Misrepresenting Joe Biden
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Three days after Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) was tapped to be the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Michael Rubin ["Biden's Blink on Iran," op-ed, Aug. 26] asserted that Mr. Biden told the foreign minister of the Czech Republic a decade ago that "cutting radio broadcasts into Iran might better encourage dialogue."
Mr. Rubin is wrong. At the time, the Czech government was resisting a U.S. government initiative to use Prague-based Radio Free Europe to broadcast to Iran and Iraq. Mr. Biden told the foreign minister that the Czech government had the right to resist, but if it did, the senator would initiate an effort to move RFE's headquarters to another country.
Second, Mr. Rubin seemed to object to a 2002 appearance at a conference where Mr. Biden advocated parliamentary dialogue with Iran not long after President Bush called Iran part of the "axis of evil." Other speakers at the conference included Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Zalmay Khalilzad, then a senior White House aide and now ambassador to the United Nations. More important, Mr. Biden's offer to talk to Iranian parliamentarians was encouraged privately by then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Third, Mr. Rubin relies on an Iranian ayatollah as a source for an alleged statement by Mr. Biden that Israel had been defeated by Hezbollah. Why does he not quote Mr. Biden directly? Because the senator never said any such thing. Here's what he did say in December 2007: "Iran's other favorite proxy, Hezbollah, became the strongest force in the country (Lebanon). Last summer, it provoked a war with Israel. Now it is intimidating the pro-Western government [in Lebanon] into capitulating over the choice of a new president."
ANTONY J. BLINKEN
Chicago
The writer is a senior adviser to the Obama-Biden campaign.
