Arlen Specter: “all of these letters to Secretary of the Air Force went unanswered. Then, on May 21 of this year, the Air Force had the…”

“all of these letters to Secretary of the Air Force went unanswered. Then, on May 21 of this year, the Air Force had the responsibility of coming to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. I had an opportunity, finally, to ask Secretary Widnall these questions and why there had not been any response to any of these letters of inquiry and the question of General Fogleman on this subject. Finally, subsequent to that meeting, I received a very brief letter from Secretary Widnall, in fact, after I had bumped into her in the hallway on the 7th floor of the Hart Building and said to her, ``Madam Secretary, why don't you at least respond to the letters saying that you can't respond if that is your point because there is an inquiry underway?'' In the context of all the letters which had been written and that conversation, I finally received a letter saying she could not respond, the matter was being reviewed now by the new Secretary of Defense, and that, in due course, a copy of the report would be obtained by Senators. Here we are on July 7, 1997 and still no copy of the report has been made available to this Senator or, to the best of my knowledge, to other Senators, but copies of the report were made available to the news media as it suits the purposes of the Department of the Air Force and the Department of Defense.”