Barack Obama’s Senate staff has requested an intelligence briefing on the latest in Iraq and Afghanistan from aides to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as his campaign confirmed he is gearing up for a trip abroad.
Campaign manager David Plouffe said Obama will travel to Iraq as part of a congressional delegation, meaning it will be financed by taxpayer dollars and considered a senatorial fact-finding mission — not a campaign trip.
Plouffe offered no other details about the trip but said the campaign would release them “soon, in the coming days.”
According to the legislative affairs liaison of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this is the first time that Obama has requested a briefing from the Joint Staff on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The meeting has already been rescheduled once since it had to be postponed so Obama could attend a memorial service for late television news host Tim Russert.
Any sitting member of Congress with a security clearance can request a briefing and it is not uncommon, but the request specifically did not come from Obama’s campaign staff, which wouldn’t have been granted the meeting.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff does not get involved in politics, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has previously told FOX News that he will not give any candidate a briefing until one is elected president.
“Not until Senators Obama and McCain officially become the nominees of their respective parties will they be entitled to any different briefings than are provided to any other member of Congress,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morell repeated Wednesday.
The briefer for Obama is to be at the colonel ranking.
Obama has been hounded by opponent John McCain for not having traveled to Iraq since early 2006, before the surge of U.S. troops brought greater stability to the area. A trip would be organized through Central Command and Gen. David Petraeus, the head of Multinational Forces
in Iraq.
Good job barry.....
