Those Afghanistan Hearings (MSNBC FirstRead factcheck)

[Muttocracy]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/26/1455433.aspx

Posted: Friday, September 26, 2008 9:44 PM by Carrie Dann

In July, the McCain campaign unveiled a TV ad making this same claim: "Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan."

That is CORRECT. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs, Obama has never held a hearing on Afghanistan. But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- currently chaired by Joe Biden -- has addressed Afghanistan at the FULL COMMITTEE level. Indeed, in the past couple of years, the full committee has held three hearings on Afghanistan. And Obama has attended ONE of them.

-- January 31, 2008: "Afghanistan: A Plan to Turn the Tide." Obama DID NOT attend

-- March 8, 2007: "Afghanistan: Time for a New Strategy?" Obama DID attend

-- September 21, 2006: "From Coalition to ISAF Command in Afghanistan." Obama DID NOT attend

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee -- of which McCain serves as ranking member -- has held at least seven hearings on Afghanistan in the last two years. And McCain DID NOT attend a single one of them, according to NBC News.

-- March 1, 2007: FULL COMMITTEE - To receive testimony on Afghanistan.

-- June 7, 2007: FULL COMMITTEE - To consider the nomination of Lieutenant General Douglas E. Lute, USA, to be Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan

-- February 6, 2008: FULL COMMITTEE - To receive testimony on the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2009, the Future Years Defense Program, and the Fiscal Year 2009 request for operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

-- February 14, 2008: FULL COMMITTEE - To receive testimony on the strategy in Afghanistan and recent reports by the Afghanistan Study Group and The Atlantic Council of the United States

-- April 2, 2008: READINESS AND MANAGEMENT SUPPORT - To receive testimony on Department of Defense contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan

-- April 10, 2008: FULL COMMITTEE - To receive testimony on the situation in Iraq, progress made by the Government of Iraq in meeting benchmarks and achieving reconciliation, the future U.S. military presence in Iraq, and the situation in Afghanistan.

-- September 23, 2008: FULL COMMITTEE - To receive testimony on the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.