Coalition Provisional Authority Operational Briefing
Presenter: Paul Bremer, U.S. Presidential Special Envoy to Iraq
August 23, 2003
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MR. BREMER: This week I mourn the deaths of all those murdered
in the effort to prevent recovery and progress in Iraq.
But let me say this. Those yearning for the return of Ba'athism
will be disappointed, and those seeking the imposition of some
fresh tyranny will fail. They may pull off an operation or two,
or maybe 10, but they will fail. As President Bush said today,
in their malcontent and in their malicious view of the world, no
one is innocent.
There is no denying that, to all appearances, the week that
began with the bombing of the oil pipeline and ended with the
bombing of the U.N. headquarters was a grim one. But beneath the
surface was a swelling tide of good news. In this past week,
Iraqis working for the city of Baghdad repaired the damage from
the attack on the water main in less than 24 hours. Repairs had
been expected to take days.
This past week, work was completed on the rehabilitation of the
Baghdad electrical centers at Al-Harq (sp) and Rusafah (sp) This
past week, work continued on a $5 million restoration at
Rusaniyah (sp) South sewage treatment plant. This past week,
work continued in Kirkuk on the rehabilitation of four public
health clinics serving nearly 95,000 people.
This past week, work continued on a project to bring adequate
irrigation to 35,000 farmers in Wasat province. The same project
is bringing adequate drinking water to 3,000 residents of
Abdullah (sp) Village.
And this past week, the coalition captured Chemical Ali and on
the day of the bombing one of Saddam's vice presidents. We have
now captured or killed 39 of the 55 "Most Wanted" individuals.
These are specific examples from a vast array of positive
developments every day all over Iraq. Throughout Iraq, 1,000
primary schools will be rehabilitated by the coalition in time
for the opening of the school year. As those schools open, the
coalition will distribute 5 million new math and science
textbooks.
Scores of projects like these are not just continuing, they are
accelerating across the country. Let there be no doubt; the
coalition is working full-time with the Iraqi people to
reconstruct Iraq and to bring a better, more hopeful life to all
Iraqis.
Thank you. I'd be glad to take your questions. Yes, sir?
Q: Borju Deregami (sp), CBC. You know, in the past week, I've
spoken to some members of the Iraqi Governing Council, and they
said that they were -- they were critical of the coalition's
efforts to provide security, specifically with regard to the
borders and safeguarding Iraq's borders. And they were saying
that they had warned the Coalition Provisional Authority about
the safeguarding of the borders. Could you comment on that?
MR. BREMER: We agree that the borders to Iraq are difficult to
guard. That is, shall we say, a topographical fact of life. If
you look at the country, we have a lot of desert in the south
and southwest, marshes in the southeast, and a lot of mountains
and deserts elsewhere. When the coalition arrived, there were no
posts on any of the borders. We today have more than 2,500
border police on duty and plans to expand that to 25,000 border
police over the course of the next year. We clearly would like
to have better control over our borders. One of the areas where
we will probably find use for the Iraqi civil defense force that
we are in the process of raising now is in helping us look at
and guard the borders to the country. So we agree that there is
a problem, and we are addressing it.
In the back. Yes, you.
Q: (Name inaudible) -- from the Spanish News Agency. I was
wondering if you could comment on the accusations by Israel that
Syria is involved in the bombing of the truck -- it came from
Syria -- that ended up in the U.N. headquarters. And could you
comment on any security or intelligence relations between Israel
and the U.S. in Iraq? Thank you.
MR. BREMER: I saw a press report about the point you make. The
investigation is really in its early phases now. We're only
several days after the attack. And my experience in working on
terrorism incidents is that it very often takes time, sometimes
weeks, sometimes even longer, to know exactly what happened, and
it's a bit early to speculate on the details involved in this
attack So I wouldn't comment on that or other reports about the
attack.
I would only see this. The Iraqi police are leading a very
vigorous investigation into this incident. I believe the chief
of police addressed you, or some of you, anyway, at a press
conference on Thursday on the status of the investigation. That
investigation goes on. The coalition is offering all possible
assistance to help. I won't comment on any matters involving
intelligence at this point.
I would say this, again from my experience in counterterrorism,
that there are two essential elements to a good
counterterrrorist policy. Good intelligence is at the heart of
it, and that is extremely important. And then you must be
willing to go on on the offensive against the terrorists so that
you kill them before they kill you. But I'm not going to get
into how we are dealing with the intelligence matters at this
time.
