Press Briefing, June 29, 2006
Multi-National Force-Iraq
Wednesday, 28 June 2006
IRAQ OPERATIONAL UPDATE BRIEFING BRIEFER: MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, USA, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ LOCATION: COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, BAGHDAD, IRAQ TIME: 8:00 A.M. EDT DATE: THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2006
GEN. CALDWELL: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
This week marks the second year of Iraqi sovereignty; 731 days in which Iraqis have toiled to shape their future as a free nation; one hundred and four weeks independently pursuing a democratic way of life; 24 months of measured but tangible progress -- a beginning of a new generation of Iraqis forged in strife but strong in will. In the time it takes a child to sit up, talk, walk, laugh, Iraq has established a constitutionally-based permanent democratic government with the votes of over 12 million citizens and the efforts of even more.
In this brief time, Iraq has trained and equipped 268,000 security forces, increased school enrollments by one-third, increased the number of judges almost four-fold, and now provides safe drinking water to almost 3 million more people. Indicative of Iraq's emergency as a free and open society with an eye towards the millennium, Iraq in two years has increased phone cell coverage from about 1.2 million people to 7.4 million people; has gathered Internet subscribers from about 73,000 to over 200,000; and has embraced the free media, growing from 13 TV stations to over 50, from 74 radio stations to over a hundred, and from 150 newspapers to over 260.
Iraqis throughout the nation have contributed. The march continues with each step towards national reconciliation, with each gesture of peace, with each rejection of terror and embrace of freedom.
Today's operational overview will address a few of the efforts from across this country.
First chart, please, and first slide.
The key down here, as you can see, during the last week period that we're using from 21 to 28 June, about 486 operations were conducted by coalition Iraqi security forces at the company level and above. Again, that's about average; slightly about average, really, by about 20 or 30 operations, but about on par. And again, coalition force only operations only about 7 percent, a continual steady decline each time we talk about this, and Iraqi security forces only about 34 percent -- 34.4 percent this past week. And again, the Iraqi security forces continue to conduct more independent operations without the assistance of coalition forces.
What's significant from these -- slide, please -- is what was the result of that. Of that, they found 26 significant weapon caches. They conducted 33 small unit actions -- that's going after particular targets -- very focused operations there. And of that, we seized 587 anti-Iraqi elements, people, operating against the government and killed 64 in the progress.
Clearly, the efforts of the Iraqi security forces and coalition forces continue to seriously disrupt the al Qaeda in Iraq network, recently capturing another key operative, one linked to particularly heinous acts designed to incite sectarian violence and instill terror among the Iraqi civilians.
Chart, please. Slide, please.
Yesterday, Dr. Rubai'e announced the capture of Abu Qadami, a Tunisian foreign fighter who has admitted to having been a participant in the February 22nd bombing of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra and a member of al Qaeda in Iraq. He was captured on May 20th as he and 15 other terrorists attacked peshmergan forces at a checkpoint in Ad Duluiyah, approximately 25 miles north of Baghdad. Although severely wounded during the attack, he was the only survivor to still make it through. He was transported to a nearby coalition force hospital, where he received extensive medical care.
Qadami confirmed that he and Haitham al-Badri, again, another known al Qaeda leader, were heavily involved in the planning of the terrorist attack against the mosque, as we all know, a site considered to be one of the most holiest within the Shi'a Islam. Qadami has stated this divisive attack was executed primarily by foreign terrorists. The attackers include two Iraqis and four Saudi nationals.
Qadami divulged the attack was intended as retaliation for the killing of Sunnis in Baghdad and an attempt to undermine the government of Iraq as being incapable of protecting its citizens. He further stated that the attack was designed to highlight the Shi'a population at the Dome of Ali al-Hadi was religiously insignificant.
Significantly, Qadami admitted to murdering Atwar Bajat, as we all know, a well-known Iraqi news correspondent for Al-Arabiya Television, on the same day of the bombing. He went on to describe how after conducting the bombing that he and al-Badri then went and looked for somebody else to incite violence with, and seeing a television reporter there reporting on the atrocity which had just occurred against the mosque, decided to go ahead and kidnap her and then brutally murder her, too, and her two crewmen that were working with her.
