About the Petraeus White House Report on Iraq

The Right’s response to the White House being busted disassembling dissembling about the authorship of the so-called “Petraeus Report” is to deny that they’ve ever claimed that Crocker and Petraeus would actually prepare the report. But that, of course, is about as truthful and Fredo Gonzales testifying to Congress.

White House Spokesperson Dana Perino, August 14, 2007:

“Obviously, there is going to be a report from Ambassador Crocker and General David Petraeus in September. We’ll have to take a look at those.”

Philip Reeker, Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, August 10:

“As agreed in legislation, in mid-September, Amb. Crocker and General Petraeus will go back to Washington and make a report to the President and to the Congress of the United States.”

President Shrub, August 9:

“As you know, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will be coming back to report on the findings of the success of the surge.”

Tony Snow, August 2:

“I’m not going to try to project out to the time that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker put together a report, because the situation could change dramatically for the better, who knows. “

Tony Snow, August 1:

“Now, let us keep in mind that the full burden of this report does not fall on his shoulders. A lot of the key judgments, especially about politics, will fall on Ambassador Crocker. So this is — although I know a lot of people talk about “the Petraeus report,” in fact, you have a report that is a joint report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. And so we trust him.”

“Q Two questions, Tony. To what extent was the Vice President pre-writing the Petraeus report or setting expectations when he said he thinks it’s going to show progress?

MR. SNOW: No, I don’t think he’s pre-writing it. Look, again, the one thing — if you talk to military guys, the last thing they want to do is get themselves embroiled in politics. What they try to do is to play it straight and to do it straight. And obviously the Vice President has his impressions based on what he’s seen, but we’re going to have to wait to see what General Petraeus has to report. “

So, yes, Virginia, the White House has repeatedly claimed that Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker would be preparing a report and issuing it to Congress, knowing all the while that the White House itself would be preparing the report.