Congress Wants Answers on Bush's Plans for Iraq (LA Times) [View All]

[huckleberry]

hmmm - I wonder if this is a result of the 60 minutes interview?


With anxiety growing back home, lawmakers summon officials to detail efforts to stem the violence and meet a power-transfer deadline.

By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — An increasingly anxious Congress has summoned Bush administration officials to testify this week on their plans for quelling violence in Iraq and for handing power over to Iraqis by June 30.

Three congressional committees have scheduled hearings that Republican lawmakers hope will produce information they need to explain President Bush's Iraq policy to increasingly restive constituents. Democrats say the hearings will provide a forum for criticizing what they say have been the administration's missteps.

snip

"Congress would like to know what is going on, because there hasn't been any sharing," said the aide, who spoke on condition his name not be used. "Time is running out in terms of the transition. If the administration is not prepared, or does not have the planning in place, these hearings will focus the effort to do that. It will be a significant week."

An aide to one of the Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee acknowledged that the administration had enjoyed great latitude and little congressional oversight of its policies in Iraq. But the dynamic has changed, he said, because of the Shiite uprising in Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala, as well as the ongoing attacks on U.S. contractors and troops by Sunni guerrillas and the kidnapping of foreign nationals.


more at
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-congiraq19apr19,1,2678079.story?coll=la-home-headlines