Qadami came to Iraq in November of 2003 and immediately joined an eight-man terrorist team consisting of four foreign fighters and four Iraqis. The group's initial attacks were focused on Iraqi police, resulting in the death of several Iraqi police officers. Qadami and al-Badri became members of the terrorist group Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad in June of 2004. As members of this group, they carried out a series of VBIED attacks, or vehicle-borne improvised explosive attacks, on coalition and Iraqi military patrols. One large such attack resulted in the deaths of 10 Iraqi national guards and the capture of 250. In December of 2004, the Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad joined the al Qaeda terrorist organization, and throughout 2005, the group conducted continuous attacks along with coalition and Iraqi forces using tactics ranging from IEDs to kidnappings as they targeted both coalition and Iraqi forces.
Iraqi and coalition officials have worked very closely through Qadami's recovery period to ensure that he will receive due process through the Iraqi judicial system.
In the last months, during the intensive stream of objectives leading up to the strike on Zarqawi and subsequent to it, coalition-Iraqi forces have killed or captured several key foreign fighter facilitators responsible for perpetrating violence on innocent Iraqi civilians. Abu Yazid, who we know is a foreign fighter, facilitator and operational planner; Nazir Isar (sp) and Abu Talban (sp), and then Abu Abdullah, a foreign fighter tied to Sheikh Maonsur, who operated out of the northwest section of Baghdad; and, of course, Qadami, who is one of the perpetrators of the attack on the mosque.
In this month alone Iraqi security forces and coalition forces have killed or captured in the month of June 57 foreign fighters. We continue day in and day out to disrupt the network and will not cease. It continues to be a primary focus of ours. Iraqi and coalition forces are working side by side to eliminate these foreign terrorists who attempt to hijack the development and building of a stable and peaceful Iraq.
Remove the chart, please?
Last week in the vicinity of Mosul coalition forces from the 173rd Stryker Brigade discovered a large weapon cache, detained nine suspected insurgents, and freed a kidnapped victim in the course of one afternoon, all precipitated by a single round being fired by some anti-Iraqi forces onto Mosul airfield. The following insurgent video, which I'm about to show you here, was actually captured at the site when we detained what turned out to be five Syrian foreign fighters of the nine right after they fired that round and we followed them to a location.
If you would, go ahead and play the video that was captured that was taken by the insurgents, obviously for propaganda purposes.
This is them there, setting up their mortar, and that's it firing there. Obviously intended to have been portrayed on one of their internets (sic), but it is one of the many items that were picked up. If I could, I'm just going to sort of talk you through this operation.
I think the significance of this, when you watch it, a single round was fired at the military forces up there. They've picked it up with radar. They had the ability to counter-fire immediately on it, and the decision was made by the commander who was on duty at that time not to counter-fire it, but to see if they could pick it up with their unmanned aerial vehicle which was working over the city at that time. They were unable -- in fact, able to do that, and so the decision was made, do not counter-fire back and try to destroy the mortar, but let's try to go instead, since it's in the city and we could inflict collateral damage, to see if can't instead capture or kill those who were responsible for that.
And what you have is from where the mortar was downtown right here, the UAV that was flying over here picked it up, and they noticed that the anti-Iraqi elements were using two vehicles, which, right after firing the mortar, they loaded up, one in a pickup truck and one inside a car. So they had a pickup truck and a car that took off and went in two separate and distinct directions. There happened to be a patrol downtown which already was there from the coalition forces which was re-directed to move to the site where the mortar had just fired. Again, having the precise coordinates because the radar system was working, they were able to pass the GPS coordinates to the ground element using this blue force tracker which had GPS coordinates inside of it and they could fix them and immediately locate the location precisely.
They took off in two directions. At this point, the UAV here picked up and trailed this vehicle. There happened to be close air support in the area. It then picked up and started trailing the other vehicle.
Next slide, please?
The one that was being tracked by the UAV continued down this road, came down to a location where it parked in a parking lot, and some individuals moved into a building.
