For once, it seems, it isn’t the so-called liberal media getting things wrong when it comes to reporting on the war in Iraq. This morning’s Washington Times published a story about Iranian influence in Iraq that raised the ire of General Petraeus’ spokesman, Colonel Steven Boylan. The Times went too far, Boylan claims, with a lead that said:
Iran’s leaders are no longer supplying weapons or training to Islamic militants in Iraq, the spokesman for the top U.S. commander in Iraq told The Washington Times.
Boylan himself is quoted in the piece as saying:
We are ready to confirm the excellence of the senior Iranian leadership in their pledge to stop the funding, training, equipment and resourcing of the militia special groups…We have seen a downward trend in the signature-type attacks using weapons provided by Iran.
It’s a careful statement that sticks to the point that attacks using Iranian-supplied weapons are down. But that’s it–no assertion that Iran has stopped supplying and supporting groups in Iraq. And therein lies the problem.
After the piece ran, Colonel Boylan exchanged e-mails with Noah Shachtman, a defense technology blogger, complaining that, “The Washington Times didn’t get it right. They made a leap of faith logic that was not discussed between the reporter and me…Here is what I sent to the editor.”
The January 3 article “Iran no longer aids Iraq militants” is inaccurate. We do not know if there has been a decrease in the supply of Iranian weapons. It is not clear if Iran’s leaders stopped supplying weapons or training to extremist elements in Iraq. We hope that they have, but until we can confirm it, we are in the wait and see mode. We have seen a decrease in the attacks using four specific types of Iranian weapons. However, this should not be misunderstood as anything other than lowered levels of attacks using these specific weapons.
Note to The Washington Times: when writing feature stories, it’s generally not a good idea to get ahead of the facts.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.