Carl Levin

I don't want the pledges. I want to know whether they've kept their pledges.

Would you let the committee know something that I think we should be on top of?

So the security conditions are difficult enough. That's no excuse for the pledges not being fulfilled, is it?

You're saying you don't know or you've never seen that document before? That's a formal document.

It pretty clearly seems to me, the fact that a commanding general (CG) approves it, as you'll see in that right hand column where it says CG approval, does not eliminate the violation of the Geneva Convention.

I think as Senator Reed has just pointed out, if you look at those rules there--stress positions up to 45 minutes, that's what I assume Senator Reed is referring to, directly stem from the interrogation manual.

I just want to thank the chair.

Did Secretary Wolfowitz get a copy of the notice of this hearing? Because he sure didn't comply with the notice of this hearing in his opening statement.

It's Congress which has said this war's costing $5 billion a month at least more than you have requested.

His statement was not limited to budget numbers. His statement was an argument for the administration's whole position in Iraq.

But you need to understand, you're not talking about balance with Congress here. You're talking about $25 billion for Iraq and for Afghanistan, and you can spend that in any way that you want.

I think that's the definition of a blank check. I can't think of a better definition of a blank check.

There's no reason not to be direct on this issue and to acknowledge what the costs are of this war.

This is just a $25 billion blank check.

You're asking for $25 billion to go anywhere you want.

So when the letter reads, 'should there be a need,' you're already fudging.

In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush told us, 'in 2 weeks I will send you a budget that funds the war.'

We should not wait until sometime during fiscal year 2005 to submit a supplemental budget request, as the administration did last year. Circumstances are different this year.

Today we're meeting to hear testimony on the administration's request for $25 billion to fund the cost of ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the first few months of fiscal year 2005.

Combatting terrorism in the United States and abroad is the imperative of national security.

The al Qaeda leadership structure that we charted after September 11 is seriously damaged, but that the group remains as committed as ever to attacking the U.S. homeland.

If you could submit to us for the record then what assumption you are making relative to the inventory for the out years, it would be helpful.

Okay. Because we now plan to reduce deployed strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012.

The price of gasoline, oil, and jet fuel now are at record highs. It is a drag on the economy.

If there is a small amount of oil being added each day, it is a much bigger proportion of the private inventory than it is of our SPR.