ABC: Amid Iraq Debate, a Document Mystery

[Rose Siding]

Talking Points, From Pentagon Office, May Have Been Illegal

June 15, 2006 -- Going into Thursday's Iraq debate in Congress, both sides had news points to bolster their arguments — for war supporters, it was recent the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the completion of the Iraqi cabinet; for war critics, the fact that U.S. deaths in Iraq today hit 2,500.

Both also went into the debate armed with political talking points. The most unusual came via a document sent out by Office of the Secretary of Defense to an assortment of congressional aides, as well as to the Iraqi Embassy and the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. The 74-page document is an exhaustive rebuttal of criticisms of the war and a defense of the administration's conduct of the war.

The document, labeled "Iraq floor debate prep book," was emailed on Wednesday afternoon to a handful of Democrats as well as Republicans — and was then abruptly recalled. Thursday afternoon, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Rumsfeld complaining that his office had spent "taxpayer dollars to produce partisan political documents." Lautenberg also suggested that the document may have violated laws prohibiting the Executive Branch from using taxpayer dollars for lobbying and propaganda activities.

The Pentagon later said the document was produced by the National Security Council — but did not offer an explanation as to why it was sent out by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Republicans on the Hill were not happy that the document was sent to Democrats — or that it was produced at all. "I've never seen anything like it," said one Republican aide, noting that the document went well beyond a Statement of Administration Policy. "I mean, a 74-page document — are you kidding me?" The aide added: "It did more harm than good for the Republican cause."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2082838&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Whoops!

[AlCzervik]

1. Republicans on the Hill were not happy that the document was sent to

Democrats---I bet they weren't happy!!

[cantstandbush]

44. Will this story make it to the talking heads on Sunday? n/t

[sam sarrha]

2. not the first time they did it... just the first time they got caught

[sam sarrha]

3. where can we get a copy of this ...

[Rose Siding]

5. It was recalled so I doubt it's available

-without consequence. If they could have gotten away with it, they would have.

[sam sarrha]

7. somneone had to scan it

[951-Riverside]

9. A CBS evening news REPEATER was holding it.

In fact she read a few excerpts.

[tanyev]

23. Repeater. I like that.

[sam sarrha]

40. they were just asked to send it back.. no one did

[Rose Siding]

45. Good. Thanks

A radio host today was talking about what a sacrifice of autonomy it was for the WH (via the DoD) to provide these talking points for the debate to the repubs in Congress. I thought that was insightful.

[marcus_b]

21. Link to the document and info about its possible author

The whole document appears to be available from:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/Iraq%20Floor%20Debate%20Prep%20Book.doc
This document, "Iraq Floor Debate Prep Book.doc" has the following MD5 checksum:
58b3f1cead0eb8a550f50771154529c1 Iraq Floor Debate Prep Book.doc
It contains the following content at byte address 1526000 (hexadecimal 1748F0):

001748f0: 1d00 0000 436c 6175 6465 5f48 2e5f 4368  ....Claude_H._Ch
00174900: 6166 696e 4077 686f 2e65 6f70 2e67 6f76  [email protected] 
00174910: 0000 6e00 1e00 0000 1200 0000 4368 6166  ..n.........Chaf
00174920: 696e 2c20 436c 6175 6465 2048 2e00 686f  in, Claude H..ho

The two strings contained here are in plain text:

[email protected] 
Chafin, Claude H.

This suggests that this document at least passed through the computer at Claude Chafin's desk. I digged up the following information about this person:
"Claude Chafin, United States Department of Defense is listed in the Federal Yellow Book and The Leadership Library® on the Internet." http://www.leadershipdirectories.com/fybInfo/Claude_Cha...
"Claude Chafin Director of Communications, United States Department of Defense"
http://www.leadershipprofiles.com/preview.asp?docid=448...
"For more information on this event please contact Claude Chafin at [phone]."
http://www.defenselink.mil/advisories/2003/p01242003_p0...
I don't know if this information is interesting or useful to anybody. Does this look like the NSC to you?

