Wednesday, October 8, 2008

"He said he wants to announce that he's going to attack Pakistan. Remarkable."

-- John McCain, presidential debate

In last night's debate, Sen. John McCain repeated one of his regular complaints -- that Sen. Barack Obama said that he would strike targets inside Pakistan under certain conditions. McCain raises the issue to suggest that it is an example of Obama's inexperience in foreign affairs.

McCain is referring to an Obama speech from more than a year ago -- Aug. 1, 2007 -- in which the Democratic nominee outlined his ideas for fighting the war on terrorism. During that speech, Obama noted that many al-Qaeda leaders had found sanctuary in the remote tribal regions of northwest Pakistan.

"There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. . . . If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and [Pakistani] President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said.

It is clear from the context of Obama's speech that he was talking about bombing well-defined al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan upon receipt of "actionable intelligence."

In fact, the Bush administration launched just such an attack on Jan. 29 when the CIA got word of the precise location of a top al-Qaeda leader, Abu Laith al-Libi, near the Pakistani town of Mir Ali. CIA and Air Force operatives fired two Hellfire missiles at the target, killing al-Libi, without the prior approval of the Pakistani government.

However, during the exchange in the debate, Obama conflated al-Qaeda with Taliban and other Afghan groups that operate out of the Pakistan border area, claiming "they are now raiding our troops in Afghanistan, destabilizing the situation."

But U.S. intelligence officials believe al-Qaeda is mainly providing funds and some training to the Taliban, not attacking U.S. troops.

McCain has repeatedly mischaracterized Obama's statement to make a somewhat tendentious point: that Obama should not say he would "attack Pakistan" because he should "speak softly" about his plans. But Obama did not say that -- as has been noted by independent fact checkers many times -- and he merely articulated a policy that has been used by the current administration.

THREE PINOCCHIOS: Significant factual errors.

-- Glenn Kessler