The ground forces, which were already in location, followed in pursuit and went in and apprehended four individuals at that time and the vehicle that had been used.
Next slide.
Simultaneous, the close air support aircraft was able to track this video -- this vehicle that went into a compound here. It was in that compound there that we found the five Syrian foreign fighters at that location that were detained and ultimately a large cache of weapons at that location, too, along with the video that we showed you just a second ago.
Next slide, please. Chart, please.
This is a roll-up of the cache that was in fact found at that location.
Equally more significant and probably the most important thing that turned out for us is, there was a kidnap victim that was being held in that compound. And he was in fact freed at that point.
So out of one single round being fired at the military base and the commander making the decision not to fire back with counterfire, they conducted a military operation which ended up in fact allowing to take all these weapons off the street and, more significantly, not take any casualties by civilians and then in fact find the kidnap victim and free him. And that just occurred here last week up in Mosul.
Slide and chart, please.
I'm going to switch at this point from Mosul to Ramadi and give you a short update on some of the significant activities that have occurred in Ramadi as those operations continue.
As you know, last Saturday night they finished closing off the checkpoints around the city, and military operations have been very focused and deliberate with -- inside the city of Ramadi as we have moved forward, trying to reestablish control, which will allow the Iraqi security forces, both the police and the army, to take back control of the city.
The first thing we did -- we went into the stadium -- it's been a hotbed of activity; we knew that -- the soccer stadium area. And what we ended up finding around that location in itself were four significant weapons caches.
Next slide, please.
This can sort of tell you -- this is the -- looking into the stadium. Here's cache site one and number two right over here. They've already started pulling out some of the weapons that were found at -- there.
If you can -- we'll go ahead and flip through a few of these. Go ahead, please.
It was underneath -- behind bricks that they had laid in that we were able to find these caches. They had just built these makeshift walls and then had the stuff behind them.
Go ahead.
This is what they pulled out of cache one -- a lot of significant IED-making material and weapons.
Next slide.
And these are the weapons systems that they found at cache one. Key here is, you can see they're anti-personnel mines they were using both here and Russian-made anti-personnel mines.
Next slide. Go ahead.
More things found in cache one. Significant here to us was the fact that -- all these base stations with phones -- obviously used in IED execution -- and then more base stations and phones over here.
These are pressure plates that are used for IEDs and then, of course, the command detonating devices to support those.
Next slide.
Again, and it continues on with the rolls of wire that were being utilized. I mean, it was a heavily IED-fabrication location that we were able to find.
Next slide.
And again, what you're seeing here is the TNT stuff that they found in pellet forms.
Next slide, please.
And it continues on.
Next slide.
Cache two location -- that's cache one. There was four caches.
Next slide.
Again, buried back in behind the walls here where they had made makeshift areas.
Go ahead, next slide.
Again, these normally are associated with large IEDs, when we start using them, homemade mortar tubes here.
Next slide.
Again, mortar rounds. And again, a lot of pre-wired base stations here, already set up, already put together, set to be used as IEDs.
Next slide.
And it goes on. (Word inaudible) -- goods, obviously.
Next slide, please. Okay, go ahead.
And you can see some of the techniques they used to build their IED so that it looks like a part of the road as you're driving along, so it doesn't stand out and is not distinguishable. Next slide.
Again, these are the things from just cache one and two -- I think you had a chart on that -- yeah -- that they were able to pull out and find. And you can see the Iraqi security forces there that have pulled this stuff out.
Next slide, please.
They also found buried in site three underneath the ground is where they started finding a lot of the small anti-personnel mines and other -- well, I'll show you here.
Next slide.
Found some rockets, weapon components, various weapon parts.
Next slide.
And these are the anti-tank mines that they found down in this one. You can see one of the tank mines still in there.
Next slide. Next slide.
Okay, here now is where we started picking up and finding things that obviously they were using for -- they'd use with stolen vehicles and other things of that nature.
Next slide.
And again, ordnance from just one through four, all four caches.
Next slide.
The TNT and anti-tank mines.
Next slide. And I think we have a roll-up chart going. You all have a chart there for that cache roll-up.
All right.