[Thor_MN]

22. who.eop = White House Office.Executive Office of the President

Claude may have worked in other places, but looks like he is DoubleDip's boy or red herring now.

[sam sarrha]

41. so the Pentagon and Rethug party are using taxpayers money for propaganda.

i want to heads roll and pensions shredded

[UpInArms]

4. good for Lautenberg - that was my exact thought -

why in the hell are we having to pay to print and distribute reich-wing propaganda with our tax dollar?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2339776&mesg_id=2339896

[Robeson]

6. "Republicans on the Hill were not happy "....

...yeah, ok whatever, but they'll still give Der Fuhrer whatever he wants.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

8. Recommend Topic for Greatest Page.

:kick:

[951-Riverside]

10. ...The military is now trying to influence politics.

We're in deep shit now.

[MADem]

11. Some sneaky patriot added a few names to the GOP list, I guess

Or came up with this classic, believable excuse: Ooops, I MEANT to press the LIEBERMAN address, but I hit LAUTENBERG by "mistake!"

Silly me!

[niceypoo]

12. Any "information" that comes from the whitehouse or Rumsfelds office.....

.......is gold for the democrats.... We're dealing with morons here folks....

[Rex]

13. When you hear that the Repuke control everything, remember this moment.

They write propaganda and send it out without even caring about the money spent or where it comes from!

[aaronbees]

14. Exactly!

This administration has reached a level of complete and utter shamelessness. Oh, wait, they did that from day one ... but now, they're just incredibly obvious about the propaganda.

[AuntiBush]

15. !

I'm speechless... Maybe some one wanted the Dem's to receive this, accidentally of course.

[The Doctor.]

16. More illegal stuff?

Let me put on my surprise face....

[grasswire]

17. uhhhhhhhh.........

"violated laws prohibiting the Executive Branch from using taxpayer dollars for lobbying and propaganda activities."

Does that same law prevent the WH from housing and paying the person who is in charge of Congressional elections? (Rove)

Does that same law prevent the WH from allowing its political director to sit in on briefings of Congress regarding national security briefings?

Something's wrong.

[Kagemusha]

18. Lobbying the public to vote for candidates vs. lobbying Congress

And it's possible the sentence was written sloppily. The point being, the Pentagon is assigned money to fight wars, not to lobby Congress.

And Rove ought to have his clearance stripped. But since he does have a clearance, as unjust as that may be, no, that same law wouldn't prevent a political director from sitting in, provided he has the clearance required.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. Actually, that would fall under the Hatch Act

the Act which Rove's entire job is a clear violation of.

[ihelpu2see]

19. Initially, That was my thought. How could a branch of government

produce a partisan piece of $hit like this? and why? It really proved that the republicans have no real arguments to a coordinated draw down. But I can't say I am really surprised, the hubris of this administration no longer shocks me. Hopefully the news media can make this clear to the American people.

[dalloway]

24. I Love Lautenberg!

So proud to have him as my Senator--he's always there calling the Rethugs for what they are! Senator Menedez, I hope you are taking good notes!

[annabanana]

25. I'm glad it got the publicity..

I saw it mentioned on several network broadcasts. Sadly, I do not expect there to be any follow-up.

[maxrandb]

26. Took a while for the outrage to sink in

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1435510

But I'm glad this is getting some intention.

To me, this is the most important issue of the day. When the Pentagon becomes an arm of the RNC, America is in deep, deep, uncharted territory.

You expect something like this in Russia.
You expect something like this in China.
But I never thought I would see it here.

[chill_wind]

29. Thank god Congress is keeping their powder dry

for far more vital strategic political purposes.

They wouldn't even smack his hand with a censure.
This is one big hi-jacked jumbo jet. The commandeering pilot, we are told, took flying lessons an eternity ago, but we have no clear records that he ever showed up for the landing lessons.

Surreal. This has been one big long creeping fascist surreal nightmare.

[wordpix2]

27. more law breaking from the "Tax-Borrow-Waste" chickenhawk repukes

"Cut and run" has replaced "bringing freedom to the Iraq people" and "9-11" as the main phrase of their campaign to remain in power at all costs.

