It appears that even Congressman Murtha now realizes that his statements made recently have been over the top and claims in a press release you will not find anywhere except his website and below that his quotes were taken out of context.The publications that printed these statements have subsequently also agreed to print "New York Times style" corrections, meaning that they are all trying to put the so called genie back in the bottle after their loose lip stories and quotes first ring around the Western media and then the Arab press endlessly. But you can rest assured they will not be reprinting the retractions anytime soon on the front page of Al Jazeera's website.
You'd think that Pennsylvania Congressman Murtha has enough to worry about right now with the epic flooding occuring in his homestate than to be worried about things occuring on the national and worldwide stage.
Below is the first part of the so-called explanation:
Congressman John Murtha - Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District - Press Releases: "(Washington D.C.)- (Washington D.C.)- June 27, 2006 – Congressman John Murtha today issued statements on two recent occasions in which he was quoted out of context.
The first is about coverage in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on his appearance in Florida over the weekend.
“I was recently misquoted following a speech I gave at a Veterans forum at the Florida International University Biscayne Campus on June 24, 2006. During the speech, I made a point that our international credibility was suffering, particularly due to our continued military presence in Iraq and that we were perceived as an occupying force. For illustrative purposes, I provided the example of a recent Pew Poll which indicates a greater percentage of people in 10 of 14 foreign countries consider the U.S. in Iraq a danger to world peace than consider Iran or North Korea a danger to world peace.
Dangers to World Peace Table
Murtha added, “It is imperative that these issues be discussed in an open and informative manner. I will continue to insist that this administration face the true realities of its policies with respect to Iraq and insist that they change direction.”
In response to the misquotes, the Sun-Sentinel ran the following correction on Wednesday, June 28“Correction:
"An article in Sunday’s editions misinterpreted a comment from U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., at a town hall meeting in North Miami on Saturday. In his speech, Murtha said U.S. credibility was suffering because of continued U.S. military presence in Iraq, and the perception that the U.S. is an occupying force. Murtha was citing a recent poll, by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, that indicates a greater percentage of people in 10 of 14 foreign countries consider the U.S. in Iraq a greater danger to world peace than any threats posed by Iran or North Korea". see the poll and more
