Uh oh. Someone got the BFEE phone call.

[stevedeshazer]

Diplomat regrets calling US 'stupid'

A SENIOR US diplomat has retracted comments he made in an interview with Al-Jazeera in which he said Washington had shown arrogance and stupidity in its dealing with Iraq.

Alberto Fernandez, US State Department director of public diplomacy in the Near Eastern Affairs bureau, said today he realised after reading the interview transcript that he "seriously misspoke" in using the phrase "there has been arrogance and stupidity" by the United States in Iraq.

"This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologise,'' Mr Fernandez said in a statement released by the department.

On Saturday Mr Fernandez gave an interview to Al-Jazeera television in which he said, speaking in Arabic, that "there have been many mistakes in the (US) foreign policy in Iraq".

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20628772-1702,00.html

[knowbody0]

1. and it's ok, he does not really miss

his fingernails.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Ouchie.

This guy was more than spanked, that's for sure.

[kestrel91316]

5. Yeah. He probably got about 5 minutes of waterboarding.

He'll tow the line from now on. They probably told him his wife and kids were next.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

2. Well, at least the story was out there for most of the day.

And the retraction will give it another day's worth of legs- perhaps even more newsworthy, as people discuss why it had to be changed in the first place.

[oustemnow]

8. yeah, especially since the official WH excuse has been refuted

They claimed that something was lost in translation, but watching the news tonight they made a point of saying that they had three translators look at the quote, and it was accurate.

They're screwing up their response to this, like they did to the Foley thing.

[AlCzervik]

3. yup, a trip to te rubber hose room for a little recalibration, thats all

[C_U_L8R]

6. Then who's views are they ???

And why did he say it ???

Did they threaten this poor weasel's family or something???
Did they fly his brother in from Sicily???

[drb]

7. The answer is One Simple Word:

"Waterboarding!"