Karen’s been to Indonesia where she got an “earful” from Indonesian women, writes Common Dreams.
“Hughes Misreports Iraqi History.” blares the WaPo headline. The subtitle: “Envoy Vastly Overstates Fact in Justifying War to Indonesian Students.”
State Department officials later acknowledged that Hughes, tapped by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to set the record straight on U.S. policies in the Muslim world, had misreported history. […]
The students Friday repeatedly challenged her on all three fronts. But Iraq — and, in particular, unproven U.S. claims about Iraq stockpiling weapons of mass destruction — drew the most ire.
The NYT chimes in with “Bush’s Designated Hitter Strikes Out With Indonesian Students.”
The headline that may raise the most debate: “Hughes to replace Rove?” — from U.S. News & World Report.
You decide! Is America safer with Hughes inside, or outside, the White House bubble?
Meanwhile, her next stops are Aceh and then the predominantly Muslim nation, Malaysia. … more below:
“Karen Hughes, who has faced a rocky road since being named Washington’s public relations chief, answered tough questions Friday about the invasion of Iraq and wrongly stated that Saddam Hussein gassed to death “hundreds of thousands” of his people,” reports The Democratic Daily from an A.P. story, via the Daou Report.
Although the U.S. undersecretary for public diplomacy twice repeated the claim after being challenged by journalists, Gordon Johndroe, a State Department official traveling with Hughes, later called The Associated Press to say she misspoke. (AP)
“Hughes continually caught flack at a public debate in Jakarta over the Bush administration’s rationale for the war in Iraq — Saddam’s alleged weapons of mass destruction,,” continues Democratic Daily. “Attempting to respond to the criticism Hughes responded with standard neocon talking points and inflated numbers…”
