Bush Regime Goes Into Damage Control

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Bush Forced Tepid Retraction

Update: Reuters
***UPDATE*** 7/20, 11:50pm ET A spokesman for al-Maliki has
said the Prime Minister's comments were "mistranslated", but Der
Spiegel is standing
by its story:

Maliki was quick to back away from an outright endorsement
of Obama, saying "who they choose as their president is the Americans'
business." But he then went on to say: "But it's the business of
Iraqis to say what they want. And that's where the people and the government
are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be
limited."

A Baghdad
government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said in a statement that SPIEGEL had
"misunderstood and mistranslated" the Iraqi prime minister, but
didn't point to where the misunderstanding or mistranslation might have
occurred. Al-Dabbagh said Maliki's comments "should not be understood as
support to any US
presidential candidates." The statement was sent out by the press desk of
the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq.
A number of media outlets likewise professed to being confused by the
statement from Maliki's office. The New York Times pointed out that
al-Dabbagh's statement "did not address a specific error." CBS
likewise expressed disbelief pointing out that Maliki mentions a timeframe for
withdrawal three times in the interview and then asks, "how likely is it
that SPIEGEL mistranslated three separate comments? Matthew Yglesias, a blogger
for the Atlantic Monthly, was astonished by "how little effort was
made" to make the Baghdad
denial convincing. And the influential blog IraqSlogger also pointed out the
lack of specifics in the government statement.
SPIEGEL sticks to its version of the conversation.
The New York Times reports that US Embassy Officials contacted Maliki's office to "explain" how
the Prime Minister's comments were being interpreted:

The interview prompted immediate concern from the Bush
administration, which called to seek clarification from Mr. Maliki's office,
American officials said.

Scott M. Stanzel, a White House spokesman with President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.,
said that embassy officials explained to the Iraqis how the interview in Der
Spiegel was being interpreted, given that it came just a day after the two
governments announced an agreement over American troops.
"The Iraqis were not aware and wanted to correct it," he said.
The Washington Post confirms that the tepid retraction came after a call from Embassy officials:

The statement by an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki calling his remarks in Der Spiegel "misinterpreted and
mistranslated" followed a call to the prime minister's office from U.S. government officials in Iraq.