{"id":1201,"date":"2007-09-09T06:23:07","date_gmt":"2007-09-09T06:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/author-of-secret-iraq-report-declares-iraqi-government-in-collapse\/1201\/"},"modified":"2007-09-09T06:23:07","modified_gmt":"2007-09-09T06:23:07","slug":"author-of-secret-iraq-report-declares-iraqi-government-in-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/author-of-secret-iraq-report-declares-iraqi-government-in-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of secret Iraq report declares Iraqi government &#8216;in collapse&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font size=\"4\"><font size=\"3\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rawstory.com\/news\/2007\/Secret_Congressional_report_declares_Iraqi_government_0906.html\">By John Byrne<\/a><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><strong><font size=\"4\">State Department official says political solution &#8216;hopeless&#8217;<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The confidential version of Congress&#8217; Congressional Research Report on Iraq declares that Iraq&#8217;s government is &#8220;in collapse,&#8221; according to the <em>New York Daily News<\/em>&#8216; James Meek, who first acquired the report.<\/p>\n<p>The report was completed Aug. 15 for the House and Senate, as President Bush geared up for a fresh battle with Congress over his intent to &#8216;stay the course.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rawstory.com\/\"><font color=\"#ff0000\">RAW STORY<\/font><\/a> acquired a copy of the report from the <em>Daily News<\/em>. It can be read <a href=\"http:\/\/rawstory.com\/images\/other\/secretiraqreportrawstory.pdf\">here in the original (PDF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My assessment is that because of the number and breadth of parties boycotting the cabinet, the Iraqi government is in essential collapse,&#8221; Kenneth Katzman, the author of the report, said, according to Meek. &#8220;That argues against any real prospects for political reconciliation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Without a political infrastructure in Iraq, any military progress would be short-lived, he added.<\/p>\n<p>As a whole, the 62-page report is typical of those conducted by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of Congress tasked with investigating topics of interest to members. The report expounds on myriad aspects of Iraq&#8217;s political, economic and security challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Katzman questions the troop surge in the report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would even question the military progress,&#8221; he also declared.<\/p>\n<p>A top diplomat &#8212; who remained unnamed &#8212; told Meek any political solution to the war is now &#8220;hopeless.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would agree with that,&#8221; Katzman said.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is trying to stave off the collapse of his government while fending off rivals at a time when the country has already spun out of control.<\/p>\n<p>The report said al-Maliki&#8217;s government was &#8220;collapsing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read Meek&#8217;s full <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/wn_report\/2007\/09\/06\/2007-09-06_iraq_government_near_collapse_secret_rep.html\">piece here<\/a> or the full report to Congress <a href=\"http:\/\/rawstory.com\/images\/other\/secretiraqreportrawstory.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Byrne State Department official says political solution &#8216;hopeless&#8217; The confidential version of Congress&#8217; Congressional Research Report on Iraq declares that Iraq&#8217;s government is &#8220;in collapse,&#8221; according to the New York Daily News&#8216; James Meek, who first acquired the report. The report was completed Aug. 15 for the House and Senate, as President Bush [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[38],"class_list":{"0":"post-1201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-war-terrorism","7":"tag-iraq"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}