Hearing on c-span.org now.
http://biden.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=99D79276-F660-4F03-B321-D8BE1B7E5D19BIDEN: Iraq Hearings to Examine How and When We Begin to Leave Iraq Without Leaving Chaos Behind
April 1, 2008
Washington, DC – During a press conference call with reporters today, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) discussed the current situation in Iraq and outlined the Foreign Relations Committee’s upcoming series of hearings on Iraq taking place over the course of the next two weeks. The full schedule is included below.
“Nearly 15 months ago, in January 2007, President Bush announced the surge of an additional 30,000 U.S. forces into Iraq. Then, when Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus testified before Congress last September, they told us that the surge would start to wind down this spring, at which point they would give the President their recommendations for what should come next,” said Sen. Biden.
“That’s the context for these hearings and for the two basic questions we’ll be asking: (i) what has the surge accomplished; and (ii) where do we go from here, both in terms of U.S. force levels and U.S. policy for succeeding in Iraq?” asked Sen. Biden.
“We have to remember that the purpose of the surge was to create breathing room for a political solution to take hold – that has not happened. We need to hear first-hand from the Administration about their plan to secure a self-sustaining political settlement in Iraq,” said Sen. Biden.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Iraq start on Tuesday, April 1st, with a closed briefing for the Committee from the intelligence community. The community is about to publish a new National Intelligence Estimate for Iraq, so Committee members will be getting their latest assessment of the security, political and economic facts on the ground, as well as the trend lines.
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