stage-managing Petraeus
Washington Post - August 16, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081501281.html
An Early Clash Over Iraq Report Specifics at Issue as September Nears By Jonathan Weisman and Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writers
Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has
proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill
next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker
to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush
administration’s progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered
to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.
White House officials did not deny making the proposal in informal
talks with Congress, but they said yesterday that they will not
shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat
there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding
legislation President Bush signed in May. “The administration plans
to follow the requirements of the legislation,” National Security
Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in response to questions
yesterday.
The skirmishing is an indication of the rising anxiety on all sides
in the remaining few weeks before the presentation of what is widely
considered a make-or-break assessment of Bush’s war strategy, and one
that will come amid rising calls for a drawdown of U.S. forces from
Iraq.
With the report due by Sept. 15, officials at the White House, in
Congress and in Baghdad said that no decisions have been made on
where, when or how Petraeus and Crocker will appear before Congress.
Lawmakers from both parties are growing worried that the report –
far from clarifying the United States’ future in Iraq — will only
harden the political battle lines around the war.
White House officials suggested to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that
Petraeus and Crocker would brief lawmakers in a closed session before
the release of the report, congressional aides said. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates would
provide the only public testimony.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-
Del.) told the White House that Bush’s presentation plan was
unacceptable. An aide to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman
Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said that “we are in talks with the
administration and . . . Senator Levin wants an open hearing” with
Petraeus.
Those positions only hardened yesterday with reports that the
document would not be written by the Army general but instead would
come from the White House, with input from Petraeus, Crocker and
other administration officials.
“Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq.
Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told
us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last
throes,” warned House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.).
“That’s all the more reason why they would need to testify,” a senior
Foreign Relations Committee aide said of Petraeus and Crocker. “We
would want them to say whether they stand by all the information in
the report.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was
not cleared to speak to reporters.
The legislation says that Petraeus and Crocker “will be made
available to testify in open and closed sessions before the relevant
committees of the Congress” before the delivery of the report. It
also clearly states that the president “will prepare the report and
submit the report to Congress” after consultation with the
secretaries of state and defense and with the top U.S. military
commander in Iraq and the U.S. ambassador.
But both the White House and Congress have widely described the
assessment as coming from Petraeus. Bush has repeatedly referred to
the general as the one who will be delivering the report in September
and has implored the public and Republicans in Congress to withhold
judgment until then. In an interim assessment last month, the White
House said that significant progress has been shown in fewer than
half of the 18 political and security benchmarks outlined in the
legislation.
Several Republicans have hinted that their support will depend on a
credible presentation by Petraeus, not only of tangible military
progress but of evidence that the Iraqi government is taking real
steps toward ethnic and religious reconciliation. One of them, Sen.
John W. Warner (Va.), left for Iraq last night with Levin for his own
assessment.
Petraeus and Crocker have said repeatedly that they plan to testify
after delivering private assessments to Bush. U.S. military and
diplomatic officials in Baghdad appeared puzzled yesterday when told
that the White House had indicated that the two may not be appearing
in public. They said they will continue to prepare for the testimony
in the absence of instructions from Washington. “If anything, we just
don’t know the dates/times/or the committees that the assessment will
be presented to,” a senior military official in Baghdad said in an e-
mail yesterday.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide said that, ideally, both
Crocker and Petraeus would testify before that panel. The Senate
committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee have also requested
that Rice appear at a separate hearing but have received no response.
A spokeswoman for Levin said that the senator expects at least
Petraeus to testify before the Armed Services Committee but would be
happy to have Crocker as well.
Although the reports from Petraeus and Crocker are the most eagerly
awaited, several other assessments are also required by the May
legislation. The Government Accountability Office is due to report on
Iraqi political reconciliation and reconstruction by Sept. 1. An
independent committee, headed by retired Marine Gen. James Jones, has
been studying the training and capabilities of the Iraqi security
forces and will report to Congress early next month. Marine Gen.
Peter Pace, the outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said that
the chiefs are making their own assessment of the situation in Iraq
and will present it to Bush in the next few weeks.
Speaking to reporters traveling with him in Iraq yesterday, Petraeus
said he is preparing recommendations on troop levels while getting
ready to go to Washington next month. He declined to give specifics.
“We know that the surge has to come to an end,” Petraeus said,
according to the Associated Press. “I think everyone understands
that, by about a year or so from now, we’ve got to be a good bit
smaller than we are right now. The question is how do you do
that . . . so that you can retain the gains we have fought so hard to
achieve and so you can keep going.”
Staff writer Josh White contributed to this report.