Bernie Kerik’s WarWe tried to figure out just what Kerik had been up to during his three-and-a-half months running the Interior Ministry in Iraq before. So, apparently, did the makers of the brutal Iraq documentary No End in Sight. Though Kerik was interviewed for the film, his section was left on the cutting room floor, but it will be included in a forthcoming book by the same name from the filmmaker. In an excerpt run by The New York Post, Kerik says that he was called in to see Defense Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in May of 2003 to discuss policing policies in Iraq. Ten days later, he was on his way to Iraq. He prepared for the job in part by watching A&E documentaries on Saddam Hussein.
Kerik may have been the “eyes and ears of the Oval Office on the ground” in Iraq, but he says he opposed perhaps the most disastrous decision made then, which was to disband the Iraqi military. And he opposed the “momentum” to do the same with the Iraqi police. Good call.
When the interviewer got on the topic of Kerik’s trouble with the law, he was less forthcoming. Asked whether he thought it “raises questions about your judgment and whether it was wise to appoint you,” he said no, then:
Ferguson: “How come so many legal problems?”Kerik: “It’s a political year… Look, I’m not here to talk about my case. I’m here to talk about Iraq, so let’s talk about Iraq.”