[NYTr] Lawmakers Describe "Being Slimed in the Green Zone"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[So the Bush regime lied to the Congressional visitors about
what they were seeing in Iraq, and they lied to the troops about 
who was visiting, and when it was all over their C-130 got shot
at as they tried to take off for Jordan from Baghdad Airport --
"gunfire that missed" sez the US military... "or maybe RPGs."
"Ground-to-air Missiles" reports Prensa Latina. But they 
managed to take off and no one was wounded. Apparently whatever
the Resistance was firing at them, they missed. Must've been an
exciting take-off with their spiral maneuvers. A good show was
put on by all. -NY Transfer]

Washington Post via Truthout - Aug 31, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/083107F.shtml

also below:
US Troops Given Misleading, Inaccurate Bios 
of Democratic Lawmakers Visiting Iraq 

Lawmakers Describe "Being Slimed in the Green Zone"

By Jonathan Weisman

    The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in
the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and
uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran
Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the
congressman was taken aback to find out.

    In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before
each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting
participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers
stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on
to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as,
"This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

    The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) - "TAU (rhymes with
'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates - was no less pointed, even if
she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area
constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in
the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in
sight," the bio quotes.

    "This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone,"
Tauscher said of her bio.

    More than two dozen House members and senators have used the August
recess to travel to Iraq in the hope of getting a firsthand view of the
war ahead of commanding Gen. David H. Petraeus's progress report in two
weeks on Capitol Hill. But it appears that the trips have been as much
about Iraqi and U.S. officials sizing up Congress as the members of
Congress sizing up the war.

    Brief, choreographed and carefully controlled, the codels (short for
congressional delegations) often have showed only what the Pentagon and
the Bush administration have wanted the lawmakers to see. At one point,
as Moran, Tauscher and Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) were heading to lunch in
the fortified Green Zone, an American urgently tried to get their
attention, apparently to voice concerns about the war effort, the
participants said. Security whisked the man away before he could make
his point.

    Tauscher called it "the Green Zone fog."

    "Spin City," Moran grumbled. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all
singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated."

    But even such tight control could not always filter out the bizarre
world inside the barricades. At one point, the three were trying to
discuss the state of Iraqi security forces with Iraq's national security
adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set
facing the official proved to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching
children's cartoons.

    When Moran asked him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh
and said, "But this is my favorite television show," Moran recalled.

    Porter confirmed the incident, although he tried to paint the scene
in the best light, noting that at least they had electricity.

    "I don't disagree it was an odd moment, but I did take a deep breath
and say, 'Wait a minute, at least they are using the latest technology,
and they are monitoring the world,' " Porter said. "But, yes, it was
pretty annoying."

    It was the bio sheets that seemed to annoy the members of Congress
the most. Just who assembled them is not clear. E-mails to U.S. Central
Command's public affairs office in Baghdad this week went unanswered.

    "I had never seen that in the past. That's new," said Porter, who
was on his fourth trip to Iraq. "Now I want to see what they're saying
about me," he added, when he learned of the contents of his travel
companions' rap sheets.

    For one, the quotations appeared to be selected to divide the
visitors into those who are with the war effort and those who are
against. For another, they were not exactly accurate. Under "latest Iraq
vote," Tauscher's bio noted that she had voted in favor of legislation
requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days of the
bill's enactment.

    She did vote that way - in May. On Aug. 2, Tauscher voted in favor
of her own bill, which mandates that troops be granted a leave from
combat at least as long as their last combat deployment before being
shipped back to Iraq. That vote might have been a little too popular
with the soldiers she was meeting, Tauscher said.

    Still, Porter was quick to add, for all the drawbacks, the trip was
worth it.

    "No doubt you will have people speak the company talking points,"
Porter said. "But I spent time with people who were not officers, four
of them from Nevada, two who were very blunt" about their support for
the war and their anger over partisan fighting in Washington.

    "I tend to lean with the rank-and-file members of military who have
nothing to gain," he added. "They want to go home as soon as possible."

                             ***

Think Progress - Aug 31, 2007

US Troops Given Misleading, Inaccurate Bios 
of Democratic Lawmakers Visiting Iraq

    This morning, the Washington Post has a story on how lawmakers are
being "slimed in the Green Zone" when they travel to Iraq for
congressional delegation trips. Reps. James Moran (D-VA), Jon Porter
(R-NV), and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) recently returned from such a trip.
While there, Tauscher and Moran noticed sheets of paper that "seemed to
be everywhere" in the Green Zone, "distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S.
officials and uniformed military of no particular rank."

    The sheets of papers were short, thumbnail biographies of the two
lawmakers. ThinkProgress has obtained copies of the bios for Moran and
Tauscher. Instead of the official bios readily available on the
congressional websites, they were new ones that cherry-pick the
representatives' "most incendiary" statements:
moranbio.gif tauscherbio.gif

    The bios also either ignore or or completely misrepresent the
lawmakers' records. The Washington Post notes:

  Under "latest Iraq vote," Tauscher's bio noted that she had voted in
  favor of legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from
  Iraq within 120 days of the bill's enactment.

  She did vote that way - in May. On Aug. 2, Tauscher voted in favor of
  her own bill, which mandates that troops be granted a leave from
  combat at least as long as their last combat deployment before being
  shipped back to Iraq. That vote might have been a little too popular
  with the soldiers she was meeting, Tauscher said.

    Moran's bio says that he "[v]oted NO on legislation requiring the
withdrawal of U S troops from Iraq within 120 days of the bill's
enactment." In reality, Moran voted "yes." He also voted for Tauscher's
dwell-time legislation.

    When Porter learned about his colleagues' rap sheets, he stated, "I
had never seen that in the past. That's new. Now I want to see what
they're saying about me."

    ThinkProgress spoke with one of the delegation's military escorts,
Maj. Toby Patterson, who said that he didn't know who made the bios or
why they were created in the first place. He added that his office, the
Marine Corps liaison for the U.S. House of Representatives, usually just
uses lawmakers' readily-available bios off of congressionalquarterly.com.