A House Democratic leader accused the Bush administration of "cherry picking" intelligence data in preparing its latest report on conditions in Iraq.
"Instead of a new strategy for Iraq, the Bush Administration is cherry-picking the data to support their political objectives and preparing a report that will offer another defense of the President’s strategy," Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), who chairs the Democratic Caucus, said from the House floor Friday morning. "We don’t need a report that wins the Nobel Prize for creative statistics or the Pulitzer for fiction."
Emanuel's comments come before highly anticipated testimony next week from US Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on developments in Iraq since President Bush began his troop surge earlier this year. The pair had been expected to deliver a written report along with their testimony, but the Washington Times on Friday reported that there would be no written report, as noted by ThinkProgress.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that many experts are questioning the claims emanating from the White House that violence in Iraq has decreased since the surge started. Petraeus and Crocker are expected to cite a 75 percent decrease in sectarian attacks and reductions in overall attacks and civilian casualties. But the Post reports that several experts are accusing the administration of "cherry picking" data and selectively ignoring negative trends.
"When Petraeus told an Australian newspaper last week that sectarian attacks had decreased 75 percent 'since last year,' the statistic was quickly e-mailed to U.S. journalists in a White House fact sheet. Asked for detail, MNF-I said that 'last year' referred to December 2006, when attacks spiked to more than 1,600," the Post reported.
"By March, however -- before U.S. troop strength was increased under Bush's strategy -- the number had dropped to 600, only slightly less than in the same month last year. That is about where it has remained in 2007, with what MNF-I said was a slight increase in April and May "but trending back down in June-July."
Outside analysts have said the military's figures, especially on civilian casualties, do not jibe with independent estimates.
And even some senior intelligence officials are questioning the government's classification of different types of violence and the trend lines its data shows.
"If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian," a senior intelligence official told the Post. "If it went through the front, it's criminal."
"Depending on which numbers you pick," he said, "you get a different outcome." Analysts found "trend lines . . . going in different directions" compared with previous years, when numbers in different categories varied widely but trended in the same direction. "It began to look like spaghetti."
The following video of Rep. Emanuel's comments was posted to YouTube:
A House Democratic leader accused the Bush administration of "cherry picking" intelligence data in preparing its latest report on conditions in Iraq.
