White House asks for closed hearing for Gen. Petraeus

WASHINGTON – Senior congressional aides said Wednesday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration’s progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of State and Defense.

White House officials did not deny making the proposal in informal talks with Congress, but they said Wednesday that they will not shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding legislation President Bush signed in May. “The administration plans to follow the requirements of the legislation,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in response to questions Wednesday.

The skirmishing is an indication of the rising anxiety on all sides in the remaining few weeks before the presentation of what is widely considered a make-or-break assessment of Bush’s war strategy.

With the report due by Sept. 15, officials at the White House, in Congress and in Baghdad said that no decisions have been made on where, when or how Petraeus and Crocker will appear before Congress. Lawmakers from both parties are growing worried that the report – far from clarifying the United States’ future in Iraq – will only harden the political battle lines around the war.

White House officials suggested to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that Petraeus and Crocker would brief lawmakers in a closed session before the release of the report, congressional aides said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates would provide the only public testimony.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., told the White House that Bush’s presentation plan was unacceptable. An aide to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said that “we are in talks with the administration and … Senator Levin wants an open hearing” with Petraeus.

Those positions only hardened Wednesday with reports that the document would not be written by the Army general but instead would come from the White House, with input from Petraeus, Crocker and other administration officials.

“Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq. Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes,” warned House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois.