US withholding Iraq strategy document from Democratic lawmakers Jason Rhyne

Published: Tuesday November 13, 2007



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Print This Email This The Pentagon has denied repeated requests from Democratic lawmakers to view a key document outlining the chief US strategy to achieve stability in Iraq. Created by General David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, the Joint Campaign Plan details military and diplomatic steps intended to dramatically heighten security in Iraq by 2009. The exact nature of the plan, however, has been withheld from Congress thus far, according to Roll Call's Rachel Van Dongen. "After persistent requests from House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the issue has moved up the Congressional chain of command to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)," Van Dongen writes. "According to an aide, Pelosi asked President Bush for the document several months ago in a White House meeting. Since then, Pelosi's staff has 'repeatedly' requested a copy, her aide said, but has not yet received one." A spokeswoman for the Armed Services Committee told Van Dongen she couldn't be sure if the Pentagon's refusal was motivated by partisan politics. "It's probably always hard on some level to deal with bureaucracies," she said. Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR) told the paper that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had been a "breath of fresh air" at the Pentagon, drastically improving legislators' confidence in the Defense Department. "But Snyder acknowledged frustration at Congress' difficulties obtaining the current version of the plan," Van Dongen noted, adding that specifics in the document have already been leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post. Other government officials, too, have received copies of the strategy, including an official at the Government Accountability Office. "When we hear people from GAO obtained a copy of it when they were in Iraq, you would think Members of Congress would have that opportunity," Snyder told the paper. "It's hard to know if anything is crucial when you don't know what you don't see." Van Dongen adds that her phone calls seeking comment on the matter were bounced around from the Pentagon to the White House legislative affairs office, on to the Multi-National Force in Iraq, and eventually back to the Pentagon again. The Pentagon had no comment. One expert told the paper that both Congress and the Pentagon played a role in keeping their relationship icy. "It's our feeling that there just needs to be a higher level of transparency on the part of the administration," said Rick Barton, co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, "but then there has to be less of a 'gotcha' slam approach on the part of the Congress." As reported in July by the New York Times, the Joint Campaign Plan anticipates "a decline in American forces as the 'surge' in troops runs its course later this year or in early 2008. But it nonetheless assumes continued American involvement to train soldiers, act as partners with Iraqi forces and fight terrorist groups in Iraq..." Read the full article in Roll Call (subscription required).



