Lawmaker says Pentagon uncooperative in probe of Iraq forces
Subcommittee has faced "considerable difficulties" getting information and documents from the Defense Department, chairman says.
House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Martin Meehan, D-Mass., chided the Defense Department Tuesday for failing to cooperate with his ongoing investigation into efforts to organize and train the Iraqi security forces.
The subcommittee, which Democrats created at the start of the 110th Congress, has experienced "considerable difficulties" getting information and documents from the Defense Department, Meehan said in a news release. Meehan, who held a subcommittee hearing Tuesday, said the department has refused to send requested witnesses to testify.
"The refusal of the Department of Defense to grant our requests for witnesses with direct knowledge in this area has been beyond disappointing," Meehan said. "And our inability to get timely and thorough answers to our questions for the record from previous hearings and briefings has also had a detrimental effect on our work."
Meehan had tried to get several high-ranking U.S. military officers in Iraq to testify via video conference, including Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commanding general of the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq, and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps-Iraq. But Pentagon officials refused, a House aide said.
Instead, they sent Peter Velz, from the office of the assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs, and Brig. Gen. Michael Jones, deputy director of Middle East politico-military affairs on the Joint Staff, to testify.
Last month, Pentagon lawyers abruptly blocked mid-level active-duty military officers from speaking on the record during a closed-door Oversight and Investigations subcommittee briefing about their personal experiences working with Iraqi security forces -- a move that drew immediate criticisms from both Republicans and Democrats on the committee.
At the time, a Pentagon spokeswoman said it was department policy not to allow briefings to be recorded. In an interview last month, Meehan left open the possibility of subpoenas. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Todd Akin, R-Mo., said Tuesday he hoped the matter could be resolved diplomatically.