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Guest Speaker
Special guest today at the morning off-camera briefing at the White House was Dr. Ali Al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the government of Iraq, who dropped by to assure all that things are going pretty well in his country.
Al-Dabbagh proved to be a capable spokesman, deftly fielding questions in a language other than his native tongue. Very slick. Very confident. Sort of a Tony Al-Snow.
He fielded a variety of questions. Some of the answers, as distributed in a White House transcript:
About Thursday’s bombing at the Iraqi parliament, Al-Dabbagh said there have been some “soft places” in the security because “certain permission to enter the Green Zone has been misused.”
Government malfeasance: “You could find that the corruption comes down to the minimum level, but still there is a corruption. Iraqi government is fighting and the Integrity Commission is working on full authority.”
Is Iraq in a civil war: “Never. There is war against civilians. There is a war against Iraqi people. There are groups which they want to destroy Iraq and to destroy the region, to destroy all the Iraq. That is what you see in al Anbar. It’s a few Sunnis, but then there are al-Qaeda attacking those.”
Recent Iraqi protests against presence of U.S. troops: ” “This is freedom of expression. It’s good, rather than attacking America. … The troops have liberated Iraqi people from Saddam.”
Why is he in Washington: “Brings me in Washington to reflect the actual what’s going on there in Iraq, and to show that what the positive thing what is going there in Iraq, it is not only just bomb. There are a lot of things positive is going there in Iraq, four years of liberation — after liberation from Saddam Hussein …”
What would happen in Iraq if U.S. troops begin leaving early next year: “We feel that the premature withdrawal, it would be a great gift for those who did yesterday attack, and definitely it will make a vacuum of power in Iraq, which is not desirable by anyone.”
How long do U.S. troops need to be in Iraq: “It is difficult to do a time limit, but we do feel that we are in a good way.”
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