Mr. McCain said at a news conference in Amman that he continued to be concerned about Iranians “taking Al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.” Asked about that statement, Mr. McCain said: “Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.”
It was not until he got a quiet word of correction in his ear from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who was traveling with Mr. McCain as part of a Congressional delegation on a nearly weeklong trip, that Mr. McCain corrected himself.
“I’m sorry,” Mr. McCain said, “the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda.” ....
“After eight years of the Bush administration’s incompetence in Iraq, McCain’s comments don’t give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward,” Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “Not only is Senator McCain wrong on Iraq once again, but he showed he either doesn’t understand the challenges facing Iraq and the region or is willing to ignore the facts on the ground.”
P.S. The MSNBC article goes on to mention when McCain was on his photo-op tour last year, where he talked about how great things were in Iraq but he was surrounded by 100 troops.
It was not the first time that Mr. McCain’s remarks during a Congressional trip overseas have caused headaches for his campaign. It was nearly a year ago that his talk about the improving security situation in Iraq made headlines, after a trip he made to a marketplace there was guarded by more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees and attack helicopters, becoming fodder for Democrats and critics of the war.
I made a video of that at the time.
