Another Iraq lie. And another.

I have been talking about the inevitable failure of Together Forward (trying to pacify a city of 6 million with 8,000 +/- US troops,) but I had believed the early statements that it had been working. It turns out that optimism may have been misplaced.

It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total....... But this means that a much-publicized drop-off in violence in August – heralded by both the Iraqi government and the US military as a sign that a new security effort in Baghdad was working -- apparently didn’t exist......

Officials at the Baghdad morgue have no good explanation for the dramatically revised number. We’ll see what the U.S. military has to say.

I think we'll have to wait for confirmation on this. The news reports in early/mid August did not feature large numbers of mass attacks so that number would have to consist primarily of the small scale sectarian executions which would mark a significant increase. Certainly possible, but I want confirmation.

And, another lie. Remember that long post about how al-Rubaie could not be trusted in the timing of his announcement of the capture of Iraq's Al Qaeda number 2? Well......

The U.S. military said Wednesday the arrest of al-Qaida in Iraq's second in command took place in June and was the most significant blow to the terror network since the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

But Rubaie did his job. His spectacle around that "hastily arranged" news conference completely obscured the failed Iraqi military handover talks. (The handover is back on for tomorrow.)