"In a desperate effort to show that the surge is working, the administration has attempted to cook the books by excluding large number of Iraqi causalities from it's estimates..." - Chairman Tom Lantos

The Foreign Affairs Committee is currently holding a hearing, "Iraqi Benchmarks: An Objective Assessment." David M. Walker, head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office as Comptroller General of the United States, is the witness. Chairman Tom Lantos gives opening remarks.

ASSESSMENT: Iraq has fully achieved only three of 18 political and security goals, says a report released Tuesday.

POOR PROGRESS: The Government Accountability Office determined that Iraq has partially met four benchmarks — two more than identified in an earlier draft report — and failed to reach 11.

STRINGENCY: The agency applied a stricter standard than the Bush administration, which determined in July that Iraq had made satisfactory progress toward eight of these goals.