But as you look through it, you can see a very significant find by Iraqi security forces and coalition forces as they commenced operations inside of Ramadi, removing from the ability for insurgents to use against the coalition forces and Iraqi security forces a lot of items.
Next slide.
And that's just the rest of it. I think to just wrap up what's been going on in Fallujah, just to put in perspective, at this point we're finding that we do have a continued presence now in the city. That had not been the case prior to this operation. If you go there now, you're going to find Iraqi security forces and coalition forces maintaining a presence in the city. You're going to see that we've got stores opening back up again. There's a lot more pedestrians out, Iraqi civilians on the streets. They're also finding the fact that the traffic's becoming much more intense than it was before the operation began.
Up to now, security conditions have prevented the functioning of a provisional government. On June 20th, the governor introduced his new staff, and they in fact have moved in and are now -- ability and operating out of the governance center. Much different than a month ago when I had the opportunity to go out there and spend a day out there in Ramadi, and it really was just the governor and one or two of his staff. He now has his full staff in there operating, working out of the governance center.
And then they've continued focusing on civic projects as they're conducting these operations, specifically water, electricity, and cleanup of trash and waste removal.
And in Fallujah, just to the east of there, it's been obviously one of the areas that we've looked upon as a success story that continues improving all the time. We, in fact, find there Iraqi security forces in the lead, providing the security for the Iraqi civilians. A tip came in, and based on the information that was received, a raid was conducted last week in which four terrorists were killed.
Next slide, please. All right.
This was just 18 kilometers north of Fallujah. About 3:45 in the morning, coalition forces conducted this raid. And what was key out of this is the fact that once again we're finding with the foreign fighters lots of suicide vests. There was, in fact, two of them in there, 15-pound suicide vests. Neither was detonated, fortunately, as that puts obviously Iraqi security forces in tremendous harm's way along with coalition forces. But they had the suicide vests, mortar rounds, grenades, a real heavy cache of weapons that was found at that location.
Anyway, by doing that, obviously removing it from the hands of the anti-Iraqi forces, we've in fact continued disrupting, disorganize those networks that are operating out there.
With that, I'll be glad to take any questions that you all have at this point.
MODERATOR: Just a reminder to please state your name, organization and wait for the microphone. Okay, first question here. Ed, we'll go to your question first, then we'll come back. Q Okay. Hi, General. Ed Wong from The New York Times.
I was just wondering, statistically it looks like that there -- in the last couple of months there has been an uptick in the number of coalition casualties or deaths, since April. The trend was that there was a drop, a steady decline, for five months starting last October, and then there's been a recent increase. And I was wondering if you might have any theories for why this might be. Are coalition forces being deployed more in the streets now, or are there more operations, or are insurgents for example targeting coalition forces more than they were before?
GEN. CALDWELL: I have not noticed a significant uptake in casualties. I'd have to go back and look at those numbers for you, but there's -- we're not seeing a significant uptake. What we're seeing is a significant increase in civilian casualties, Iraqi civilian casualties. They account for about all the -- 70 percent of all casualties on a daily basis within Iraq. I mean, they, unfortunately, are the ones who are taking the blunt of this insurgent activity that occurs when these anti-Iraqi elements -- they go out and they normally target innocent civilians. It has not been predominantly against the coalition forces or the Iraqi security forces. Those numbers I want to say have been fairly -- I have to go back and look at it, but there's nothing significant in terms of number changes overall. But I'll go back and look at that for you.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Let me check. I am not sure I have the nationalities of those eight foreign fighters. I don't think I actually have that. We could go back to see if we could get that for you. I don't have it offhand, but we can go back and ask that question for you and see if we can't get that.
