Pentagon attempts to restrict troop testimony to Congress
Sun May 20, 2007 at 10:44:52 AM PDT
The Pentagon has placed new restrictions on lower-ranking officers and enlisted personnel being able to testify before Congress.
From an editorial page in the Army Times:
Earlier this month on Capitol Hill, a Pentagon lawyer halted a classified briefing on arguably the most important mission in the war in Iraq — training Iraqi security forces — by invoking a new Defense Department policy banning testimony or briefings by troops in paygrades below O-6 unless their testimony is "deemed appropriate" by senior officials.
The new policy was announced by Robert Wilkie, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in the Pentagon. The original Army Times story has more:
Wilkie’s memo states that only officers in grades O-6 and above, Defense Department "noncareer Senior Executive Service," and presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed employees "deemed appropriate" by the Pentagon may take part in briefings and hearings.
O-5s and below may not take part in hearings, but, if "deemed appropriate," may take part in staff briefings and interviews.
If "deemed appropriate," O-4s and below, and noncommissioned and petty officers "may provide support to briefers and witnesses," but "shall not be asked or required to have their names entered into the record or speak on the record."
Wilkie said Congress is getting what it wants and needs from the Defense Department.
"We’re cooperating," he said. "The record speaks for itself."
The article goes on to say that members of Congress, namely Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo and Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark. intend on fighting it. They shouldn't have to fight it - being that members of the military are citizens of this country, and any citizen of the US has a right to talk to their elected officials. It's obviously another attempt by the Bush administration to weaken Congress's powers.
It is obvious now that the Bush imbedded cronies in the top ranks of the Pentagon are getting worried about lower-level officers and enlisted giving Congress the truth about the realities in the field. This is the way the rebellions started back in the Vietnam War days. Enlisted soldiers and lower ranking officers don’t carry all that ideological baggage that those in the upper ranks do, so they have a tendancy to tell the truth. They might say things like "the Surge isn't working" or that there are too few troops to do the job and the Army is too small. They might ask where the diplomatic part of the surge is. Or they might just say that Iraq is turning into a tactically irresolvable civil war nightmare.
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