BACHMANN’S SILENCE IS DEAFENING

02/27/2007

ST. PAUL (2/27/07) – More than three days have passed since Rep. Michele Bachmann released a statement to “clarify” her claim that Iran has a secret agreement to partition Iraq and use the land as a training ground for terrorists. But her statement only further muddied the water and did nothing to indicate where she got her information. Now she refuses to be interviewed on the topic.

Her silence forced St. Cloud Times reporters to go back to an interview given in January to speculate where she may have received this exclusive information.

Bachmann did not explain where she received her information, though Bachmann said in a Jan. 21 Times story she and U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., had received “classified information on the war effort” during a visit to the Pentagon.

[“Bachmann backs off podcast statements, St. Cloud Times, Feb. 24, 2007]


Today, the Star Tribune and the St. Cloud Times both called for Bachmann to break her silence and explain herself.

“It is unconscionable that a sitting member of Congress cannot or will not explain her explosive comments on an issue as critical as a foreign war in which American soldiers are fighting and dying. For many Minnesotans, there is no greater concern than the war in Iraq,” Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez said. “Representative Bachmann claimed knowledge of a secret agreement between Iran and an unnamed party to partition Iraq and use it as a staging ground for terror. She has a moral and ethical obligation to disclose where she learned this information and why she chose to disclose it in a St. Cloud Times podcast. She was elected to represent the interests of her constituents. Her reckless speculation, and her silence about her sources and her evidence, serve nobody.

“Either she’s repeating rumor as fact, or she’s leaking classified information or she’s simply lying. But the detail with which she described the Iranian agreement makes it impossible for her to get away with saying that her words were just ‘misconstrued.’ The audio of her comments is posted publicly. Representative Bachmann’s comments are not filtered in any way. Nobody is ‘misconstruing’ her. We heard exactly what she said, and we deserve an explanation.”