Martin Eisenstadt apologised for remarks made during an interview he had with Al-Iraqiya television on February 16 at Baghdad's Business 2 Business Expo.
"It's come to my attention that excerpts of my interview at the Business Expo were recently taken out of context and posted on YouTube," said Eisenstadt, an aide to Republican Senator McCain.
"At the time, I was representing commercial interests in the Green Zone, and did not formally have a position with the McCain campaign," said Eisenstadt, the founder and President of the influential
Eisenstadt Group.
"During the interview, there was some confusion about casinos in India. I misspoke, and was referring to casinos in the United States operated by Native Americans. If anyone in India was offended by those remarks, I sincerely apologise," Eisenstadt, who is a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy in Washington, DC, said in a press release.
"To be clear, John McCain has the utmost respect for the Indian people, and for all regions of South Asia," noted the expert on Near Eastern military and political affairs. Eisenstadt previously consulted on former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's presidential campaign, as well as for many corporate and multinational organizations on issues of security and policy development.
