McCain Repeats Iran-Al Qaeda Gaffe Yet Again

Sen. John McCain has done it again.

For the third time in two days, the Arizona Republican has pushed the definitively false statement that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was getting assistance from Iran, even though he was publicly ridiculed for the same false assertion on Tuesday.

This time, in a statement from his campaign honoring the fifth year anniversary of the war, McCain wrote:

"Today in Iraq, America and our allies stand on the precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism. The security gains over the past year have been dramatic and undeniable. Al Qaeda and Shia extremists -- with support from external powers such as Iran -- are on the run but not defeated."

On Tuesday, the senator, appearing in Israel, made a nearly identical assertion that al-Qaeda was leaving Iraq to retool and regroup in Iran.

It was, he said, "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."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was accompanying McCain on the trip, was forced to lean over and whisper in McCain's ear that it was Shiite extremists, not Sunni al-Qaeda, that was going to predominantly Shiite Iran.

The repeated gaffes, which now appear to becoming something of a pattern, have already become fodder for McCain's Democratic opponents.

"Either John McCain is purposely playing politics with the facts on the ground or he doesn't understand the threat facing Iraq and our brave troops," said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "Either way, after five years of the Bush Administration's incompetence and deception on Iraq, the American people don't want four more years of a president who will cherry-pick the facts."

And speaking today, Sen. Barack Obama, used the misstatements as evidence that McCain's claims of foreign policy experience do not give him a superior understanding or judgment of the terrorist threat or Iraq policy.

"Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda," said Obama. "Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades."

Comments

[CSE]

Yesterday's statements you back up via reference link are from Amman Jordan. There is no link to a "third" mis-statement from Israel.

The statement from his campaign, "Al Qaeda and Shia extremists -- with support from external powers such as Iran -- are on the run but not defeated." can be read as the shia extremists -- separate from al-Qaeda -- are getting the support from Iran - which is not incorrect.

So, while McCain and his pal Lieberman traveling overseas as our representatives makes me ill, your headline appears incorrect.

[Cautious]

That's bullshit and you know it. John McCain is a hero and a great American. He's also over 70, and sometimes appears irritable and forgetful. He should stick with being a hero.

[jennifer Vizzo]

Rush Limbaugh is on Oxycontin, and McCain needs to be on No-Doze. How else do you explain him making the same gaffe three days in a row? The poor old dude needs a nap!

[zigzag1]

So, who will really be President if this doddering old fool is elected? Just like Reagan, some shadow government hatched in the right wing stink tanks will govern while they put McCrazy out there to wave and read off the teleprompter. If he chooses Lieberman, that war monger can whisper lines in his ear.

[appleknocker]

Lieberman will be McCain's Cheney. But who will be Lieberman's Cheney?

[Toerag]

How can we keep calling this a gaffe?

This is purely inept. Making the same 'gaffe' three times makes me believe that he believes what he's saying. How about we just say he is outright WRONG.

[snowcat]

Can you IMAGINE what would be happening right now if it were Obama that said this???!! It would be played on a continuous loop, all day long , for at least a week until they could make sure he dropped in the polls! Scratch that, the msm would simply announce that his candidacy was over and give Clinton the crown! I'm surprised Obama isn't being blamed for this anyway as the media is determined to take him down for what other people say and do anyway!

[SFSierra]

If either Obama or Clinton demostrated so little understanding of what is going on in Iran/Iraq, the MSM and the right wing echo chamber would be in hyperdrive. Huffington Post and the progressive blogs must stay on this until the MSM is forced to cover this story.

[dogman44]

Why has McC's tart disappeared in the media? It's at least as relevant as clinton's blow job.
Speaking of jobs, the fourth estate is not doing theirs.

[Zentomato]

The repubs have chosen their best candidate to run for president. A senile old fart.

[BuffNutts]

It's not a "gaffe." It's a ploy out of the Rove playbook: Say the same outrageous statements long enough, and eventually an ignorant public will repeat as if they were facts.
It's a proven winner.

[LeftVetPatriot]

RARRIN'!!

[winoohno]

I agree w/BuffNutts: this is not a mistake, it is what our Administration wants to surreptitiously introduce into America's subconscious -- that way the impending Iranian War will be more palatable.

[Vergadoce]

Well, the public did elect GW Bush in 2004 (I won't say re-elect since he never actually "won" in 2000). despite knowing that he was a bumbling babboon because he was "the evil we know instead of the evil we don't know." So I don't put anything past the American public. It's capacity for ignorance and utter stupidty knows no depths.

