "The administration plans to follow the requirements of the legislation," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in response to questions yesterday.

I really do not think the country can wait until 1/20/09 to get rid of these incompetent criminals.