Missed Iraq briefing irks some Senate Democrats

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Democratic leaders are accusing the Bush administration of mishandling invitations to classified Pentagon briefings about the Iraq war, causing many colleagues to miss the event.

Leaders said invitations were "blast faxed" to publicly listed fax numbers for their Senate offices and many went unnoticed until it was too late to attend the briefings, which were Thursday morning.

An administration official told CNN the "Democratic leadership certainly knew about it early in the week."

Lawmakers who did attend were bused to the briefings, which were closed-circuit teleconferences featuring the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.

Congress is being offered access to top military and diplomatic advisers as the White House pushes hard to buy time for its Iraq strategy.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada doubted the foul-up was intentional. Watch what Crocker told lawmakers about Iraq at a Senate hearing »

Instead, Reid said he thinks the Bush administration was "just desperate to get their message out on Iraq and whoever put this together didn't do a very good job."

According to two administration sources, one at the White House and one at the Pentagon, faxes were sent to all 100 senators and a list of about 100 to 150 House members who sit on relevant committees such as Armed Services and Foreign Affairs.

But the sources couldn't agree on who sent the faxes. The White House source said the Pentagon sent them. The Pentagon source said the White House did.

CNN obtained a copy of a fax sent to Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of the Democratic leadership, which is stamped at the top with the initials of the Legislative Affairs Office in the office of the secretary of defense at the Pentagon.

The fax was sent and received about 5 p.m. last Friday. An aide to Murray said that by the time the fax -- which was labeled "short notice request, please pass to scheduler" -- made it to the senator's scheduler it was too late for her to attend.

Aides to Murray said they typically receive e-mails or phone calls about key briefings like this -- and having them sent to a public fax machine doesn't make sense.

Fifty House members and 40 senators -- evenly split between Democrats and Republicans -- did show up for the classified briefings, a senior defense department official said.

It's not known how many senators didn't attend because their invitations were not received.

But three of the top four Democratic leaders in the Senate said they didn't get their invitations or didn't get them in time.

"No, I didn't receive an invitation," complained Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, who said the notification system from the Pentagon and White House is "usually very good."

"I'm just going to write it off as poor staff work. I'm not going to make it anymore sinister than that," said the Illinois lawmaker. "They should have gotten it right."

The invitation for Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York was later found buried in faxes at the machine reserved for faxes from his constituents and the public, his office said.

Reid only found out about the briefing by calling the White House two days ago, after his staff heard rumors about it, spokesman Jim Manley said.

Several Democrats said they were concerned the White House would blame Democrats for criticizing the war but not showing up to a key briefing.

"We're happy to be briefed but this was a little unusual," Reid said. "I think this was put together very quickly because of the votes on Iraq." He was referring to key Senate votes that were scheduled this week on the war.

Senate Republicans reported no similar problems getting their invitations, although a senior aide acknowledged "there is some confusion about how it was noticed to offices."

On the House side, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said she received her invitation Wednesday but no other problems were apparent. Pelosi did not attend, but requested a briefing in person with Defense Secretary Robert Gates next week. E-mail to a friend

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