Iraq History Haunts Bush Nominee
Lawmakers concerned Gen. Norton Schwartz misled them on Iraq war.
July 31, 2008— -- The Bush administration's nominee for Air Force Chief of Staff has hit turbulence in Congress, where lawmakers are concerned the officer may have misled them about key issues in the Iraq war several years ago.
A number of lawmakers from both parties are concerned that in the early days of the war, Air Force Gen. Norton A. Schwartz may have knowingly provided them inaccurate or incomplete information on the invasion and occupation of Iraq when he was in charge of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, congressional sources say.
In particular, sources say in briefings over the past several weeks Republican members of the committee have been presented with "physical evidence" and "eyewitness testimony" that contradict assertions Schwartz made to lawmakers in the early months of the war that the security of Iraqi ammunitions dumps was "not a problem."
In the early days of the Iraq war, munitions from those dumps were reportedly looted by Iraqis; many believe those munitions were later used in attacks on U.S. soldiers.
U.S. government experts believe that explosives stolen from those sites were used in the August 2003 attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed and injured dozens, as well as an attack on the Jordanian Embassy there.
"I don't believe he was truthful. I do believe he had hindered the military's ability to fix this problem," said one person present at the recent briefings, which sources said involved FBI agents and special forces members with direct knowledge of the danger the ammo dumps presented at the time Schwartz allegedly gave his assurances.
Democrats also have concerns with Schwartz's honesty and forthrightness, sources say.
At Schwartz's first public confirmation hearing July 22, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Armed Forces Committee, pressed the nominee on whether he had been "adequately forthcoming" in several classified briefings before that panel in 2003. He did not note the topics discussed in the briefings.
"I did not answer your questions directly. And by definition, that is not sufficiently forthcoming," Schwartz replied. But, he said, he had "grown since that time." Nelson vowed to pursue the matter in a separate closed-door session.
To date the Senate panel has held two additional, closed-door sessions with Schwartz; it has yet to vote on Schwartz's nomination. Separately, the committee reportedly held a closed session Tuesday night on Schwartz, hearing from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
This morning, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich, said he intended postpone action on Schwartz's nomination and those of a few others, but would press his panel to act on 519 other military nominations pending before it.
The Senate committee now says it hopes to vote on Schwartz's nomination later today.