Some 24 hours ago a private and a state run TV station in Baghdad reported Vice President Dick Cheney to be in Baghdad, but there was no further confirmation.
The American Embassy said it could not confirm the visit, but that Cheney could be in the country to visit troops for the Thanksgiving holiday.
A military spokeswoman said that she could not confirm that Cheney was in the city.
Then there was this meeting which might have started before, during or after the car bombs exploded in Sadr city:
[T]op government officials held an emergency meeting at the home of Shia leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim that also was attended by Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi and US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, an aide to al-Hakim said. The officials were believed to be discussing the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.
When did the meeting start? Why was this meeting in a private home? Why did Khalizad attend, but not Prime Minister al-Maliki?
Maliki was around somewhere as another report says:
Baghdad’s airport has been closed, and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki went on TV to appeal for restraint amid the violence.
"We denounce sectarian practices that aim to destroy the unity of the nation," Mr Maliki said.
Why was the airport closed? Sadr city is in the east of Baghdad, while the airport is west of the city.
But then, why bother – we can be sure Cheney was not in Baghdad to meet with al-Hakim, Talabani, al-Hashimi and Khlaizad (but not Maliki). Bloomberg writes:
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t in Iraq, his spokeswoman said, following a report that he was in Baghdad to meet American soldiers on Thanksgiving Day.
"He’s not in Iraq,” Megan McGinn said in a telephone interview. Asked whether Cheney had intended to travel to the country, the spokeswoman said: "No, not to my knowledge.”
and AP later adds
David Almacy, a White House spokesman in Washington, said Cheney was not in Iraq and that his only currently planned travel to the region is the previously announced trip he will make to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meeting the next day with King Abdullah to discuss developments in the Middle East, including Iraq.
Again the timing is not clear as most of these reports do miss timestamps. Mr. Almacy’s statement could also be correct if he made it after Cheney left Iraq – if he was there at all. Note that neither the spokesman nor the spokeswomen say where Cheney actually is or where he might have been at the time of the earlier reports.
But all this is tinfoil stuff anyway. Sorry for wasting your time with this which certainly was just some Frenchman’s misinterpretation:
Earlier today, Agence France-Presse quoted a U.S. military spokesman as saying that Cheney was in the Iraqi capital to visit American personnel. The newswire later withdrew the report, saying that it was based on a misinterpretation of the spokesman’s comments.
I guess the AFP’s writer just did not understand English. In Paris, they do not even understand when you order "french fries" …