Jim Webb: “an issue I wish to address today relates to a request that Senator Clinton, my colleague from New York, made to the…”

“an issue I wish to address today relates to a request that Senator Clinton, my colleague from New York, made to the Secretary of Defense back in May, asking that appropriate oversight committees in the Congress, particularly the Armed Services Committee on which I serve, as does the Presiding Officer, be given briefings regarding what current contingency plans might exist in the Department of Defense if we do, in fact, begin a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. The Secretary of Defense did not respond to the Senator from New York directly. Instead, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Eric Edelman, wrote her a letter with which she took great umbrage last weekend stating, and I quote from Mr. Edelman's letter, ``that premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon, and Somalia.'' He then said at the end of his letter: It is a longstanding departmental policy that operational plans, including contingency plans, are not released outside of the department. I have great concerns about this letter, having spent 5 years working in the Pentagon and knowing these sorts of letters require coordination among the highest offices inside the Pentagon. I ask that the Secretary of Defense clarify that position of the Department of Defense on the matters that his Under Secretary addressed.”