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Press Briefing, July 5, 2006

Multi-National Force-Iraq

Tuesday, 04 July 2006

BRIEFING BY MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN FOR MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ TOPIC: ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS IN IRAQ LOCATION: BAGHDAD, IRAQ TIME: 7:00 A.M. EDT DATE: WEDNESDAY, 2006

GEN. CALDWELL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The first thing I'd like to do this afternoon is take on obviously an item of keen interest to everybody, and that's investigations. So let's address that first, as that topic obviously strikes at the very heart of who we are and our character as coalition forces, topic that calls to account the core values of our force, those being honor, duty, courage, commitment, loyalty and integrity.

In our commitment to be transparent, to inform the public as rapidly and thoroughly as possible when we face a challenge to our core values, we must note that there has been a series of cases and investigations that coalition forces have initiated in the last four months, all of which are being pursued vigorously in their various stages of investigation.

Coalition forces came to Iraq to serve, to uphold human dignity, to protect the rights and freedoms of ordinary Iraqis, and to defend democratic values in a troubled nation. As such we will face every situation honestly, we will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of the facts, and we'll hold our service members accountable if and when found guilty of misconduct in a court of law.

All coalition forces are trained to carry out their duties to the utmost of their ability and integrity. They are expected to fully comply with the law of armed conflict and with the rules of engagement. We take allegations of wrongdoing by coalition forces very seriously and are committed to thoroughly investigating such allegations.

Whenever required, coalition leadership is committed to holding fair and impartial proceedings and full compliance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We remain confident that the military justice system will ensure a fair result.

No matter what the outcomes of the investigation and cases, I would ask us all to remember the selfless dedication of the hundreds of thousands of service members who have served here in Iraq. They have trained, worked, bled and died for our rights and the rights of others.

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines do their utmost each day for the sake of freedom both at home and here abroad. While we must not rush to judgment, we must remember the acts of a few should not outweigh the deeds of the many.

What I'd like to do first here is give you a quick ops overview, and in doing so, I think put a couple of things in perspective. Specifically -- if you could, the first slide. I think everybody knows that Iraqi security forces right now have the lead with vigorous coalition support in search for the parliament member Tayseer Mashhadani. We earnestly hope for her safe return, and that of the others involved in this disturbing event. Sadly, those who would disrupt democracy, who want to uproot law and order in Iraq, resort to measures such as this to impede progress. Along with Iraqi security forces, we will continue to collect intelligence, launch operations, and do everything within our power to ensure her safe return and those that were with her.

During the past week, the number of operations that we conducted in Iraq is slightly down from what we did the week previous, but still within the norm of about what is normal; no real difference there. And you'll continue seeing that Iraqi security force-only operations that are up there at about 34 percent, is about the same. Again, these are Iraqi security forces operating at company-level and above, operating independently from coalition forces' support as they conduct operations throughout Iraq.

You asked me last week how many foreign fighters are we encountering out there as we conduct these operations.

Next slide, please.

To put it in some context, just looking at it over the last six months, today we have 420 foreign fighters in detention. And you can see during the month of June, 11 were detained during operations. The foreign fighter origin for the most that we have come out of Egypt and Syria, each with about 150 or greater, and then Sudan and Saudi Arabia each with about 100 -- just under a hundred. But if that puts it in some perspective for you. You can see it fluctuates each month. It's dependent on operations that we're conducting out there. This does not take into account those that were killed during operations but, rather, just those that were captured, and then the total number currently detained today in Iraq. Next slide, please.

As we talked to the press yesterday, it became very apparent -- everybody was very interested, with the United States celebrating its Fourth of July independence, where we were one year later than where we were at this time last year, and in doing so it became obvious that, if you think through it, tremendous amounts of things have occurred in this past year. We in the United States talked a lot about how we have pursued of life, liberty and happiness. Those same three values is something that we hope for the Iraqis to build and pursue, too, for themselves.

And we look back over this past year, obviously Zarqawi being taken out in June was a huge, uplifting event for a lot of activities that had gone on for many months, and searching for him for really almost two and a half years. But when we also look back, you find that the Iraqis have drafted and ratified their constitution during this past year, they formed a duly elected government representative of all aspects of Iraqi society, they trained and equipped roughly just over 100,000 additional Iraqi security forces and they embarked on a progress of national reconciliation and dialogue. Truly, these are great accomplishments in a very short period of time.

But there still is much to do. The streets of Baghdad and Ramadi are not as safe as they should be. Iraqis still experience less than adequate power to light and cool their homes, less than adequate fuel to drive their cars and run their generators. But most encouraging is the level with which Iraqis are pursuing solutions to these problems on their own as a sovereign nation tending to the needs of their people.

