Posted on 05/03/2007 8:52:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) this week criticized Gen. David Petraeus for not meeting with members of Congress during a recent visit to Washington, D.C., to report on the status of operations in Iraq, but not only did the commander of Multinational Force - Iraq meet with hundreds of lawmakers, he personally briefed Murtha himself.
Murtha told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday, "They bring Petraeus back - purely political move. Petraeus comes back here. He doesn't talk to any of us. He only talks to the news media and so forth trying to sell this program."
But a senior Defense Department official told Cybercast News Service that Petraeus personally briefed Murtha and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an April 24 phone conference that lasted 20-30 minutes.
The following day, Petraeus conducted two 90-minute, top-secret level operations intelligence briefings for representatives and senators.
The first, to which all members of the House of Representatives had been invited, was attended by 250 congressmen, and the second was attended by 86 senators. After brief opening statements at the two briefings, Petraeus spent the remaining time answering questions from the congressmen in attendance.
"These were two of the most widely attended operations intelligence briefings in recent memory," the Pentagon official said.
The official also disputed Murtha's claim that Petraeus' briefings were a "purely political move."
"Members of the military are inherently non-political. Moreover, General Petraeus was unanimously confirmed by this Senate. He is their man, reporting to them on operations in Iraq. There is nothing political about that," the official said.
Attempts to obtain reaction from Murtha's office Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.
Roll Call reported on April 18 that Pelosi had initially declined the Pentagon's request to arrange a meeting for Petraeus with members of the House.
"According to an administration official, Pelosi and Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) initially declined recent requests from the Defense Department to schedule a briefing ... panel aides said they were 'too busy' to schedule a meeting next week, the administration official said. A second attempt to set up a briefing with the Speaker's office was likewise declined," the newspaper reported.
House Minority Leader John Boehner [R-Ohio] criticized Pelosi's reluctance to meet in person with Petraeus.
The Washington Times on April 26 quoted Boehner as saying that Pelosi had met with President Bashar Assad of Syria - designated a state sponsor of terror by the State Department - but that she "somehow can't find the time to meet with the American general in charge of our troops fighting the global war on terror."
A mind is just a terrible thing to waste!
I always thought he was a low life but I’m beginning to believe he is mentally ill.
The short term memory loss, anger, nastiness and paranoia are part of the beginning of Alzheimer’s onset.
That is a tough one, jaz. After much thought and consideration I will vote.....
I think mental illness is the kindest thing we can say about this. Otherwise, he’s a lying b*stard.
I like your bashful style, Justa. You gave it much thought and consideration. :-)
RacerF150 for RULER of the WORLD!!!
I have a list of traitors to add to that including Kennedy,Kerry, Biden, Schumer, Reid, Pelosi, waxman,Rosie O, Soros, pretty much all of hollywood and most of the democrats, code pink, peta, aclu...gee, I guess it’s better I don’t rule the world - or would that just be cleaning up the gene pool.
Actually, I believe he said she can travel 6000 miles to meet with.....
YES it was! What a great turn out they had.
150 in Washington, DC
25 in Richmond, VA
100 or so in Boston, MA
Including women, children, blankets, coolers and buckets!
Has anyone seen numbers for the other locations?
I hate (yes HATE) each and every one of them. If they were in trouble and needed help, I could not be a good Christian. The one thing I try to do is keep as much of my money from their pockets as possible. This includes the newspaper, Hollywood, leftist companies (see Progressive Insurance, Costco) and so on. I'm a firm believer that they can not survive without our money.
The extent of Middle Eastern petro dollars funding Democratic campaigns needs to be exposed, and then the public might understand Pelosi’s visit more clearly.
It is not the first time he has smeared a great general.
IIRC, on one of the Sunday Morning Freak shows last summer he said, why would I believe General Pace? Then continued with some babbling about how he lied all the time.
What prevented Murtha and Pelosi from attending the briefing? They were not barred from it, I believe.
Great post!
Lord help us all!
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