WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2020) House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel after an intelligence briefing told reporters many unanswered questions remain over the US drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed members of Congress on the situation with Iran.
"The basic theme of it [the briefing] was the administration essentially saying 'trust us' and that's really what it all boils down to," Engel said after one of the briefings. "I'm not sure who I trust and what I trust when it comes to these issues because we've been told so many different things that really just bother me... there are lots of unanswered questions."
Engel added that he could not disclose details of his concerns with the briefing because it is classified information.
Ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Bob Menendez, also said the briefings failed to answer many key questions.
"I went into this briefing today with some critical questions that I wanted to hear the answers to: the immanency of the threat, the nature of the threat, the intelligence that would lead us to understand that eliminating Soleimani alone would eliminate the threat - and I walk away not only unsatisfied but it draws real concerns... that we do not have the type of information that is critical for members of the US Senate," Menendez said. "They closed the briefing rather quickly. We have more questions than we have answers at the end of the day."
Republican Mike Lee, the Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, called the briefing held in a secure underground bunker the worst one he had seen on a military issue in the nine years of his service in the Senate.
"I had hoped and expected to receive more information outlining the legal factual and moral justification for the attack I was left somewhat unsatisfied on that front. The briefing lasted only 75 minutes and upon that our briefers left," he told reporters. "This however was not the biggest problem."
Lee accused administration officials of discouraging senators from debating the appropriateness of further military intervention against Iran.
"And if you do, you will be emboldening Iran, the implication being that we would be somehow making America less safe by having a debate or a discussion about the appropriateness of further military involvement against the government of Iran," Lee said.
He promised to have a conversation with Trump "to make him aware of what we were told and by whom."
"It is not acceptable for officials within the executive branch of government - I don't care whether they are with the CIA, with the Department of Defense or otherwise - to come in and tell us that we can't debate and discuss the appropriateness of military intervention against Iran," Lee said. "It's un-American, it's un-Constitutional and it's wrong".
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold hearings next week on the US strike that killed Soleimani and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been invited to testify, Engel said. When asked if the panel would subpoena Pompeo if he refused to testify, Engel said it's a "possibility" but no decision has been made.
On Tuesday night, Iran fired missiles at the Ain Al Assad air base and a facility in Erbil in Iraq in revenge for the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani by a US drone strike. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the attacks had been carried out in self-defense and were in line with the UN Charter.
