Border Security Gaps in Texas; GAO States Most Iraq Benchmarks not Met
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Tonight, the Bush administration says it is tightening security along our border with Mexico, but despite those efforts, portions of that border remain wide open. All that and much more straight ahead tonight. ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS THIS WEEK, news, debate and opinion for Saturday, September 1st. Here now sitting in for Lou Dobbs, Christine Romans. ROMANS: Good evening, everybody. Congressional auditors find the Iraqi government has failed to meet most of the benchmarks laid out by Congress to assess progress in Iraq. The Government Accountability Office will reportedly say 15 of 18 goals have not been met. The White House says success in Iraq can’t be measured by benchmarks alone. We turn now to Elaine Quijano at the White House for more — Elaine. ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the White House response is that it’s about more than just benchmarks in Iraq. Officials here say that it is not news that there has been a lack of political progress at the top levels in Baghdad. Officials here say that their own interim report found much of the same. What the White House is arguing is that progress in Iraq cannot be measured by benchmarks alone. Here’s White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If you take a look at what Congress has mandated for this report, it says, have you met these? Have you met them at full? Well, if the answer is, you’re going to find a lot of cases, of course they haven’t met them. Now, the real question is, do you have progress in the right direction?” The other thing I would suggest is that it would be a mistake to limit one’s view of what goes on in Iraq to the benchmarks. (END VIDEO CLIP) QUIJANO: The White House insists what the benchmarks do not reflect is progress since the surge, including Sunnis turning against al Qaeda, and so-called bottom-up reconciliation. But Democrats counter that when it comes to the top leadership in Baghdad, they have not taken significant steps towards political reconciliation. And Democrats question why American troops must continue to sacrifice to give the Iraqis political breathing space when the Iraqis, so far, have not been able to come together and reconcile — Christine. Source : edition.cnn.com |