01 May 2002
U.S. Continues to Support Activities of Iraqi National Congress
(Boucher says UN Security Council obligations "rest on Iraq's
shoulders") (2030)
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told the press at the State
Department regular noon briefing on May 1 that the U.S. has
consistently supported the Iraqi National Congress (INC), and
continues to support the INC and Liberty TV programming.
In response to a question about Liberty TV going off the air for lack
of funding, Boucher said the State Department is negotiating a new
grant agreement with the INC.
"That process has been complicated by ongoing problems in the Iraqi
National Congress' financial management practices. Those issues remain
important to us, and we're working with them to resolve the problems
as soon as possible so that we can sign a new grant," Boucher said.
Turning to Iraq's talks at the UN today, Boucher said it is important
to remember the obligations from the Security Council "rest on Iraq's
shoulders."
While Iraq has said it accepts the obligations, it has not fully
complied, Boucher noted.
"So the question is, are the Iraqis coming today to say to the
Secretary-General and to the United Nations and to the world community
that they accept their obligations and are prepared to carry them out
by allowing full, complete, and unconditional inspections? We will
hear what the Iraqis have to say. If they say that, then good; that's
what they promised to do. That's what they should be doing," he said.
Following are the Iraq-related excerpts from the May 1 regular State
Department noon briefing.
(begin excerpt)
QUESTION: A lot of us in the State Department Press Corps today
received a press release from the INC saying that they had been
forced, essentially, because of lack of funding, to shut down Liberty
TV. They say that they weren't able to agree on a budget. Don't you
guys support Liberty TV?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, we do. And, in fact, of the about $15 million of
funding that we provided to date to the Iraqi National Congress,
something like 5 million of that was devoted to support the operations
of Liberty TV. We fully funded that program, including the Liberty TV
part of it, earlier this year. We anticipate providing additional
funding as soon as grant negotiations are successfully concluded. We
have been in the process of negotiating a new grant agreement with the
Iraqi National Congress. That process has been complicated by ongoing
problems in the Iraqi National Congress' financial management
practices. Those issues remain important to us and we are working with
them to resolve the problems as soon as possible so that we can sign a
new grant.
QUESTION: Can I just follow up? Liberty TV has been on for a while
now. What is your assessment so far?
MR. BOUCHER: As I say, we provided $5 million or so.
QUESTION: What do you think? Are they reaching the right people? Are
they broadcasting stuff that --
MR. BOUCHER: Well, I don't think I have an assessment. I'm not sure
how much audience Nielsen kind of work is done in their target
audience area, so I'm not sure how much one can do. They do broadcast
I think something like, what, four hours a day or something like that.
But I don't think I have an assessment of how many people they have
been able to reach that way.
QUESTION: Are you confirming (inaudible)? Is that your understanding?
MR. BOUCHER: You would have to check with the operation, themselves,
over whether they are still operating or not. Tune in to turn them on.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
MR. BOUCHER: The fact is the United States has supported them
consistently. We have been discussing a new grant to provide
additional funds. They say they are out of money. We have been
discussing with them a grant to provide additional funds, but frankly
it has been complicated by the financial management practices that
have continued to bedevil this whole operation.
QUESTION: Is one of the issues where they haven't been able to come up
with paperwork on exactly how that 5 million has been spent?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm not sure whether it's a paperwork issue, but the kind
of responsible accounting for funds that we're looking for, that we
have discussed with them many times needs to be done as well in the
context of the new grant. And we want to provide the money, but these
things have to be worked out responsibly.
QUESTION: Is that the only reason that they are not getting money
right now? Because of the finance?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes. We continue to support the activities of the INC. We
continue to support Liberty TV programming. We are happy to fund it,
but it has to be done under conditions that ensure the appropriate use
of the money.
QUESTION: And it doesn't particularly trouble you at all that they say
they have been forced to go off the air because they don't have enough
money?
MR. BOUCHER: As I said, we have been trying to give them more money,
but we have to work out the grant agreement under responsible
standards.
QUESTION: So it is their fault.
MR. BOUCHER: We have been trying to work this out.
QUESTION: Richard, can you give us a bit more detail about --
sometimes you say we are financing Liberty TV, but do you know when
the last payment was made on this part of the --
MR. BOUCHER: Earlier this year. I think there was a payment either in
March or for March.
QUESTION: Do you know how much that was?
MR. BOUCHER: No. It's something around $400,000 a month that they
need, I think, for the operations.
QUESTION: Could you update us on the conference as well, while you're
on that?
MR. BOUCHER: No sort of detailed update in terms of the who, what,
when and where and how, but we are working with the Iraqi opposition
groups, including the Iraqi National Congress, in their efforts to
make their voices heard. And we will continue to work with the Iraqi
opposition groups that want to work with us on this.
