The Petraeus Report Is From Bush

A few days ago this LA Times article, Top general may propose pullbacks sparked some controversy. "Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government."

Everyone is up in arms that it's not Petraeus' report but the White House's. Daily Kos assembled a list of quotes from Senate Republicans "when they filibustered the Defense Authorization Bill last month" mentioning General Petraeus' report to the Senate.

Harry Reid said "The White House’s effort to prevent General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker from testifying openly and candidly before Congress about the situation in Iraq is unacceptable. Not only does it contradict the law President Bush himself signed in May, but it appears to be yet another politically driven attempt to avoid giving Congress and the American people an honest and open assessment of a war we can all see is headed in the wrong direction."

Notice he talks about "testifying". Perhaps Reid is referring to what was described in todays Washington Post: "Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense. White House officials did not deny making the proposal in informal talks with Congress, but they said yesterday that they will not shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding legislation President Bush signed in May."

People seemed to have missed the next paragraph of the LA Times article: "And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data."

So what does the law actually say? Looking up H.R. 2206 in Thomas it's easy to find Sec. 1314. (b) (2) (D): "The President shall submit a second report to the Congress, not later than September 15, 2007, following the same procedures and criteria outlined above."

Sec 1314. (b) (3) "TESTIMONY BEFORE CONGRESS- Prior to the submission of the President's second report on September 15, 2007, and at a time to be agreed upon by the leadership of the Congress and the Administration, the United States Ambassador to Iraq and the Commander, Multi-National Forces Iraq will be made available to testify in open and closed sessions before the relevant committees of the Congress."

Unless Don Young got to this bill too, it seems pretty clear. If Congress wanted a report from Petraeus, they should have asked for it. They'll have to make due with his testimony. And if they don't trust a report from Bush, they shouldn't have bothered making him prepare one.