Democratic senator says Pentagon denied him access to US base in Qatar ‘to hide the costs’ of Iran war

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), says the Pentagon blocked him from a key U.S. military base in Qatar while he traveling in the Middle East, accusing the Trump administration of trying to hide damage caused by the Iran war.

Murphy, who traveled to Doha, Qatar, and later Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of a congressional delegation, said he attempted to visit the Al Udeid Air Base — the largest U.S. base in the region that Iran has repeatedly attacked since the war began in late February.

Prior to the trip, Murphy said he wanted “to see firsthand the impact of the Iran War, the damage it’s caused to our facilities in the region, and how it’s harmed our relationships with partners in the region.”

But after being barred from visiting Al Udeid, Murphy said, “There is an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort underway to hide the costs of this war and the implications of this war from Congress and the American people,” as reported by Reuters .

He also said that the Defense Department refused to set up a briefing for him on the war while he was in the region.

“I’ve never encountered anything like this in my time in the Senate and it’s part of a deliberate campaign of obfuscation that my Republican colleagues in Congress should demand an end to,” Murphy added.

Asked about Murphy’s accusations, a senior Pentagon official told The Hill that the senator’s office was informed prior to his trip to the Middle East that he would not receive Defense Department support to access Al Udeid, pointing to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s March directive on travel restrictions in the region.

“That decision was communicated in advance by the Office of the Secretary of War for Legislative Affairs. The Department applies the Secretary’s guidance evenly,” the official said in a statement.

Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the first Democratic lawmaker to visit the region since the start of the Iran war, made clear that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had helped make the trip possible and arranged meetings with senior Gulf officials.

But the Connecticut senator has called out President Trump for having no clear plan to end the conflict, which now has a price tag of more than $45 billion.

The Pentagon also continues to face scrutiny over its opacity about the mounting toll from the conflict, which has dragged on for more than seven months.

The U.S. military has placed the number of service members who have died in the Middle East since the start of the conflict at 19. Last month, however, The Washington Post reported that there are at least 23 military fatalities.

“[Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth has been hiding the cost of the war, the extent of its damages, and the loss of American life from the public and from Congress,” Murphy said prior to the trip.