QUESTION: Did you ever explain why you took it away from MEI?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
QUESTION: You did. I guess I was gone.
MR. BOUCHER: We discussed the issue of the useful and helpful role
that the MEI had played in helping us prepare and plan for the
conference, and then we indicated we intended to go forward and do the
rest of the organization by using State Department people and
resources.
QUESTION: You mentioned "we're working with Iraqi opposition groups
and the INC."
MR. BOUCHER: Including the INC.
QUESTION: "Including the INC." So are you saying that the INC is one
of many opposition groups? And the reason I ask is because the INC was
created as an umbrella of numerous opposition groups, and at least as
I understand the reading of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, it was sort
of meant to be the main vehicle for funding all those.
So I just want to understand the State Department's understanding of
that.
MR. BOUCHER: Our understanding is the way the situation is, that they
are an umbrella group that encompasses many of the Iraqi opposition
groups. We have given them a substantial amount of funding, as I said
something like $15 million to date, including $5 million for Liberty
TV. So they are receiving a substantial amount of funding.
There are other activities by opposition groups that may or may not be
associated with the INC. Some of them may be part of it, some are not.
But there are many other activities by opposition groups that we
continue to support, that we continue to fund, whether they are in
this umbrella or outside of it.
QUESTION: If I can just follow up. Are you encouraging these other
Iraqi opposition groups? Because presumably, if you're trying to
effect regime change in a country, you'd want a unified front to join
this umbrella group that includes the INC, the established umbrella
group. Is that part of the discussions?
MR. BOUCHER: We're encouraging all the opposition groups to work with
each other. One of the reasons for having a conference is to get them
together to show who they are and what they can do, and to discuss
with them what they might do and I'm sure they'll discuss with each
other how to organize the overall effort in opposition to the Iraqi
regime.
But the point I think being that to the extent these groups work
together under -- work together period, that's good. But we're not
excluding people because they happen to be under an umbrella or not
under an umbrella.
QUESTION: Richard, I think -- you said we continue to support other
opposition groups, including ones outside the INC. Can you give us --
actually give us examples of funding that you have given to Iraqi
groups --
MR. BOUCHER: A lot of this is out there on the record. I'm not
personally familiar with every little bit of funding that we give. I
think, for example, the people that collect war crimes information in
England, I'm not sure they're part of the INC. There's various groups
like that.
QUESTION: Well, they're more of an NGO than a political front.
MR. BOUCHER: Call them what you will. We provide funding for
activities of groups that are not associated with the government of
Iraq.
QUESTION: But you can't think of any more examples? Perhaps INDICT?
Can you?
MR. BOUCHER: You asked me for one, I gave you one. Now, I'm just not
-- I'll get you a dozen if you need them, but I think it's all out
there.
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. BOUCHER: Or maybe I won't. Maybe we'll -- (laughter) -- no, there
are other groups, and I think anybody who has followed the events over
the course of the spring and noted the various military figures that
have spoken out and others that have spoken out have seen that there
are many groups within this umbrella, and there are people and groups
that are not. That's just the facts of the situation. We're not going
to exclude somebody from funding or support just because they are in
it or not in it. But we provide it our principal support.
QUESTION: But we've never -- apart from INDICT and the INC, we've
never heard of US money going to any other opposition group, as far as
I know.
MR. BOUCHER: I think you probably have, because I remember, but I
don't remember exactly what it was. I'll get you what I can.
QUESTION: Carol Bellamy, the head of UNICEF, is in town today, and she
--
QUESTION: Can we stay on Iraq? Is this on Iraq?
QUESTION: No. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Can we go over to the UN on Iraq? There were talks over
there today on perhaps letting inspectors back in. What's your view of
these talks, and do you realistically see Iraq letting the inspectors
back in?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, that's for Iraq to address, isn't it? It's
important to remember, the obligations from the Security Council rest
on Iraq's shoulders. Iraq has said many times they accepted those
obligations, but in fact they haven't complied fully, completely and
unconditionally with those Security Council resolutions.
So the question is, are the Iraqis coming today to say to the
Secretary General and to the United Nations and to the world community
that they accept their obligations and are prepared to carry them out
by allowing full, complete and unconditional inspections? We will hear
what the Iraqis have to say. If they say that, then good. That's what
they have promised to do, that's what they should be doing.
But we're not holding our breath to hear the Iraqis say finally that
they actually do accept to implement these obligations fully.
QUESTION: Do you see any negotiations to be made in terms of the
conditions under which the inspectors would be back in? Or like last
time, do you expect this conversation to be very short, where -
MR. BOUCHER: Well, we have the same attitude as before. It doesn't
take long to say yes.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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