Pentagon officials dispute GAO’s conclusions on war’s progress

Stung by the bleak findings of a congressional audit of progress in Iraq, the Pentagon has asked that some of the negative assessments be revised.\nPentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday that after reviewing a draft of the Government Accountability Office report – which has not yet been made public – policy officials “made some factual corrections” and “offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades” assigned by the GAO.\nThe Associated Press has learned that the GAO report was on track to conclude that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks set to judge the Iraqi government’s performance in the political and security arenas haven’t been met.\n“We have provided the GAO with information which we believe will lead them to conclude that a few of the benchmark grades should be upgraded from `not met’ to `met,’” Morrell said. He declined to elaborate or to spell out which of the benchmark grades the Pentagon was disputing.\nIn preparation for an expected decision next month on whether to prolong the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq, President Bush planned Friday to visit the Pentagon to hear the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Joint Chiefs spokesman said.\nMaj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, director of operational planning for the Joint Chiefs, told reporters that this would be the Joint Chiefs’ opportunity to “provide the president with their unvarnished recommendations and their assessment of current operations” – in particular, the situation in Iraq.\nAt the White House, officials argued that the GAO report, which was required by legislation President Bush signed last spring, was unrealistic because it assigned “pass or fail” grades to each benchmark, rather than assessing whether the Iraqis have made progress toward reaching the benchmark goals.\n“A bar was set so high, that it was almost not to be able to be met,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. “On the other hand, one of the things it does not take into account, which is not on the benchmark list, is the cooperation of the Sunni tribes, who have decided to fight back against al-Qaida.”\nThe administration said it agreed that Iraq had not reached the objectives.\n“I think we have said they have not met the benchmarks,” Perino said. “I don’t see how it would be news for them to come out today and say they have not met benchmarks. We have said that.”\nPresident Bush is to give a detailed accounting of the situation in Iraq by Sept. 15.\nThe GAO gave lawmakers’ staffers a classified briefing about its findings Thursday. An unclassified version of the report is due to be released on Tuesday. It comes amid a series of assessments called for in January legislation that authorized Bush’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Iraq, where there is now a total of more than 160,000.