| Congressman
John Conyers (D-MI) has issued a sharply worded letter
to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan over
the Administration's response to a Newsweek
article, RAW STORY
has learned.
Conyers raps the Administration for the
demand that Newsweek retract their report,
saying it "smacks of political exploitation of
the deaths of innocent and a shameless attempt to intimidate
reporters from critically investigating your Administration's
actions."
He also says he finds it ironic that the
Bush Administration is calling Newsweek to
task for any loss of life based on reporting.
There is, Conyers said, "a sad irony
in this White House claiming that someone else's errors
or misjudgments led to the loss of innocent lives. Over
1,600 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have
lost their lives in the Iraq war, a war which your Administration
justified by falsely claiming that Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction."
The U.S. has vehemently attacked the Newsweek
report.
"It's appalling that this story got
out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
remarked to reporters on her trip back from Iraq.
"People are dead," Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington Monday.
"People need to be very careful about what they
say, just as they need to be careful about what they
do."
Conyers' letter follows.
###
May 17, 2005
Mr. Scott McClellan
Press Secretary
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. McClellan:
I write to express my profound disappointment and outrage
about comments you made about a matter involving Newsweek
magazine, which smacks of political exploitation of
the deaths of innocent and a shameless attempt to intimidate
reporters from critically investigating your Administration's
actions. Your comments are contradicted by the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and stand in stark contrast
with your actions involving the "Downing Street
Memo." I urge you and your counterpart at the Pentagon
to immediately retract the comments made yesterday,
and - at long last - provide a full accounting of the
Administration's actions in the lead up to the Iraq
war.
As you are aware, a May 9th Newsweek report indicated
that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba flushed the
Koran down a toilet as part of an interrogation. Newsweek
has since retracted the story. However, as the magazine
was reevaluating information received from its sources,
it appears you opted to exploit the situation for partisan
political gain by falsely laying blame on Newsweek for
recent deaths in Afghanistan.
Specifically, at 11:23am yesterday, you declared in
a public statement: "his report has had serious
consequences. It has caused damage to the image of the
United States abroad. It has -- people have lost their
lives. It has certainly caused damage to the credibility
of the media, as well, and Newsweek, itself." The
Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita, made similar comments.
Referring to Newsweek's source, he said "People
are dead because of what this son of a bitch said."
The clear implication of these statements is that the
Newsweek report had caused a loss of life in Muslim
nations, presumably referring to the recent riots in
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
First, this attempt to tie riots to the Newsweek article
stands in stark contrast to the assessment of your own
senior military officials. On May 12th, the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff had reported on his consultations
with the Senior Commander in Afghanistan about whether
there was a causal relationship between the Newsweek
story and the riots thusly: "[h]e thought it was
not at all tied to the article in the magazine."
The only conclusion that can be reasonably drawn is
that, in contrast to career military officers, political
operatives sought to score cheap political points by
spreading falsehoods about Newsweek. The appropriate
course of action is clear: you and Mr. DiRita should
immediately retract your exploitative comments.
Second, there is - of course - a sad irony in this
White House claiming that someone else's errors or misjudgments
led to the loss of innocent lives. Over 1,600 Americans
and tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives
in the Iraq war, a war which your Administration justified
by falsely claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
To date, your Administration has consistently blocked
Congressional inquiries into whether such claims were
the result of intentional manipulation of intelligence
or, as you assert, a mere "failure."
Moreover, your loquacious response to this matter
stands in stark contrast to your response to a recently
released classified memo comprising the minutes of a
July 22 meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and his cabinet which calls into question the credibility
of assertions made by your Administration in its drive
to war. Among other things the memo indicates that Administration
officials were working to ensure that "the intelligence
and facts were fixed around the policy," implying
that intelligence was deliberately manipulated to prop
up the case for war. The memo also indicates, contrary
to contemporaneous statements to the American people
and the Congress that the President had already "made
up his mind to take military action." When asked
about this memo, you claimed that you "don't know
about the specific memo" - two and one half weeks
after its release and ten days after receiving a letter
detailing its contents from 89 Members of Congress (which
has still not been answered).
Third, the public deserves to know what precisely
the White House is asserting with respect to the mistreatment
of the Koran by interrogators: are such reports categorically
false or are they, in the words of one publication,
"manifold?" For example, a May1st New York
Times report indicated that a Koran was thrown into
a pile and stepped on at the Guantanamo detention facility
and "[a] former interrogator at Guantanamo, in
an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts
of the hunger strikes, including the public expression
of regret over the treatment of the Korans." The
incident where a Koran was allegedly thrown in a toilet
was also recounted by a former detainee in a March 26,
2003 article in the Washington Post, and corroborated
by another detainee in a August 4, 2003 report by the
Center for Constitutional Rights. The question is: are
you categorically denying that the mistreatment of the
Koran occurred, or are you simply denying the Newsweek
report is accurate on hyper technical grounds?
Mr. McClellan, the American people have grown tired
of the venomous partisanship and lack of candor on the
part of this Administration. When taken to task for
wrongdoing, a pattern has emerged of this Administration
viciously attacking its accusers. The cornerstone of
our democracy is an open and accountable government,
and the American people deserve answers - not distractions
-- today.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr.
Article originally published May 17, 2005. |
