Update 2:00p.m. It was widely reported that Ware “heckled” McCain and Graham at the press conference. Michael Ware has stated there was no heckling. What did happen…when he raised his hand to ask a question the press conference abruptly ended.

I heard reporter Michael Ware heckled McCain and Lindsay Graham during a press conference after “the stroll.” Trying to find video of that. Think Progress has more on McCain’s casual stroll through the market……with 100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawks, 2 Apache Gunships and body armor on. Somebody needs to send McCain to the shuffleboard court and leave him there!

BAGHDAD - Mortar attacks, suicide car bombs, roadside bombs, ambushes and gunbattles killed at least two dozen people on Sunday, including four U.S. soldiers, the authorities said.

The U.S. military command said the soldiers were killed southwest of Baghdad just after midnight as they responded to an earlier bombing that killed two other U.S. soldiers late Saturday. The insurgency has frequently tried to reap greater death tolls by carrying out attacks against rescue crews rushing to bomb sites.

The attacks coincided with a visit to Iraq by a Republican congressional delegation led by Sen. John McCain, who declared at a news conference that the new American security plan was “making progress” and that there was cause for “very cautious optimism.”

In sometimes-testy comments to reporters in the Green Zone, McCain said the U.S. public was not receiving “the full picture about what’s happening,” and described the delegation’s visit to a downtown market where scores of people have died this year in multiple car bombings and other attacks. There, the Congress members said, they strolled around, haggled with merchants and drank tea.

But the outing was far from carefree and serendipitous. The delegation traveled in a convoy of armored military vehicles and was accompanied by a large contingent of heavily armed soldiers. The politicians wore body armor while they shopped.

“We had protection today,” McCain admitted when pressed by reporters.

More at the Sun Sentinel

Comments OffEmail Post Toggle Meta