Omaha, Nebraska The largest known Chuck Hagel archive is located here, at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. But good luck accessing it: Despite intense national focus on the defense secretary nominee’s record, this reporter was shunned from taking a look inside the trove of Hagel’s videos, audio recordings, documents, pictures, and artifacts.
Journalist Bob Woodward reported on Fox News this morning that Democratic senators are calling the White House to see whether Chuck Hagel will withdraw his nomination as secretary of defense:
Two U.S. senators have written a letter to Chuck Hagel to ask the defense secretary nominee to explain his assertion that "the State Department was becoming an adjunct of the Israeli Foreign Ministry." Hagel, the Washington Free Beacon reported yesterday, made the comment in 2007.
The Emergency Committee for Israel releases this statement from Bill Kristol on the Senate's decision to delay the nomination of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense:
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said on the floor this morning that it's "tragic" Republicans are refusing immediately to accept Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense. Some Republicans contend that they need more information on Hagel before voting on his nomination.
In a letter to congressional leaders organized by the Foreign Policy Initiative, national security leaders says, "stop sequestration now." The letter is signed by former senators Norm Coleman and Joe Lieberman, former defense secretary Bob Gates, Bill Kristol, and many others.
At a 2008 event to promote his then-recently published book, Chuck Hagel expresses more concern over Israel's nuclear weapons than Iran's and advocates the U.S. engage with Iran and Syria:
Thomas E. Ricks, who is well-sourced in Democratic national security policy circles, says there's a "50-50" chance Chuck Hagel withdraws from consideration for the secretary of defense job.
Ricks says that Hagel "didn't do well" in his Senate hearing last week, and didn't seem "interested in the job."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified this morning on Capitol Hill that President Barack Obama was absent the night four Americans were murdered in Benghazi on September 11, 2012:
Panetta said, though he did meet with Obama at a 5 o'clock prescheduled gathering, the president left operational details, including knowledge of what resources were available to help the Americans under siege, "up to us."
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