It was just a couple days ago that Amir Taheri was writing in the New York Post of Obama trying to convince Iraqi officials to delay negotiating the return of American troops. It seems that every right leaning website had something about this, several going so far as to declare that Obama has committed treason and broken the Logan Act. I had visions of the Reagan campaign delaying the American hostages return while he was running against Carter. Not a happy vision.
Several diaries here at DailyKos have already written on the original New York Post story, they are listed here:
Obama Delays Troop Withdrawal? by nemokc
NYPost lowers the bar by Arthur Wolf
Drudge & NYPost: Obama Committed Treason! by JustForTheRecord
Latest garbage from the New York Post by InsultComicDog
When I started reading about this, my first thought was that, "No way did Obama go into a meeting like that by himself. Who else was there, was it recorded and why is there no collaboration of the supposed allegations."
Thank god there are still some reporters out there that know how to do some investigative work, because yesterday Jack Tapper who works for ABC News wrote on his website Political Punch that there were several others, notably Republican officials who also attended that meeting and that they backup Obamas version of that meeting, not Mr. Taheri.
Jack Tapper writes
this July meeting was also attended by Bush administration officials, such as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the Baghdad embassy's legislative affairs advisor Rich Haughton, as well as a Republican senator, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
Attendees of the meeting back Obama's account, including not just Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., but Hagel, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers from both parties. Officials of the Bush administration who were briefed on the meeting by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad also support Obama's account and dispute the Post story and McCain attack.
Quite a few people owe Obama an apology. That would include Randy Scheunemann from the McCain campaign and Amir Taheri. I still don't see any acknowledgment up on the DrudgeReport either.
That should be a public apology, not a private one.
UPDATE: I have seen the "Obama Tries to Delay Troop Withdrawal" issue mentioned on a couple influential military blog sites, such as Blackfive.
I added a comment to the fox news site story on this too, stating that this story has been debunked by ABC News.