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Petraeus e-mails on Israel leaked
One of the endlessly repeated tropes of the coverage of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's downfall was how he lacked savvy in dealing with the media, particularly when compared with his boss and replacement, Gen. David Petraeus.But even the ultrasavvy Petraeus slips sometimes, apparently. The Nation's Philip Weiss has gotten hold of e-mails that the general accidentally attached to the bottom of a story forwarded to an activist, showing the general urging Commentary's Max Boot to write a piece pushing back against the narrative that he was critical of the U.S.'s special relationship with Israel. A sampling from the leaked e-mails: Does it help if folks know that I hosted Elie Wiesel and his wife at our quarters last Sun night?! And that I will be the speaker at the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps in mid-Apr at the Capitol Dome ... Boot had been working for some time to knock down the story that Gen. Petraeus thought the U.S.'s policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fueling hostility to Americans throughout the region. Following Mark Perry's March 13 story in Foreign Policy that Petraeus wanted Israel and the Palestinian territories included under his Central Command, rather than under Europe, Boot wrote a piece quoting an unnamed military officer who said Perry's reporting was "incorrect." (Weiss suspects that officer is Petraeus himself.) A few days later, when Petraeus testified before Congress, Media Matters' MJ Rosenberg wrote a piece celebrating his stance on the Israel issue. A State Department official forwarded the story to Petraeus, who then forwarded it to Boot, with the note, "As you know, I didn't say that. It's in a written submission for the record ..." Boot replied: Oh brother. Luckily it's only media matters which has no credibility but think I will do another short item pointing people to what you actually said as opposed to what's in the posture statement. Which, after a few more exchanges with Petraeus -- ending with "Roger! :)" from the general -- he did. Posted by: logi_cal 2010-07-08 |
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