Dems should repeat "tax, borrow and waste Republicans" as a talking point.

[dave29]

28. freakin shocked here. shocked I tell you!

SHOCKED!!

[wisteria]

30. This proves to me that the Republican Congress must be clueless

about what is really going on. I mean really, they need talking points and rebutials to deter critics of the war? They should be able to come up with their own talking points in support of their opinions about the war effort.
It is also interesting that the Iraqi Embassey received it also.Why? I think someone should bring that question up also. It appears we may not be able to trust what comes from the Iraqi's either, since they may be using talking points provided by the administration.

This administration is absolutely discusting.

[underpants]

32. I heard one Repub. Rep say that Yusef was an Iraqi intel agent

I don't remember who it was. This is a completely unfounded BS talking point from a Dr. (Harvard) Laure Myroie but yet it made its way onto the floor of the House.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Mylroie

[The_Casual_Observer]

31. The republicans are happy to piss away money as long as it's

for the pentagon.

[underpants]

33. Just like Sen.Martinez and the Schiavo talking points

Whoops got caught AGAIN

[justice1]

34. Hasterts statement on Iraq.

"The alternative is to cut and run, giving them the chance to regroup, and bring terror back to U.S. shores".

They are still trying to make it sound like Iraq was involved with terrorism in the U.S.

[Faryn Balyncd]

35. This propaganda is certainly the work of Dr. Peter Feaver....

Dr. Feaver is the former Duke University political science professor,an expert on public opinion polls, appointed by Bush to the National Security Council because of his expertise in public tolerance for casualties .

He has guided Bush administration "framing" and propaganda, much in the manner of Frank Luntz.

But, whereas Luntz prepared his "talking points" (with his famous admonition “No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11 ...." while paid by the Republican National Committee, Feaver is paid by the American taxpayer.

And while Luntz's talking points were distributed through GOP channels, someone chose to have Pentagon/DOD distribute this, once again demonstrating the GOP's unlimited predelection for hiding behind the troops.

This is a New York Times article describing Feaver's hiring, and his influence upon Bush's rhetoric, first apparent in Bush's December "Plan for Victory" speech:

Although White House officials said many federal departments had contributed to the document, its relentless focus on the theme of victory strongly reflected a new voice in the administration: Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who joined the N.S.C. staff as a special adviser in June and has closely studied public opinion on the war.

Despite the president's oft-stated aversion to polls, Dr. Feaver was recruited after he and Duke colleagues presented the administration with an analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004.

They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believed it would ultimately succeed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/politics/04strategy.html?ex=1291352400&en=a533401f6641bd12&ei=5088

[MasonJar]

36. Thank God for Frank Lautenberger; he has turned out to be a

real jewel. Go, Frank! Good job New Jersey!

[Up2Late]

37. LAWS!?!? When did this bunch ever care about LAWS?

PRISON! Just tell me when someone in this so-called Government is going to PRISON!!!

LOCK 'EM UP!

[autorank]

38. "The gang that couldn't shoot straight." K&R

Great one Rose Siding.

Republicans on the Hill were not happy that the document was sent to Democrats — or that it was produced at all. "I've never seen anything like it," said one Republican aide,

To me this indicates that Rove is out of the picture. Hmmm...

[berni_mccoy]

39. "Catapaulting the Propaganda"

[texpatriot2004]

43. That's the truth of it. When did the idiot in chief say that? I can't

remember the context but didn't he say that?

[Faryn Balyncd]

46. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and ...

....over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda..."

George W. Bush
Greece Athena Middle and High School
Athena Performing Arts Center
Greece, New York
May 24,2005

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050524-3.html

[texpatriot2004]

47. Thank you so much for finding this quote for me. I knew he said

it, but I couldn't remember when or where.

He is such a moron! If the stupid things he says were not so tragic, they would be hilarious.

[kristopher]

48. I'd also like to thank you.

Great quote.

[951-Riverside]

42. ....So are we going to see it anytime soon?