RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Facing allegations the U.S. spied on its Iraqi allies, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday defended the relationship between the two governments as "very open and transparent."
The top U.S. diplomat did not directly confront the assertion, raised in a new book by Bob Woodward, that the Bush administration spied extensively on Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and others in the Baghdad government. She was asked how the U.S. would rebuild trust with Iraq if such spying took place.
"I can say that we have an open and political diplomatic relationship with the Iraqis that is cooperative," Rice told reporters on her trip to North Africa.
"I myself work constantly with Prime Minister Maliki, and we share information," she said. "And it is a very open and transparent relationship, as is befitting friends who have been through as much as we have with the Iraqis."
Woodward's assertion of U.S. surveillance on Iraqi leaders has drawn condemnation from Baghdad and warnings that U.S. ties to Iraq could be in peril.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Friday that, if it happened, the spying reflects "that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way."
The White House has pushed back on key assertions of the book, details of which have been reported head of its scheduled for release Monday. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, has disputed the theme that President Bush was slow to react to escalating violence in Iraq.
But in a two-page statement released Friday, Hadley did not address Woodward's assertion that the administration spied extensively on Iraqi leaders.
White House press secretary Dana Perino has also declined to directly comment on the spying allegations. Like Rice, she has stressed that communications between the U.S. and Iraqi governments are strong and open.
Woodward's book, "The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008," is his fourth one examining Bush's wartime presidency.
It asserts that an internal administration review of the Iraq war in late 2006 was done in secret because the White House was worried it would damage GOP chances in midterm elections. "We've got to do it under the radar screen because the electoral season is so hot," Hadley is quoted as telling Rice in the book.
Hadley countered in his public response this past week, saying the review was done in secret to avoid politicizing the process.
Rice, responding while in Africa, agreed. "I will tell you that I was concerned that in the hot house environment of the fall (of 2006), we needed to have a review that was not going to turn political with headlines every day about what we were thinking or what we were not thinking," Rice said.
She said the manner in which the war review was done was not built around how it would affect the "Republicans' prospects in the Congress." |