If we look over the last month what's occurred in our efforts here to get at the al Qaeda in Iraq network, I think you see action on various tips, leads and suspects that they were able to pick up through interrogations -- it was a pretty active month. On July (sic/June) 7th was when we took out Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser, Sheik Rahman. In the wake of Zarqawi's death, we saw the organization here in Iraq become very disorganized and very susceptible to further exploitation. We talked about that on June 7th and 8th, Iraqi and coalition supports conducted operations in Baghdad and Baqubah, which resulted in 15 additional al Qaeda suspects being picked up and one being killed. On June 9th -- and again, this is focusing just on the al Qaeda in Iraq network through very detailed, specific intelligence that we conducted during the month of June -- on June 9th was when Iraqi and coalition forces killed four additional ones and detained five more, again in operations in the vicinity of Baqubah.

A detainee captured at a previous location had led us to the safe house there at that one.

On June 12th, coalition forces killed three more, two of whom were foreign fighters, while conducting a raid at Al-Amiriya. Recent intelligence has led troops to a senior al Qaeda in Iraq cell leader with extensive links to foreign terrorists throughout Yusufiya area. That name still has not been released as they continue to exploit that information. Also on June 12th, coalition forces killed one suspected terrorist and detained 23 others in raids north of Ramadi. Then on June 16th, in the area of Yusufiya, just south of there, killed three more and detained two more. Among the dead were Sheikh Mansur, as we all know, who we've discussed previously before here, along with Abu Tariq. On June 19th, coalition forces detained another senior al Qaeda member in the area southwest of Baqubah. During subsequent simultaneous operations, coalition forces killed an additional 15 terrorists in the vicinity just north of Baghdad. And then on June 23rd and 24th, conducted more operations in the vicinity of Fallujah, resulting in an additional six foreign terrorists killed and several captured. And then, on June 28th, coalition forces killed a Saudi Arabian al Qaeda Iraq terrorist and an associate in a raid near Iskandariyah.

Coalition forces continue to conduct these operations. It is a focused effort that we're continuing to make, along with Iraqi security forces, as we continue to go after the al Qaeda in Iraq network. Again, a lot of this is the mid-level leadership that we're taking out as the organization continues to be reeling from what's been going on. What we have seen is that an effort to put the focus back where it needs to be, too, on the new leadership of this organization. On June 30th, the secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, authorized the Rewards for Justice program to offer up to a $5 million reward in order to capture al-Masri, or any information leading to his seizure.

And as you all know, we've talked about it before -- next slide, please -- as we talked about before, al-Masri here, Egyptian national; explosives expert. His speciality is in vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.

As such, knowing that that is his key specialty, I think it would only be prudent for us to expect to see a rise in vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices being utilized throughout Iraq, predominantly here in the Baghdad area, given his specialty and background and training that we've seen that he's used.

And as you all know, on the recent audiotape that was posted on the Internet by Osama bin Laden, he specifically went ahead and identified al-Masri as, as he identifies, the new leader here in Iraq for the al Qaeda in Iraq network. We had already been talking about that previously, but now UBL came out himself and specifically stated that this is the new leader for al Qaeda in Iraq.

Meanwhile, within Baghdad itself, operations continue. We have discussed that before. We'll give you a recap about mid-month this month -- (inaudible) -- 30 days into the operation. At that point we should have some good data that we can talk about and see what the trends are, whether in fact we're being successful in achieving the results that we're trying to, which is adding increased security to Baghdad itself. The numbers still fluctuate each and every day. We track it on a daily basis. We look at each thing.

Based on that, checkpoints continue to be modified, moved around the city. Units within Baghdad itself continue to be moved around. As you know, there's about 51,000 Iraqi security forces and coalition forces operating within the city, of only which about 18 percent are coalition forces. The remainder are Iraqi security forces.

And while things continue to operate in there -- (to staff) -- if you could, next slide, please -- just to take a couple of events that just occurred in this last week, as we continue to watch the Iraqi security forces operating within the city, it's becoming apparent that training, experience and familiarity with the area are starting to pay dividends in their ability to influence actions on the street.

Have we seen a dramatic change yet? No, we haven't. But we're seeing still a steady decline. Is there a dramatic event that can still occur with some kind of vehicle-borne improvised explosive device which targets innocent civilians to cause casualties, as they did this past Saturday? That can still occur. But we're making every effort, along with our Iraqi security forces, to stop that.

This is one of the large IEDs that were found just recently. Key thing here to point out is, information was provided to the Iraqi police by an Iraqi civilian in town. They moved to the area. They had cordoned off what was a vehicle- borne improvised explosive device. As they moved in, the driver in the vehicle detonated it. It didn't fully explode, and consequently, you find half of the front of the truck exploding, the back half not having exploded and some of the material that was found still inside of it, obviously intended to have caused a significant amount of innocent casualties when it had been utilized, did not have the opportunity to be exploded.

Next slide, please.

