A Slip-Up, Then a Spin
An offhand assertion by Sen. John McCain last week has become a litmus test for one of the presidential campaign's biggest questions: who's really ready to be commander in chief? While in the Mideast, McCain asserted that it's "common knowledge … that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran." After his friend and supporter, Sen. Joe Lieberman, whispered in his ear, McCain quickly corrected himself. "I'm sorry," he said, "the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda." Democrats pounced, saying McCain's comments show he doesn't even know the difference between Shiites in Iran and the Sunnis who run Al Qaeda. McCain's team shot back, calling the Dems naive about Iran. His supporters pointed to the 9/11 Commission finding that contacts likely occurred between Tehran and Al Qaeda. "This whole idea that Shiite Iran wouldn't aid Sunni extremists is laughable and would certainly be news to Hamas, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Taliban [all Sunni groups]," Randy Scheunemann, McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser, told NEWSWEEK.
Here's a reality check. While U.S. military and intelligence officials have occasionally suggested that Iran might be supporting Sunni militants, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, they have not publicly provided evidence of it. The two top U.S. commanders in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and his deputy, Gen. Ray Odierno, have not repeated such allegations. U.S. officials said last year they had indications that some Iranian munitions intended for Shiite militias might have ended up in Qaeda hands, but they said there was no hard evidence that this help was deliberate. Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission and a former senior adviser (whose portfolio included Iran) to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told NEWSWEEK that while there was evidence Iran had contacts with Al Qaeda before 9/11, "I don't recall anyone telling me of significant evidence linking Iran directly to Al Qaeda in Iraq." And McCain's comments? The facts, Zelikow said, "might have gotten embedded in his head in the wrong way."
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Michael Hirsh covers international affairs for NEWSWEEK reporting on a range of topics from Homeland Security to postwar Iraq. He co-authored the November 3, 2003 cover story, "Bush's $87 Billion Mess," about the Iraq reconstruction plan. The issue was one of three that won the 2004 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Hirsh writes a column on Newsweek.com entitled "The World from Washington" focusing on foreign policy issues and serves as Washington Web Editor for Newsweek. He also edited NEWSWEEK's "Issues 2007" special issue, which explores all facets and issues of globalization.
Hirsh was the magazine's Foreign Editor from January 2001 to January 2002, and helped guide Newsweek's award-winning coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Before that he was a Senior Editor/Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in the Washington bureau, writing about foreign affairs and international economics. Hirsh was also managing editor for the Newsweek International special issue "ISSUES 2001," the second in a series of three annual reviews of the global economy in the new century.
From September 1998 to December 1999, as Diplomatic Correspondent, Hirsh covered foreign policy, the State Department and the Treasury. He moved to the Washington D.C. bureau in May 1997, previously serving as a senior editor of Newsweek International, covering the same beat.
Prior to joining NEWSWEEK in October 1994 as a New York-based senior writer, Hirsh served as the Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief for Institutional Investor from 1992 to 1994. Previously, he was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Tokyo and a National Editor in New York.
Hirsh was co-winner of the 2002 Ed Cunningham Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's terror coverage and contributed to the team of Newsweek reporters who earned the magazine the prestigious 2002 National Magazine Award for General Excellence, also for the magazine's coverage of the war on terror. Hirsh also won a Deadline Club Award in 1997 for investigative reporting on his expose of the IRS's abusive practices, and was one of five finalists for a 1994 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for his article, "China's Financial Revolutionaries." It profiled the new generation of mainland Chinese businessmen who are striving to build a capitalist financial system from scratch. Hirsh is the author of the nonfiction book "At War with Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2003) which explores America's foreign policy and its global role.
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