NPR: Report on Iraq Conflicts with Administration Assessment

Report on Iraq Conflicts with Administration Assessment

This could make it a little harder for the president to get that extra $50 billion for the war in Iraq.

The Washington Post has obtained a draft of a report that the Government Accountability Office will present Tuesday to Congress, and it ain't pretty. According to the Post, the GOA report, entitled Securing, Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq, says that the Iraqi government has "failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress."

"While the Baghdad security plan was intended to reduce sectarian violence, U.S. agencies differ on whether such violence has been reduced," it states. While there have been fewer attacks against U.S. forces, it notes, the number of attacks against Iraqi civilians remains unchanged. It also finds that "the capabilities of Iraqi security forces have not improved."
"Overall," the report concludes, "key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds," as promised.

And there's a dig at the White House in the report as well. Future assessments from the administration would be more useful, the draft suggests, if "they backed up their judgments with more details and 'provided data on broader measures of violence from all relevant U.S. agencies.'"

Interestingly, the Post says the person who provided the draft said it was being passed on from a government official who was afraid it would be "watered down" before it was officially released.

(Tom's Update: Well, there you go. The Associated Press is reporting that the Pentagon has asked for changes to be made in the GAO report before its final release, asking that some of the negative assessments be revised. A Pentagon spokesman said that "policy officials 'made some factual corrections' and 'offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades' assigned by the GAO.")

9:28 AM ET | 08-30-2007 | permalink

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