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Hillary Seeks Support in Pentagon Fight

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday enlisted the help of other Democratic senators in her feud with the Pentagon over end-of-war planning in Iraq.

Clinton, the Democratic Party's front-runner, is in a dispute with Pentagon leadership since she sought a briefing on what planning if any they had done for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

In response to her questions, Undersecretary Eric Edelman last week sent her a tough-worded letter saying public discussion of such matters "reinforces enemy propaganda."

Clinton called that charge an outrageous political attack, and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates for an explanation.

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  The New York lawmaker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is drumming up support among fellow Democrats, including 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry. On Monday, she and three other Senate Democrats - Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Jim Webb of Virginia and Evan Bayh of Indiana - asked the chairman of the Armed Services panel to hold a hearing on the subject.

"The need for the committee to know the status of Department of Defense redeployment planning is clear, yet past efforts by individual members to obtain this information were rebuffed," the senators wrote to the chairman, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.

The Democrats also noted that the issue has already been raised by two senior Republicans. Legislation offered by Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana sought to have the Pentagon report to Congress in October on end-of-war planning.

Clinton's very public feud with a senior aide at the Pentagon may boost her standing among anti-war voters and liberal Democrats critical in the Democratic primaries next year. Some anti-war voters are wary of her candidacy because she voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002.

© 2007 Associated Press.

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