McCain: Cartagena briefing was a "waste of time"

Two veteran senators complained Wednesday that military officials may have been slow to react to an alleged prostitution scandal in Colombia and have not been forthcoming with Congress so far in reporting exactly what happened.

The incident this month before President Barack Obama's trip to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena involved Secret Service and U.S. military members who allegedly consorted with prostitutes.

After their first briefing by military officials on the investigation, Senate Armed Services Committee veterans Carl Levin of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona expressed dissatisfaction Wednesday with the military's response.

"It was a waste of time because they had no information," said McCain, the panel's ranking Republican. "They told us the mechanics of what's happening, but certainly no information about the issue that we and all Americans are concerned about. And that's not behavior, that is whether there was a breach of national security associated with this situation."

Levin, the committee's Democratic chairman, said that some of the military personnel involved violated their curfew but were allowed to stay on the mission, where their role was protecting the president.

"That may have been the right decision, but it nonetheless raises an interesting question as to whether once there was information that six of the 12 that have had some issues raised with them and that are under suspicion - once that information was available up the chain of command, whether that was an appropriate decision to let them continue on the mission, given the seriousness of the mission," he said.

While less critical than McCain, Levin also described the military's briefing as "sketchy."

"They were reluctant to provide the data," he said, noting the investigation is continuing and the officials who provided the briefing "don't have the information ... really in any detail because they're not doing the investigation."

Read more about the investigation here