[Kakistocrat]

I think I get it. To a republican, misstatements and outright lies are not gaffes, even when obvious. Repeat it, repeat it, repeat it ad infinitum, ad nauseum, and to many of us (although that portion of us I prefer to think of as them), it is the truth. Reality itself is not relevant to a republican, only the appearance of reality and whether the projected "reality" has the desired effect. Call it propaganda, the Big Lie, whatever, it is only a means to an end -- to obtain and maintain power. And, unfortunately, given that only half of the voters vote, you only have to convince 25 % of us to obtain and maintain power. That's the republican path to success -- lies and voter apathy -- and why the philosophy of a small minority has helped destroy our country over the last 8 years. Hopefully, that will end this November.

[angeranddespair]

GWB didn't even know there were differences within the Islamic faith not to mention the existence of the ethnic population of the Kurdish people in Iraq before he chose to invade and occupy Iraq. And now one of the three contenders for the office of President demonstrates his lack of knowledge and understanding of these different religious and ethnic groups. McCain has openly stated he knows less about economic affairs than he does foreign policy. If McCain's mistakes over the last three days are an indication of his understanding of the nuances of foreign policy then god help us if he gets elected.

[RickO]

Al Qaida is just another worn-out euphemism for the fill-in-the-blank bogey man of the moment. There's probably 2 guys in Iraq that have any connection to the real Al Qaida (the bin-Laden controlled group) and everyone else with a gun and a grudge against us is just another pissed-off Iraqi who had to bury his family this week. Calling them all Al Qaida, or extremists, is just a way to make us think we are fighting a real organized enemy.

[kcal2000]

I agree with you on that RickO

[habajebe]

Well said.

[JohnFromCensornati]

When you say something three days in a row, doesn't that make it *not* a gaffe?
Holy shit, the media loves to coddle these blood-thirsty RepubliCons!

[CatfishAndGrits]

One time is gaffe, several times is attempting to start war before you even become preznit.

Then again he is in his 70s............maybe he just forgot :c)

[1differentdrummer]

1984 and Hitler's "the big lie." Karl's being a busy boy.

[Ihaveadream]

We already know that Karl Rove and his operatives are working their magic and dirty tricks on the McCain campaign - remember Karl's rules (from the Edward Bernays school of propaganda and mind control: if you repeat something over and over again, then it's the truth: And, of course the Darwin award winners who watch Fox news and believe everything they say

Examples:

911 anything that rhymes with Osama; 911 bad guys name here (even if you can't pronounce it); 911, 911, 911, 911 I-Zheet M'drurz ; 911 Hous Bin Pharteen 911

Then there's the sexual predators who always have to be labeled "D" like Larry Craig (D-Idaho), Mark Foley (D-Fla)

Thank you Robert De Niro and SNL http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5623125662789544501

[Counterglow]

When she was his age, my mother was as sharp as a tack. That kind of mistake, with its potentially devastating consequences, is one she would never have made even once, much less repeatedly.

Is there any way McCain can be made to undergo a complete medical exam, with the results to be published? I'll stand up and say it straight out: senile dementia or Alzheimer's. The voting public deserves to know whether he's suffering from the early stages of either one.

[Bushgirlsgonewild]

.


But McCain thought that the last two days have all been the same day, so in his book, he only made the mistake one day in a row.

McCain went on to say as reporters glared: “My friendssss, it is common knowledge that the government is holding alien bodies and the wreckage of a UFO in Area 51, that the moon-landing was faked in a Hollywood movie studio, and that before there was Earth, there was Muspell, a fiery land guarded by the fire sword-wielding Surt; Ginnungagap, a great void, and Niflheim, a frozen ice-covered land. When the cold of Niflheim touched the fires of Muspell, the giant Ymir and a behemothic cow, Auehumla, emerged from the thaw. Then, the cow licked the god Bor and his wife into being. The couple gave birth to Buri, who fathered three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve. The sons rose up and killed Ymir and from his corpse created from his flesh, the Earth; the mountains from his bones, trees with his hair and rivers, and the seas and lakes with his blood. Within Ymires hollowed-out skull, the gods created the starry heavens.”

------

I get worried now anytime I hear a republican say "it's common knowledge” and “it’s well known”. Those are the same kind of “there is no doubt that…” and “in fact…” statements Cheney continues to make about the war.

Is it coincidence? I doubt it – it’s been a neoConartist tactic since the 80’s to either make shit up or to repeat lies over and over again.

If McCain becomes president, we won’t get another Bush, we’ll be getting another Cheney.

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