Rep. Michele Bachmann’s statements about Iraq in a podcast interview earlier this month brought calls for clarification this week from bloggers and mainstream media. Bachmann has responded with an opinion piece in today’s Star Tribune:

I said that an agreement had already been made to divide Iraq and create a safe haven for terrorists. Rather, I meant that America’s adversaries are in agreement that a divided Iraq benefits their objective to expel America from the region, resulting in Iraq being a safe haven for terrorists.

It was suggested that I might have revealed classified material. I was referring to publicly available reports out of the Middle East that declared the intent of the Iranian regime and Al-Qaida.

Eric Black at the Star Tribune’s Big Question blog analyzes her statement and asks for more:

Bachmann is no longer claiming, as she did on the previous round, that her Feb. 9 “words had been misconstrued.” Rather, she is acknowledging that she said something different from what she meant.Perhaps it would be too much to push Bachmann to say more about how she came to say something different from what she meant. I give her points for acknowledging that the problem was with her statement, not with those who took it to mean what it plainly said.

But I still hope to talk to Bachmann, and have made a request to do so tonight or tomorrow. My main question at this point, based on the new statement, is this:

The new op-ed goes to some lengths to imply that Iran and Al Qaida are working together to partition Iraq and create the terrorist haven. But she doesn’t say so directly. Does she have evidence of this? Because Iran is the most prominent Shiite state. Al Qaida is strongly linked to Sunnism and treats Shiites as enemies.

Related: Terrorism Expert Comments on Bachmann Iraq Partition Flap