Yes, ma'am?
Q: Carol Williams with the Los Angeles Times. This morning, the
Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce meeting -- a number of the
Iraqi businesspeople who were trying to attend that session here
were prevented because of the excessive security -- extensive
security around the facility. Are you in a position where you
have to deploy so many resources to guard the American and
coalition facilities that it's slowing the process of restoring
a normal economy and getting business kick-started, as the
conference was supposed to?
MR. BREMER: I am not familiar with the particular incident
you're talking about. Obviously, we keep our security procedures
under constant review and take what we believe to be appropriate
measures.
But the general answer is no, we have, as I suggested in my
opening comment, on any given day, literally hundreds of
reconstruction projects all around this country going forward.
We have schools, hospitals -- all 240 hospitals are now
operating; 90 percent of the health clinics in this country are
operating. That's due to reconstruction efforts by coalition --
by the coalition, by its civil affairs people, by our AID
contractors, by NGOs who we're working with and by U.N.
specialized agencies. There's been no slow- down in the pace of
those projects that are going forward. We have by now completed
more than 2,000 projects here in the last few months, and we
will continue to do that. It will not slow us down.
I don't know -- I can't answer the specific question about this
one conference. It's regrettable that the conference couldn't go
forward, but it certainly isn't going to slow down our
reconstruction efforts.
Yes, ma'am?
Q: Gina Wilkinson, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A few
days ago, Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi Governing Council said that
the IGC had received information on the 14th of August that
something like a truck bomb attack was planned against a soft
target, such as the United Nations. He said that information was
passed on to U.S. authorities, but he didn't know whether it was
passed on to the U.N. U.N. sources are -- (word inaudible) -- to
have suggested that there was no prior warning about this
attack. Can you say whether this information was passed on, and
if not, why not?
MR. BREMER: Well, I can say it was not passed on. And the INC
has issued a statement correcting that statement. I can't say
why not. You'd have to ask the INC why not. It was not passed on
to us.
Q: Anne Garrels, National Public Radio. There were reports
earlier this week in comments made by the Governing Council that
there was sort of mutual frustration on your side and their side
at lack of progress; there ended up being a certain amount of
finger-pointing. Can you say if you are frustrated with the lack
of actions by the Governing Council, and what measures you would
like to take if so.
MR. BREMER: I try very hard not to finger-point except at press
conferences, Ms. Garrels.
No, I think that the Governing Council and we agree that there
is a -- it is important to accelerate the Iraqi involvement in
the reconstruction of Iraq, and in particular in the security
procedures being taken for Iraq. Today there are more than
50,000 Iraqis already serving in security areas in the defense
of Iraq: in the Iraqi police, the border guards that I mentioned
earlier, in the Facilities Protection Service, which has been
set up to protect fixed sites, and in the new Iraqi army, as
well as the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps which I mentioned earlier.
I believe that the Governing Council has made very clear in the
statement they issued on Wednesday that they encourage Iraqis to
take part in these various processes and encourage Iraqis to
step up and become part of the security forces defending their
country against terrorists and Saddamists.
They have also made clear that they share our frustrations over
the difficulty of restoring essential services to pre-war
levels. I've spoken frequently in this hall before about the
difficulty of restoring power to pre-war levels, which is
really, in many ways, the key essential service. We have a plan
to restore power to pre-war levels by the end of September and
we believe we can do that, assuming we do not have more major
acts of sabotage.
But the sabotage by the ex-regime extremists continues. We had
attacks on some of our power lines again last night. And these
are people who are basically attacking the Iraqi people when
they do this. They are hurting the Iraqi people. When we have
attacks on things like the pipeline, as we had a week ago, and
it costs the Iraqi people $7 million a day, those are attacks
which are hurting the Iraqi people. So it's important, and the
Governing Council pointed this out in its statement, it's
important for the Iraqi people to join with us in this fight to
regain security and to reconstruct the country.
And I think we all feel the frustration that as we move forward,
the saboteurs are continuing to try to undercut. They won't
succeed. As I said earlier, it hasn't stopped literally
thousands of projects from going forward all across the country,
and it won't stop them.
Yes, sir?
Q: If I could just ask, the question was directed more at the
Governing Council's failure to take action and begin to take
over responsibility for issues. And could you comment on that --
MR. BREMER: Sure.
Q: -- and why they are not doing more and what you would like
them to do?
MR. BREMER: Sure. I think it's not correct to say they're not
acting.
