1115.org

The Pentagon has decided on a bold new strategy. Unfortunately, it isn’t a strategy for winning the Iraq War. It’s not even a strategy for bringing about any kind of improvement in the situation in Iraq. It’s a strategy for blocking Congressional investigations into any aspect of the war. It’s a strategy for obstructing oversight.

The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed, according to Defense Department documents.

The guidelines, described in an April 19 memo to the staff director of the House Armed Services Committee, adds that all field-level officers and enlisted personnel must be “deemed appropriate” by the Department of Defense before they can participate in personal briefings for members of Congress or their staffs; in addition, according to the memo, the proceedings must not be recorded.

(Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Robert L.) Wilkie’s memo also stipulated that any officers who are allowed to testify must be accompanied by an official from the administration, such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his top-level aides.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress see the move as a blatant attempt to bog down investigations of the war. But veterans of the legislative process — who say they have never heard of such guidelines before — maintain that the Pentagon has no authority to set such ground rules.
[...]
…the guidelines, a copy of which was provided to the Globe by a Democratic aide, have already set off one highly unusual confrontation between Pentagon lawyers and the newly created House oversight and investigations subcommittee, according to several congressional officials who witnessed the exchange.

At a closed-door hearing a few days after Wilkie’s memo was distributed, Defense Department lawyers sought to apply the guidelines to the testimony of three Army officers — a captain, a major, and a lieutenant colonel — set to testify about their first-hand experience training Iraqi security forces.

A few minutes into the proceedings, a representative from the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel tried to apply the new provisions. Speaking from the audience, he declared that the officers could not participate if the meeting was being recorded for a transcript — a regular practice in congressional hearings.

The panel’s Democratic chairman, Representative Martin Meehan of Lowell, and ranking Republican W. Todd Aken of Missouri both insisted a transcript would be kept and the Pentagon entourage, including the officers, “theatrically stormed out of the room,” said one attendant.
[...]
The memo has fueled complaints that the Bush administration is trying to restrict access to information about the war in Iraq.

The special House oversight panel, according to aides, has written at least 10 letters to the Pentagon since February seeking information and has received only one official reply. Nor has the Pentagon fully complied with repeated requests for all the monthly assessments of Iraqi security forces, reports compiled by US military advisers embedded with Iraqi units.
[...]
David Golove , a New York University law professor who specializes in executive power issues, said there appears to be no legal basis for the Pentagon’s limits on lower-level officers speaking directly to Congress — and lawmakers’ power on this issue supercedes the military’s.

I really have only one question. How come Alberto Gonzales‘ “Justice” Department hasn’t tried to pull this same stunt? Surely they too would dearly love to be able to lay down who in the Justice Department is allowed to “appear before oversight committees or have their remarks transcribed”?