Obama in Basra, Baghdad. Tape of interview confirms Al-Maliki's support for Obama's plans.

The Democratic nominee is in Iraq today:

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Iraq Monday morning on a fact-finding mission to discuss U.S.-Iraq strategy and American troop levels, issues that have become a cornerstone of debate in the presidential campaign

This trip plays out against the backdrop of the Iraqi prime minister's recent support for Obama's Iraq plans. The Bush administration has worked tirelessly to debunk that idea, but the New York Times listened to the tape -- and confirms what Der Spiegel wrote. Al-Maliki did voice strong support for Obama's timetable:

In Iraq, controversy continued to reverberate between the United States and Iraqi governments over a weekend news report that Mr. Maliki had expressed support for Mr. Obama’s proposal to withdraw American combat troops within 16 months of January. The reported comments came after Mr. Bush agreed on Friday to a “general time horizon” for pulling out troops from Iraq without a specific timeline.

Diplomats from the United States Embassy in Baghdad spoke to Mr. Maliki’s advisers on Saturday, said an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss what he called diplomatic communications. After that, the government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, issued a statement casting doubt on the magazine’s rendering of the interview.

The statement, which was distributed to media organizations by the American military early on Sunday, said Mr. Maliki’s words had been “misunderstood and mistranslated,” but it failed to cite specifics.

“Unfortunately, Der Spiegel was not accurate,” Mr. Dabbagh said Sunday by telephone. “I have the recording of the voice of Mr. Maliki. We even listened to the translation.”

But the interpreter for the interview works for Mr. Maliki’s office, not the magazine. And in an audio recording of Mr. Maliki’s interview that Der Spiegel provided to The New York Times, Mr. Maliki seemed to state a clear affinity for Mr. Obama’s position, bringing it up on his own in an answer to a general question on troop presence.

The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.”

He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.”

The Bush team spends an enormous amount of time and energy playing political games over Iraq. That's been true since the 2002 political campaign centered on the build up to the Iraq war. This episode shows it is still happening.