US senator accuses Pentagon of blocking Qatar base visit

​Democratic ​US Senator ​Chris Murphy on Tuesday said the Pentagon stopped him from visiting <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/2026/01/14/iran-dials-up-war-rhetoric-as-some-us-staff-leave-base-in-qatar/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/2026/01/14/iran-dials-up-war-rhetoric-as-some-us-staff-leave-base-in-qatar/">Al Udeid Air Base</a> in Qatar on his visit to the Middle East, describing it as an attempt to conceal the effects of the Iran war. Al Udeid ​is ⁠the largest US ‌base in the region and has repeatedly been attacked ​by <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/iran" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/iran">Iran</a> during the war launched by the US and Israel in February. “This trip confirmed for me that there is an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort under way to hide the costs of this war and the implications of this war from Congress and the American people,” Mr Murphy told journalists in Riyadh, the second stop on his trip, according to Reuters. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr Murphy also said that the Pentagon 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,” he said. The Connecticut senator has posted several updates on his trip to the Middle East and said he is the first Democrat to visit the region since the war began. Mr Murphy said that while he was in Riyadh, he heard alerts set off by incoming Houthi missiles. “This is now a full-blown regional war – just as every expert predicted if the US attacked Iran,” he posted on X. Mr Murphy said he had visited the US embassy in Riyadh to see damage from a drone attack early in the war. “If the attack had happened during the day, it would have been a mass-casualty event,” he wrote on X. Despite his criticism of the Pentagon, Mr Murphy said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had enabled his visit, including arranging meetings with diplomats. During his trip, he met Qatari ​Emir Sheikh Tamim, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior Gulf officials.