Let's review a little history here. The Governing Council was
convened on July 13th. On July 14th, at their very first
meeting, they took two important steps. They established a
commission to examine how they could best set up a tribunal to
try the war criminals or crimes against humanity culprits who
are currently in custody or maybe -- may -- will come in
custody. They established, on a more symbolic basis, August 9th
as a new holiday, a national holiday, the Day of Liberation, and
they abolished the Saddam-inspired holidays.
Since then, they have set up committees to examine economics, to
examine the de-Ba'athification program, to look into a variety
of other economic issues.
They have appointed a preparatory commission to call the
constitutional convention, which had its first meetings on
Monday and Tuesday last week. And that commission has been given
a very short deadline to report back to them by September 15th.
They have announced the -- for the first time in a decade that
the airspace over Iraq is now open to international flights, for
the first time in 12 years. They have announced the intention to
open the Basra airport, and so forth.
Now -- so I think it's -- and they're working hard. I mean, I
spent two hours with them this morning. They are working hard,
considering difficult questions that lie before them and before
the Iraqi people.
I -- they are -- they have been, I think, helpfully active this
week in getting before you, the press, and talking. They --
three of them accompanied me to the U.N. site and issued
statements on Tuesday night. The council itself issued a
statement on Wednesday, and every day since then a small group
from the council has gone down to the U.N. site to see the
progress there.
I think that's important. I think it is very important for the
council to get out and talk to the Iraqi people and to move
around the country, and they are doing that now.
Yes, sir? Yeah, I'll come to you next. Yes, please.
Q: Rashad from Kyodo News of Japan.
MR. BREMER: Yes.
Q: While the Governing Council is the natural political ally in
toppling the regime, they seem not to be involved in military
operations. Why is that, sir?
MR. BREMER: Yes. Well, the security of Iraq remains the primary
responsibility of the coalition and therefore of the coalition
forces.
However, as I said in answer to an earlier question, we have
encouraged and the Governing Council has encouraged Iraqis to
play a broader role in security through the various institutions
I mentioned -- the new Iraqi army, the Civil Defense Corps, the
police, the border police and the Facilities Protective Service.
There are more than 50,000 of them already doing that now.
Yes, ma'am?
Q: Sir, I have two questions. Yes. It's --
MR. BREMER: You always have two.
Q: Two. Two. (Chuckles.) It's -- (in Arabic). (In English.)
Thank you.
MR. BREMER: Well, if the -- did the English-speakers have mikes,
or do I have to repeat the questions? (Pause.) You had mike --
you have -- okay.
If the implication of the first question is that the United --
that in some fashion, the coalition was involved in the bombing,
the answer is it's utter nonsense. It is done by terrorists.
It's part of a global war on terrorism, which was declared on
the United States September 11th two years ago. And it is now,
unfortunately, the case that Iraq has become one of the fields
of battle in this global war.
On the question of housing, I don't have in front of me all of
the lists of projects we've done in the south, but there have
been scores of them -- and so, I can't answer the question
whether we have done programs in housing. But we know that there
is a major problem of housing in this country. Almost no housing
was built anywhere, but particularly in the south, since the
Gulf War. And I have a group now studying the question of what
we can do to make available housing, and possibly to sell
government housing to the people who are living in that housing
as a way to give people a stake in the economy. That, of course,
will not provide new housing. And we are also looking at the
question of new housing. But I don't simply have the facts at my
hands about housing in the south.
Yes, ma'am?
Q: (In Arabic.)
MR. BREMER: I'm just not familiar with the case of suicide that
you're talking about. And are you talking about -- I don't know
what inhumane treatment you're talking about. I'm sorry. I just
didn't understand the context. Are you talking about people who
are prisoners?
Q: (In Arabic.)
MR. BREMER: Well, again, I just don't know anything about the
suicide question. We are in full compliance with our obligations
under the various Geneva and Hague Conventions concerning the
detainees. We are in the process of upgrading the facilities in
which the criminal detainees are held and moving them as fast as
we can out of tents and into hard -- let us say into buildings,
out of tents. We have -- are providing now access for family
members to criminal detainees and also lawyers. So I -- and
again, I just don't know anything about the suicide, so I can't
comment on that part of the question.
Yes, in the back?
Q: Sir, talk in Washington and New York is now focusing on
getting a larger international coalition in here, and I'm
wondering if you could address two issues. How many more troops
do you think would be useful here? And what role could the U.N.
or other international folks play in the CPA? Is there any
opportunity for them to take a larger leadership role there? I
think it's the carrot that many other countries would be looking
for, to be able to have more decision- making power.
MR. BREMER: Well, I don't -- as you regulars know, I don't play
the numbers game on troops. That really is not my area; that's
something for the military. I notice that General Abizaid, in
his press conference on Thursday, said that he felt he had
enough troops here. And the question in New York is not so much
the number of troops, it's whether or not it would be useful to
have troops from some other countries join the 30 countries
which already have troops on the ground. There are 30 countries
already with troops on the ground here now. And I think that
Secretary of State Powell has made clear that it's worth looking
at the question of whether an additional U.N. resolution might
make that more probable, and I think those negotiations are
rather tactical and going on in New York, so I really wouldn't
have much light to shed on the exact state of play other than to
repeat what the secretary of State has said.
On the role of the U.N. and others in the CPA, I have on my
staff already citizens from 25 different countries, in the CPA.
I said already we have soldiers from 30 countries on the ground.
I have citizens from 25 countries already serving on the CPA
staff. And we have 37 countries which have pledged to make
contribution to Iraq's reconstruction, its economic
reconstruction. So this is already a rather substantial
international operation as it is. That's not to say we wouldn't
welcome more nations taking part; we would. But I think it's
important to remember that this is already a very substantial
international operation.
In the back? Yes, sir.
Q: Hi. Jeff Thompson (sp) here, from the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. Mr. Bremer, I think when you were talking in
passing about the sabotaged water main, you said -- you blamed
it on ex-regime extremists, but I noticed that when referring to
the U.N. compound and asked a question about a Syrian truck, you
said that this could take weeks, months, to reach conclusions.
I'm just wondering how you can have such a quick answer as to
who was responsible for the water main, but not one for the U.N.
compound.
MR. BREMER: Well, the attack on the U.N. compound was, to put it
mildly, an order of magnitude more serious than punching a hole
in a five-inch water main, and therefore, one looks at motives
and intentions; and those are much more complicated to sort out
in the case of the U.N. There is, as well, the question of the
technical skills involved in the U.N. operation, which go to a
rather large bomb on a truck, and so forth. It's just a question
of paying attention to the complicated aspect of one of the
attacks and the rather straightforward aspect of the other.
Yes?
Q: Jamie Tarabay from Associated Press. Ambassador, when you
began speaking earlier about the week, it began with a pipeline
explosion and ended with a bombing, and this morning we have
three British soldiers who were killed in Basra. Anyone watching
this from the outside would look at that and think that the
security situation is, in fact, getting worse, even with the
50,000 Iraqis helping in the security area. What is your comment
on that?
MR. BREMER: I've never hidden the fact that we have security
problems in Iraq. But if you look at the incidents, the pattern
of incidents since the end of the war, the vast majority of
incidents involving coalition forces -- involving coalition
forces -- have taken place in a very small area of the country.
It is true that we've had now two incidents in Basra, but those
are the exceptions, not the rule. The vast majority have taken
place in an area roughly between Baghdad and Tikrit, with a few
somewhat north of that.
So, I don't think that you're looking at a new aspect. The
sabotage -- sabotage of the pipeline, the attack on the water
main -- these attacks on the economic infrastructure and on the
Iraqi economy have been going on, really, all along. The only
difference of the attack on the pipeline in the north -- and
this was, as the acting oil minister pointed out in his press
conference here a week ago -- this was the third time that
pipeline had been attacked -- third or fourth time that pipeline
had been attacked since liberation. So, there was not even
really anything particularly new in that attack, other than that
it happened only 24, 48 hours after the pipeline had been
reopened to Turkey.
So, we have an ongoing problem with attacks by regime -- former
regime officials, by people from the intelligence services, on
these economic infrastructure targets. That's been a constant.
And we will surmount that in time, though one should not
underestimate the difficulty of doing that. We have 19,000
kilometers of power lines in this country, and 7,000 kilometers
of pipelines. So, it is not an insignificant job to guard those
areas.
And the answer to that is -- I come back to what I said earlier.
We need good intelligence on who's doing it so that we can go
out and capture them before they attack. A heartening sign in
this regard is the fact that in the last three to four weeks, we
have seen an increase, a rather substantial increase in the
number of Iraqi citizens willing to come and tell us about
people who are conducting these kinds of attacks, which then
allows us to go out and arrest them; and secondly, a rather
important increase in the number of ex- Fedayeen, ex-Ba'athists,
ex-intelligence officials who are actually turning themselves
in, usually to our tactical military forces, sometimes to the
police. So I think gradually, we will see that we will surmount
this, but it's going to take time and it's going to be
difficult.
Yes, ma'am?
Q: Yes, Catherine Philp from The Times of London. Ambassador,
you said that Iraq has become a new battleground in the war on
terror. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that American
occupation here has created a new battleground?
MR. BREMER: No, it would be completely inaccurate because Iraq,
under Saddam Hussein, for 20 years was identified as a state
sponsor of terrorism, correctly, in my view. Since I was
involved in that policy, I understand why that was done. This
was a state which sponsored terrorism. It is no longer a state
which sponsors terrorism. I don't sponsor terrorism, I try to
defeat it.
Q: Sir, Lisa Beherns (sp), CBS. How does having a more
international military force on the ground, not necessarily a
larger one, improve the situation here?
MR. BREMER: It is essentially a political message that other
countries are joining the coalition, joining in the
international effort that the coalition is undertaking to
stabilize and reconstruct Iraq. It's more or less a political
message. It will, of course, depending on which countries come
in and what size they come in, it may allow a rotation of
American forces or other coalition forces; in other words, a
reconfiguration of the overall force posture. But again, the
details of that are something that I would leave to my military
colleagues.
Yes, ma'am?
Q: My colleague wants to ask you about the possibility of the
security guards at the U.N. being involved in the bombing of the
U.N.
And also, I was just wondering, in terms of the Security Council
resolution, if, for instance, say, India decided to contribute
more troops, would it possible that -- I don't know, that -- I
mean right now, the international staff are kind of working
under the American- led and British-led CPA. I mean, would it
possible in the future to see like an Indian civilian
administrator of Iraq?
MR. BREMER: On the discussion, which has been very robust in the
press, about who might have done what at the U.N. compound, let
me just say that it is too early to know. The investigation goes
on. When the Iraqi police reach some conclusions, I'm sure they
will share them, assuming that they can do that without
interfering with the judicial process.
As I look at the attack, my general proposition in looking at
terrorist attacks over the years has been to establish some
hypotheses and to follow those hypotheses until the facts tell
you that hypothesis is no longer valid, and then you try another
one. There are, analytically, three possible hypotheses about
the attack on the U.N. compound. One is that it was done by
members of the former regime for a variety of reasons. Another
is that it was done by foreign terrorists, of which they are
several varieties around. And the third, quite obviously, is
that it was done in some form of cooperation between the two.
As far as I can tell from the facts as I've seen them so far,
all three of these hypotheses are still at least worth pursuing,
based on the facts as we know them. As we proceed down the path,
we may be able to discard one or more of these hypotheses.
Again, my experience in looking at terrorist incidents over the
decades is that this can take time, and you can't rush it. It
can have a lot to do with the luck of the investigators, the
skill of the investigators, whether you get cooperation from
people coming in. I think we just have to wait a bit on that.
On your second question, as I said, the discussions in New York
on the Security Council resolution are at a tactical phase where
it's difficult for me, 8,000 miles away, to comment on what
they're saying.
I believe the discussions that have been -- insofar as I've seen
references to India, it has been a question of whether the
Indians might be willing to provide troops to the coalition,
which is something we would, of course, welcome. But that is now
a matter, I think, that the Indian government has to consider
and will have to consider in the light of whatever comes out in
the resolution, assuming there is an agreed resolution in the
next period of time.
Q: (In Arabic.)
MR. BREMER: On the first question, about Saddam, I've tended to
stay away from making predictions about when we will capture or
kill Saddam, because I think we really don't know, and we won't
know until shortly before the event happens. So I don't find it
very productive to speculate on are we closer or farther away,
how close are we, how many days away, how many weeks. I think
we're going to have to let events determine the answer.
On the question of trials, as I mentioned, one of the very first
things that the Governing Council did was set up a committee to
establish a tribunal to try members of the former regime who may
be captured. And I understand that that committee is working on
the rules and procedures for a tribunal. And I have told them
that whenever they are ready, once they have established the
rules and procedures for that tribunal, the coalition to
prepared to turn over to them those prisoners against whom they
may have charges, to be tried in that tribunal.
So Mr. Majeed would -- if they have charges against him, would
presumably be one of the people that we could turn over. But
that would be up to them -- to decide who they want to ask us to
turn over.
