And the mystery deepens<$NoAd$>.
Last night we reported that the first reports of Bernard Kerik’s departure from Iraq came in an August 25th piece in the Times. But one of our many eagle-eyed TPM readers (two actually, JB and TB) put us on to this August 15th piece on the CPA bubble in Newsweek in which the magazine’s Christopher Dickey wrote …
Yet L. Paul Bremer III, the American pro-consul who is, Iâm told, about to go on vacation, and Bernard Kerik, the former NYC police commissioner who came, who saw, who commented, and is about to go homeâthese guys say things are getting better all the time.
Normally a cover date on a news weekly would be at least several days after the date the thing appeared. But this was a “web exclusive”. So it seems Kerik was putting out word that he was bugging out in the second week of August.
And that is confirmed in an appearance he did on August 11th with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in which there was this exchange …
BARTIROMO: I believe you said when you went to Iraq back in the middle of May that you would be there between three and six months. Still true?
Mr. KERIK: I’m–I’m here three months now. You know, hope–hopefully, within the next three or four weeks, you know, I’ll be able to get back home. I came here with one job in–in mind, and that was to stand up the Minister–Ministry of Interior, to reconstitute the interior. We have identified the two primary deputies. I have the first deputy in mind at this point. We’ve identified the Baghdad chief, the–the chief of operations. Police chiefs all over the country have been identified. I’ve appointed the–the new head of border enforcement and immigrations and customs. So basically, reconstituting the ministry is–is just about finished. Now it is recruiting, training, stand up. That’s going to take–take time. It’ll take between another year–18 months to two years to get it all intact. But for what I came to do, I’m just about there.
BARTIROMO: So when do you think you’ll be able–or the US will be able to turn over security to the Iraqis?
Mr. KERIK: Well, I think it’s not–you know, there’s not going to be a day. There’s not going to be a date. I think it’s a transitionary process. The more Iraqis you stand up, the more you can work on transition and disengagement from the military, but it’s going to be a while before that happens.
As we said last night, he actually said he’d be there for at least six months. So again, what happened?