On the first question, I think your question was about how many foreign fighters are in the country. We also have numbers that we suspect. Nobody has an exact count. What we do know is that we're continuing to find each month that we're killing or capturing somewhere in the number, as we just talked here, between 60 and 80 foreign fighters. The hopes are, through the border security forces, that we'll see a downturn in the amount of foreign fighters that are able to get into Iraq. By disrupting and disorganizing the al Qaeda network, we're exactly hoping, too, that what we're going to find is we're going to find more of the foreign fighters that are in this country because they're not as well-organized, they're not as well- supplied as they were before. So we're (contributing ?) part of the success for this large number over the last two months, which was not the case in previous months, as directly attributable to the fact that we've been taking down the al Qaeda in Iraq network a lot more, but we're hoping to also decrease the flow into the country through the border forces, which, as you know, are becoming much more capable and manned at this point. We still have about 6,000 more to put out on the -- or the government of Iraq does -- on the borders. But once those are out there, then the border force will be fully in place.
Q Yeah, hi. Jay from AFP.
You said in the second slide that 64 anti-Iraqi forces were killed in June, between June 21st and 28. And then you mentioned that 57 foreign fighters were killed in the month of June. Now, could you just slightly distinguish between these two statistics? I mean, are these 57 part of the 64? And when you say 57 foreign fighters, broadly, where are they from, which nationality?
GEN. CALDWELL: Well, we do know, of the 11 that were captured this month, I can tell you four of them were Syrian and two were from Saudi Arabia, and then we had some onesies from other countries. Those that we have in captivity, probably if we had -- we have, obviously, several hundred in captivity at this point. The greatest number come out of Egypt, then out of Syria, then out of the Sudan, and probably number four -- not probably -- number four is Saudi Arabia. But they're in that order and terms. And then there's obviously many more countries that they're from. But the top four countries where we're finding the foreign fighters are coming out of, the first one is Egypt and Syria is number two, and Sudan is number three -- and Sudan's number three.
Q (Off mike.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Yeah, obviously, we try very hard to identify whenever we have -- we capture or kill someone, if we can identify them as a foreign fighter. We have to have positive proof. We're looking for something that is absolute, and most of the time that's through passport verification or other types of items like that.
So there is a larger number that are anti-Iraqi elements that are killed each month, of which this is a subset of. But it's included in that overall number. But we won't count them as a foreign fighter unless we can unequivocally confirm it and be able to stand up and show why because at one point these people are going to be facing Iraqi civil authorities in court, and when they do we want to be able to ascertain that they were here illegally from another country, not at the request of the government of Iraq. That itself carries a very stiff sentence out of the criminal court of Iraq, Central Criminal Court of Iraq.
Q (Off mike.) Is it possible to know how many -- how many from Egypt right now, foreign fighters, might be under captivity?
GEN. CALDWELL: We do have those numbers exactly. That's how I've got the priority. I'll go ahead and go back and ask if we can declassify that information and make it available to you. I don't think it's any real secret; the government of Iraq knows the number, I mean, and I'll see if we can't release those for you.
Yes, sir.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: I'm not aware of any reports of 300 people being freed here. Do you know where that location was supposed to have been?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: I'm not aware of any reports of that having occurred in the last two or three days.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: In the Zarqawi case, when we identified him being in that safehouse, our assumption was that was going to be a heavily fortified and guarded location, and that for us to have brought Iraqi security forces or coalition forces to that location, first of all, would have taken some time, and he could have left, but secondly and just as important, too, is the fact that they were very concerned about a lot of coalition forces and Iraqi security forces being taken casualty attempting to get him because clearly he would not surrender. I don't think anybody thought for a moment that had we tried to surround the house -- which we didn't have forces to do to start with, but if we did -- that he would have surrendered willingly at that point. So the decision was made to go ahead and strike it using air assets.
In this other case, it was a single rocket that had been fired by somebody from in town at the airbase. Clearly, at that point, they could have done a counterfire mission. We weren't taking continual rocket fire; a single shot was fired. There was not follow-on. They had an exact location. They quickly checked and identified that we had forces literally right at that location, too. We had an unmanned aerial vehicle flying overhead. And when we have those kind of assets already in place at the exact location where some anti-Iraqi element has just conducted a(n) indirect-fire mission, then we would much rather prefer to go in and try to detain them and capture them and exploit information from them than to just go ahead and kill them.
When we found Zarqawi's safehouse, we didn't have any ground forces immediately near there, and there was no way that we could have gotten there to that location very quickly. So it was a much different situation that we were dealing with. Plus, here clearly who was ever firing those mortar rounds were not the number one person that we were hunting in Iraq and probably the number one operational terrorist in the world. So a very different kind of person you were going after, too. We absolutely wanted to ensure that we got Zarqawi without any -- we just absolutely wanted to ensure we got him.
Q Are you have -- Afir Adel (ph), Radio Sawa.
Are you have any information about a new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq?
GEN. CALDWELL: Oh, do we have any more information on him? I can tell you that we're working on that very diligently. He's our number one target. We have a lot of resources committed to finding him, and we'll continue working that one very hard. There is no question, if we can take him down, that will just disrupt the organization beyond -- to a point where it would be ineffective for a long period of time. It is very disorganized right now and it is very disruptive right now. The reason we were able to pick up and track some of these mid-level people that I mentioned in the last few weeks is because they've been having to -- been forced to conduct meetings, to get out and be more visible because their system has been so disrupted. And that has given us the opportunities to find them, track them and go get them.
Q Josh Partlow with The Washington Post.
A lot of the press releases we've been getting in the last couple days from Anbar have just described coalition forces dying and enemy action. I was just wondering if you could describe a little bit about what they're, you know, facing out there? Is this fighting in the streets or are these, you know, raids? Or you know, just like a little bit of description of what they're facing in Ramadi or --
GEN. CALDWELL: Josh, clearly what they're trying to do is conduct very focused operations out there. It's not a Fallujah operation where they're systematically going through the town, but instead they're trying to track and identify those areas that have been used by insurgent elements and they're going into there. And when they do, obviously the insurgents know that the city now has been cordoned off. Although people can come and go freely, the city has been sealed so there's no more insurgents that will have the ability to come in and out of the city, the ability to smuggle weapons in there now has probably been cut off completely too, almost. So they realize when we come to that location, we being the Iraqi security forces and the coalition forces, that it's going to be a fight, and so it has been. But it's been done much more focused, deliberate, minimizing civilian casualties while they've continued doing this, too.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: At this point, the information which they found off the safehouse there where we killed Zarqawi is still being exploited and not something that we would want to talk about still at the moment. Eventually they'll make that kind of information available, but there's still a lot of information being exploited from that particular site that we continue using. So it would be actually inappropriate for me to talk about it right now.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: The prime minister has set the stage as to how everybody's moving forward. He said this is a national reconciliation and dialogue. He wants people to dialogue. It is not a blueprint that is sacrosanct; he has said he's encouraging people to come forward and engage in discussions with each other -- frank, open and honest discussions. And therefore, any group at all that tries to come forward at this point in the discussions I think --
(As an aside.) Is that working? Can't hear me? Do you want me to stop talking? Hey, John (sp), can you check the translation room? You couldn't hear, either. Okay, there is some problem, then. Okay.
Did you hear any at all?
Q No --
GEN. CALDWELL: No? This is a test here. (Chuckles.) All right.
No, what I was saying, I think the prime minister has set the stage for what he wants to have happen in the country here. He has said this is a period of national reconciliation and dialogue. He is asking for people to engage in dialogue. He doesn't want people to start laying down markers right now and precluding anybody from engaging in these discussions. He has come out and provided some additional guidance, which I heard him say yesterday, the day before yesterday, on Tuesday, when he stated that he said those who have killed Iraqis or members of the coalition force, who are here at their invitation, you know, he's not opening up this period for, but otherwise he wants open dialogue and he wants discussion. And there's no particular group that I've heard him mention at this point that he's not willing to engage in discussion with. Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: The multinational force is here to support the government of Iraq, and as we can support them we will do that. Preferably, at any point in time where we can reconcile differences through dialogue, that is always preferable than force. So the coalition forces will help and participate in establishing a dialogue, but ultimately it will be the government of Iraq that makes any final decisions.
Q Hello, General. Two questions.
One is just to slightly go ahead with the reconciliation plan. You know, the last six batches of detainees were released from various detention centers have been kind of linked to the reconciliation plan, as part of that. But if you see, detainee release is nothing new; it's been happening since last one year, two year. Why is it being promulgated as a kind of a part of reconciliation program, even Prime Minister Maliki (must have ?) said it? Is it just to speed up the detainee releases as fast as possible, just to kind of get it at most -- (inaudible) -- whereby things get -- start moving on the peace front? That's the first question.
And two is coming back to Abu Qadami. You say he was captured on May 30, and his announcement of capture was made yesterday by Mowaffak Rubaie. Why did this -- this delay of one month? Is it because during the interrogation you didn't know that he was one of the bombers of the Golden Mosque or some other reasons, like verification of him and stuff like that?
GEN. CALDWELL: I'll start your follow-on question first.
Normally, whenever we -- we being the Iraqi security forces or coalition forces -- detains somebody that turns out they have some intelligence value, we do not normally release the name of that person for some period of time until we have determined that whatever intelligence value we are gaining for them has about peaked. We especially do that when we may have done a strike on a location and killed a terrorist and we don't want to announce it for a couple of days because we are hoping that people will try to find that person, and that we can then observe and watch and pick up things that are going on. So we will hold making an announcement of having killed a particular insurgent for a period of time, too, and that was the case here.
Qadami provided tremendous amounts of intelligence value that, in fact, is being exploited. Al-Badri has been fingered by him as the person who was the mastermind behind the planning and then the execution of bombing the mosque, and then the killing of the three members of the television crew and lots of other killings that have gone on. So that's the reason why, if we're holding the announcement.
Obviously, the government of Iraq could have announced it whenever they wanted. Dr. Rubaie at that point decided that we had probably gleaned all the intelligence -- key intelligence we were going to get at that point, and so went ahead and made the announcement.
Your other question was on the national reconciliation and dialogue?
Q Yeah, just to -- (inaudible) -- the question is that detainee releases have been taking place even before Mr. Maliki announced the plan to release 2,400 detainees. Somehow it is being linked as if it's kind of a part of reconciliation plan when it is -- I think it is not because it's been done over a period of time since last one year, two year, detainees have been released. Is it then a plan to speed up the detainee release as much as possible to kind of create an atmosphere where you can start off with a kind of a peaceful environment to start some kind of dialogues with various parties?
Because most of the detainee releases are apparently of Sunni Arabs.
GEN. CALDWELL: Right, his -- it was the prime minister's decision that we were going to expedite the release of detainees; we were going to expedite the process by which they screen the files, they do the review, and those who no longer need to be held in detention were going to be released.
I think, had the normal process gone -- you're right, there have been detainee releases before, but never of the volume in the short period of time that just has occurred. I have heard the prime minister talking about reconciliation for a while. I believe, once we saw him form his Cabinet, then he was ready to start tackling the issues because clearly that was his -- one of -- it had to be one of his first priorities to get his Cabinet together. But once he did, he really wants this country to establish unity.
There's no question; everything you hear him say is he wants the country to get unity and then security because they really will go hand-in-hand. If he can unify this country -- if he can get the Iraqis all living and working and supporting each other -- then we're going to start establishing security. And with that security will come prosperity to this nation, which has just incredible talents and resources that they can capitalize on.
So the prime minister, I thought, did a wonderful thing in forcing everybody to really do that in a short period of time, to review those files and expedite the process.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Are you talking about the Third Iraqi Brigade? I'd really have to refer you to General Aziz on a question like that. I do not see all the orders that they give to their forces.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: I do not know offhand, but we can go back to our counterparts and ask them if they couldn't provide you an answer to that question so that can eliminate any rumors out there and you get a factually-based response.
MODERATOR: One last question. Q Just a question on the latest news which came yesterday from Russia. Has there been any communication from the Russian Kremlin or anyone in terms of seeking your help to track down the killers of the Russian embassy officials? Because yesterday there was big news coming that President Putin has himself ordered elimination of those killers in Iraq.
GEN. CALDWELL: What I'd say about that, the government of Iraq being a sovereign nation and us being here as their guests, we'd not be the ones to engage with the Russians; it would be the government of Iraq. So I'd really have to refer that to somebody like the national security adviser or somebody within the government structure because that's who the Russians would be dealing with, not with us.
Okay, thank you very much.
END
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