Thursday, October 13, 2005

Bush Stages Iraq Teleconference

ABC News is reporting that President Bush's teleconference today with soldiers in Iraq was "choreographed to match" his own agenda.

Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary ran the soldiers through their paces, making sure they knew who was to answer which questions.

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

"If the question comes up about partnering how often do we train with the Iraqi military who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit the hometown and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan suggested the advance preparation was to cope with technical problems, such as satellite delay, and to give the soldiers an idea of what to expect.

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