President Defends Iraq Build-Up, Touts Agreement with North Korea

But withers before tough Iraq questions from reporters

In a rare news conference Valentine’s Day morning, President Bush strongly defended the troop surge in Iraq and touted the recent multinational agreement on nuclear weapons with North Korea. While both received nearly equal time in the president’s address, questions from reporters mainly focused on Iraq.

Reporters particularly focused on a contradictory message coming from the White House on whether the Iranian government was behind the supply of weapons to Shiite militants in Iraq. Recently, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates claimed that the United States had intelligence showing the Iranian leadership was involved. Bush said today that the United States knew the Iranian special military force known as Qods (pronounced “kudz”) supplied the weapons, but was unsure as to whether they had received their orders from the Iranian leadership.

more insideThis corresponds with a recent statement by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Gen. Peter Pace in an interview with Voice of America. “It is clear that Iranians are involved,” he said, “but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit.”

Reporters followed with questions about whether the administration was manipulating intelligence implicating Iran as it had done so with Iraq before to the current war. “Is this pretext for war?” one reporter asked.

While Bush delivered his prepared remarks with confidence and clarity, he was obviously uncomfortable with most of the questions coming from the reporters. “What assurance can you give American people that your intelligence is accurate?” another reporter asked.

“Do you agree with the national intelligence report that Iraq is in a state of civil war?” queried a third.

While he answered many of the questions with a simple “yes” or “no,” the president’s responses were mostly evasive, and he often repeated himself to make a point. Even then, his answers remained unclear. The only time he gave a direct answer was when one reporter asked if he had issued the instructions to leak Valerie Plame’s CIA connection to discredit her husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson. “Not gonna talk about it, Peter,” he said, repeating the same line three times when the reporter persisted.