Pentagon restricting testimony in Congress

[wicket]

Be sure to read the whole article, it's fascinating and highly disturbing. Just another day in the obstructionist 'hood. :eyes:

LINK

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.

Robert L. Wilkie , a former Bush administration national security official who left the White House to become assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs last year, has outlined a half-dozen guidelines that prohibit most officers below the rank of colonel from appearing in hearings, restricting testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by President Bush.

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. 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 would not affect congressional subpoenas, which can compel anyone to appear before lawmakers. As a result, several lawmakers have pledged privately to use that power if the Pentagon's guidelines stymie their efforts to get information from specific sectors of the military.

Wilkie declined to be interviewed for this story, but a Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the guidelines are new. "The memo was a way to establish guidelines on how junior officers and the enlisted be contacted on their participation in the aforementioned briefings," Army Lieutenant Colonel Brian Maka said in a statement yesterday.

Even so, 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.

[merh]

1. The only way that Congress would have been made aware of

the new busholini regulation is if career officers not associated with the Pentagon were concerned about it and reported it to them. There are folks that are in the military that resent the hell out of what this admin is doing to it.

The undercurrents of discontent are showing.

[AuntPatsy]

2. They have found out that they can't keep everyone happy and quiet

without making it illegal for those unhappy with what's going on to actually talk about, how blantant can they be and continue to expect the American people not to get up in arms with thier unabashed desire to ensure America becomes nothing more than another dictatorship country.

[Jim__]

3. Where are the screaming headlines about 1 more blatant attempt by ...

the bush admin to keep critical information about the war from both congress and the American people?

[wicket]

4. kick

:kick:

[TahitiNut]

5. It's official. The "professional military" is now opposed to the people's Congress.

They're on the banks of the Rubicon ... prepared to cross.

[wicket]

6. kick

:kick: