17 December 2002
Rumsfeld Says Missile Defense Deployment Will be "Evolutionary"
(Defense Department Report) (700) MISSILE DEFENSE DEPLOYMENT WILL BE "EVOLUTIONARY" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the limited U.S. missile defense deployment announced by President Bush on December 17 will be "evolutionary" and its capabilities will improve over time. The system "very likely will look quite different" when it is finished than it does at the beginning, he told reporters at the Pentagon. "It very likely will have layers. And it very likely will involve a variety of different locations. And it will very likely involve the participation of a number of countries," he said. Rumsfeld stressed that "it's important to start" implementing the system in order to gain knowledge and experience with it "and then add to it over time." Asked if fielding such a system sends a signal to nations like North Korea, Rumsfeld replied "it should." "This capability will be what it is, and it will be fully understood by the world. Other countries will know what we are capable of. To the extent we have a capability, it will have a deterrent effect; you're quite right. [And] to the extent it has a limited capability, it will have a deterrent effect only to that limit." NORTH KOREA MISSILE THREAT HAS GROWN Rumsfeld told a questioner North Korea's ballistic missile capabilities have "evolved and developed" over the past four years, "and the threat is more immediate and of a greater capability." "This administration has, obviously, been working with our friends and allies, in South Korea and Japan particularly, but more recently with Russia and China, on the subject. And the president is determined to find ways, through working with other friends and allies around the world, to put the kind of pressure on North Korea that its behavior conceivably might be moderated," he said. RUMSFELD ON NEWS REPORTS OF DOD COVERT PROPAGANDA Asked about a New York Times report that the Defense Department has discussed using covert propaganda tactics in allied nations, Rumsfeld said many ideas are being discussed within the department to deal with today's different security environment, but "we don't intend to do things that are in any way inconsistent with the laws, or our Constitution, or the principles and values of our country. And the people in this department understand that. And ... any idea like that that comes up, it's going to get pounded ... at so many levels by so many people, and then it's got to go to the Congress ... for support...." Asked if he would support the idea of the Defense Department paying foreign journalists to write good articles about the U.S. or paying people to have pro-U.S. demonstrations, Rumsfeld replied "No, no. No one's ever proposed it. And if someone brought it up, I would suggest that that's not the business of this department." IRAQ MUST ALLOW SCIENTISTS' FAMILIES TO LEAVE Rumsfeld was asked about the safety of the families of Iraqi scientists who are asked to give evidence concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. He replied, "You certainly wouldn't want to take a ... person out and expect he's going to tell you the truth if his family is still back in Iraq. So It think that's well understood. ... And that was an important part of the U.N. resolution. "If I were an Iraqi government official, I would be as worried about that provision as any other provision, because ... if they refuse to allow people to get out with their families, they will have violated that resolution." Asked about comments from some military analysts that war with Iraq "might be a cakewalk, that .. Iraqi forces might fold very quickly," Rumsfeld said "that's, in our view, not the way to look at this situation." He said that the behavior of the Iraqi forces "will depend on a whole series of things [that] we can't predict." If the president were to decide to use force, "it's not knowable in what context that might be. And that would affect ... how the Iraqi forces would behave," he said. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
