WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gael Murphy -- the co-founder of all-women anti-war group "Code Pink" who approached the top Pentagon leadership during a recess of testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Friday -- said both men were willing to listen and converse with her.

Murphy told CNN she approached Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace to ask whether the United States was negotiating with insurgents -- or any other group outside the Iraqi government -- in order to expedite a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Both Gates and Pace explained to her that the Pentagon was only working with the Iraqi government to support and move the country forward, Murphy said.

Murphy has traveled to Iraq on four different occasions as part of larger delegations in order to get her own sense of the situation there, she said.