US senator says he was denied access to damaged military base in Qatar

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on Tuesday that the US Department of War prevented him from visiting a US military base in Qatar, which had been attacked by Iran, in order to conceal the damage. "This trip confirmed for me that 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," Murphy told journalists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which he visited after a stop in Qatar. Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wanted to visit al-Udeid, the headquarters of US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees all US military activity in the Middle East. The base was hit by Iran in retaliation for the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, which started on 28 February. Read more: US senator says he was denied access to damaged military base in Qatar Senator Christopher Murphy speaks to reporters following a Democratic policy luncheon at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on 16 June 2026 (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP)