Sunday, October 29, 2006

“The level of attacks has gone up, true,” said Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff. “What is the reason for that? Ramadan is one and because of our elections.”

“It would seem that if they can increase the violence, they can increase opposition to the war and have an influence against the president,” Ruff told reporters on Friday, discussing the month’s rising death toll.

But defense officials did not say what information had led them to that conclusion. Ruff said he had not seen intelligence to back it up.

He and others have also declined to say whether the Pentagon expects attacks to decline after the elections in which polls show President George W. Bush’s Republicans may lose control of Congress due in large part to anger over Iraq.

Ruff stopped short of saying insurgents in Iraq or al-Qaida want Democrats to take control of Congress.

The Pentagon is set to announce a new press secretary, Eric Ruff, to help the department do a more effective job at getting out news from Iraq.

One of Ruff’s qualifications? He’s got “good access” to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. That’s a bit of an understatement.

If you remember that far back, in March 2004, Ruff left a hand-drawn map to Rummy’s home on a table at a Starbucks near Dupont Circle in the capital. He also left behind briefing notes on how the administration planned to counter Richard Clarke’s testimony on the lack of evidence linking Saddam Hussein to terrorists.

A nearby resident who found the notes gave them to American Progress, who posted them online sans the map to Rummy’s pad.