24 July 2003
Rumsfeld Says Photos Were Released to Confirm Death of Hussein Sons
Bremer says additional coalition support would be welcome in Iraq
By Jacqui Porth
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended his decision to release the photographs in Baghdad of the corpses of Uday and Qusay Hussein, saying the Iraqi people deserved to have the confirmation they had been awaiting.
In a July 24 news conference at the Pentagon -- his first since Saddam Hussein's sons were killed in a firefight with U.S. soldiers in Mosul on July 22 -- Rumsfeld said releasing photos of dead, hostile combatants is not customary U.S. practice under normal circumstances. But the secretary said he made the correct decision in this case, emphasizing the importance to the Iraqi people to see for themselves that these two "particularly bad characters" are dead and realize "they're not coming back."
This is not the first time photographs of dead people have circulated in the media, the secretary said, reflecting back on the demise of Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena in 1989. It was not until the Romanian people saw the body of what Rumsfeld described as "another vicious dictator" that they really believed that the threat and the fear generated by the Ceausescu regime was no more.
Rumsfeld expressed the hope that the broad distribution of the color head shots of Saddam Hussein's sons will send "a very clear signal to the Iraqis that the Hussein family is finished and will not be returning to terrorize them again." In addition, the secretary said the message is that "Saddam and his henchmen are finished. They're not coming back" and the Ba'athists have no future.
The secretary said he expects that confirmation of the demise of "these particularly vicious members" of the regime will help bring closure to the Iraqi people, who continue to be frightened of the former regime even though there have been no concrete signs of its ability to resurrect itself. Rumsfeld said he thought that achieving such closure might prompt more Iraqis to step forward with valuable information sought by the coalition.
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Administrator Paul Bremer appeared with Rumsfeld at the Pentagon podium and said the release of the photographs "is fully consistent" with the Geneva Conventions. Ambassador Bremer also pointed out that the new Iraqi National Governing Council wanted a delegation to view the bodies of Uday and Qusay "to assure themselves, and through them the Iraqi people, that these were indeed the sons of Saddam Hussein." Their deaths, he said, should help convince the Iraqis that the Ba'athists are finished and have no future.
Bremer also sought to delineate some of the successes that have been achieved in Iraq since the fall of the Hussein regime. After briefing members of Congress in recent days about the economic, political and security situation in Iraq, he pointed to the recent establishment of the Baghdad City Council and efforts to promote grassroots democracy in towns and cities across the country. He also said the Iraqi Central Bank is now independent, a new currency has been introduced, and he has approved an emergency budget for the rest of the year.
Bremer said he has told Rumsfeld that his motto in Iraq is: "strategic clarity and tactical flexibility." That means, he said, it is important to have a concrete strategy on security, the economy, and political developments, but at the same time to demonstrate the "need to be tactically flexible as the situation evolves on the ground." Without going into detail, the ambassador said the CPA has "very clear benchmarks going out in all of those areas over the next 60, 90, 120 and 360 days."
Addressing the security situation in Iraq, Rumsfeld said some 12,000 individuals were taken into custody in Iraq initially, although many were released because they were low-level foot soldiers. He said between 100 and 200 arrests are being made daily, and, with those and the interrogations that follow, he predicted that the security environment will improve.
On the subject of Iraq's infrastructure, the secretary said the former regime had "so denied investment" in the country's basic infrastructure over time that it is in much worse shape than anyone could have anticipated. Consequently, Rumsfeld said, "it's taken longer ... to get it up to speed than anyone would have hoped."
Bremer was asked about prospective contributions to the coalition from India and other nations. He noted that the international coalition already receives support through a broad effort from 19 countries in Iraq. He also said additional support would be welcome.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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