Sunday, September 21, 2008

Status of the Obama/Zaberi/Taheri scandal, 9-21-08

I read a comment to Taheri’s New York Post article claiming Tapper was dishonest in his article that seems to debunk Taheri’s article. Tapper places the focus on the “Meeting with Iraqi Leaders,” knowing full well there were two meetings, one with Maliki and one with Zebari (according to the comment). Taheri never wrote anything about the meeting with Maliki; so Tapper is blowing smoke. If this commentator is correct, Tapper’s article is even more devious than I thought. However, I couldn’t find verification that there were two meetings.

I am having a heck of a time finding pertinent information on this subject. A key bit of information would be the actual interview with Zebari. Taheri says it exists on the pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawast; which I suspect is a typo for Asharq Alawsat. In any case, when I go there I discover this daily is in Arabic. When I click on the English language version, I can’t find the interview.

Then too, I keep hearing that there is a post-Iraq-visit interview with Obama in which he admits to saying the things Taheri accuses him of. I got a comment to one of the articles on my own blog, www.lawrencehelm.com to that effect, but I could find no such interview. In searching for it I ran across an older interview, or rather a speech with a Q&A by Obama. This speech occurred June 16th before Obama went to Iraq. You can watch it here:

http://www.villainouscompany.com/vcblog/archives/2008/09/did_obama_lie_a.html

During this speech you will see Obama speak of a conversation he had by phone with Foreign Minister Zebari the morning of June 16th during which Obama “insisted” that it was important to begin the withdrawing of troops.” This June 16th “insistence,” was consistent with what Taheri focused on as Obama’s hypocrisy. As late as June 16 Obama insisted that the process of withdrawing the troops should begin, but during the meeting a month later he attempted to browbeat Zebari into delay matters until after the election. Taheri was outraged that Obama changed his mind without admitting it.

But let’s pass over the matter of whether Obama was a hypocrite or not and consider what Obama actually admits to on this CNN video. He sounds to me as though he admits to violating the Logan act. If he spoke to Zebari by phone and “insisted” that the process of withdrawing troops begin, that sounds like “negotiation” to me. That is a violation of the Logan Act unless I’m missing something.

Also, you will hear Obama lumping the Strategic Framework and Status of Forces Agreements together. You will hear Obama saying he told Zebari that these documents should be approved in open forum by the Congress. This is something he denied saying at the actual meeting a month later. He says he urged this upon Zebari on June 16th, but when Zebari said he urged it upon him during the actual meeting, Obama said he got mixed up (according to the Tapper article). After the Taheri article, he said he wasn’t speaking of the Status of Forces agreement but only the Strategic Framework agreement.

I use the titles, “Status of the Obama Zaberi scandal . . . “ to refer to my own investigation, but the major networks never picked this matter up, and the others may be dropping it; so this note involves going over some older material.

And now, Taheri, where are you? We need you to clear a few things up. We especially want to know how we can find the Zebari interview IN ENGLISH!

Lawrence Helm

www.lawrencehelm.com

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