Again, just the other day -- this is another operation where Iraqi national police, operating on a tip, had -- were moving to a mosque. En route to the mosque, they got ambushed. Three national police vehicles were destroyed. They called in additional elements to assist. Number two there on the chart is where the mosque is located. Number one is where the ambush occurred. They called in some additional support. Coalition forces backed them up with some aerial assets and a quick reaction force.

Next slide.

And they continued on inside and were able to conduct the operation going into the mosque. And what was interesting -- the mosque started broadcasting from inside that there was terrorists inside, to please come get them. Iraqi forces themselves went inside, were able to detain -- as you can see, the number of people they detained total through the operation -- about 16 people were detained as a result of that operation. Again, not doing any damage to any civilians, not doing any damage to the mosque, and actually taking a large cache of weapons. Both of you saw some on this slide and some on the previous slide, and then -- and also responding to the Iraqi citizens themselves.

Again, an Iraqi citizen called for help. The Iraqi national police responded and produced good results in the end.

Next slide.

These are two things that just happened literally in about the last two days -- two kidnapping attempts that were under way in Baghdad that, through the various checkpoints that the Iraqi security forces have set up throughout the city, they were able to stop both the kidnappings. In this one particular case here, the vehicle coming up to a traffic control point is stopped. They start inspecting the vehicle, and they find three Red Crescent members that had been kidnapped, were in this vehicle. They were able to free the three Red Crescent personnel. The two kidnappers attempted to escape, but were picked up shortly thereafter by the Iraqi security forces. It just happened the other day. This is one of the first things you start seeing when you see the positive results of all these different checkpoints operating throughout the city.

Next slide.

This is another one. Just literally hours after this kidnapping attempt was thwarted, there was another kidnapping attempt that they were able to stop. Again, just through a routine traffic control point out there, a vehicle coming up to it, attempts to speed through; as it's getting stopped, a door opens and a person is shoved out.

The Iraqi police start responding to that person while the vehicle gets away. And it was an Iraqi citizen who had been kidnapped, and was able to be treated, released, and returned back to his family -- both within about several hours of each other downtown Baghdad.

Okay, with that, I'll be glad to take whatever questions you all have for today.

Q General, Russ Colvin (ph) from Reuters. Prime Minister Maliki was in Kuwait today, and he said that he wanted a review of immunity of prosecution for coalition forces in Iraq, based on the Mahmudiyah incident and the other cases. I just want your comments on that.

GEN. CALDWELL: Well, what I'll tell you is this; we are here as guests of the Iraqi government. They're a sovereign nation. They're obviously in charge of their nation. And we're going to sit and discuss with them whatever they want to discuss. And when the prime minister gets back, obviously coalition forces will engage with him and carry on whatever discussions he wants to discuss about.

Q Do you think this cascade, though, of cases that have been reported have hurt your -- the military's ties with Iraq civilians, and if so, what would you be doing to rebuild the trust?

GEN. CALDWELL: What I'd tell you is that the actions of a few should not taint the deeds of the many. Clearly, we've got four cases that we're investigating very thoroughly here right now, but they are not at all indicative of the great performance of the men and women that are serving in the armed forces of the United States over here, and those of our coalition partners, as each and every day they put their lives on the line for the Iraqi citizens.

No, I don't think the Iraqi citizens are looking at the coalition forces as people that are trying to hide something. In fact, if anything, we're being open, we're being transparent, we're holding our forces accountable. Under the Saddam regime, if an Iraqi force had come in, a military force, into some place and done something, there was absolutely no accountability and the people did not expect to see any follow-on action taken. Whereas in this case, we have alleged events that have occurred, we're thoroughly investigating them, we're going to be as transparent as we can. We're going to continue to dialogue with the government of Iraq, with the people of Iraq, and make sure that everybody sees the process as it goes through. And if in fact they find that these people in fact committed those crimes, they will be held fully accountable.

Q Kim Gamel, AP. The soldiers suspected in the rape and the slaying investigation are from the same unit that the two soldiers who were missing and found dead were from, in same area. Is there any -- (off mike) -- investigated that this could have been a reprisal attack for the rape and the killing?

GEN. CALDWELL: At this point, Kim, there's nothing at all that we can find that shows there was any correlation whatsoever between the two events. It appears they're very separate and distinct events that occurred, from what we've able to find thus far.

And I say that partially -- as you know, they right now still have in their custody 20 persons of interest that they continue to talk to and nothing has come out of those discussions that would indicate that there was any connection there.

Q And just to follow up, have any of the four soldiers who are being held in Iraq been charged? And is there any sort of time frame on when they will be charged or face charging?

GEN. CALDWELL: I can tell you that the Naval Criminal Investigation Service has fully got the case now. They're pursuing it. And when they tell us they're ready to go forth -- and I'm not sure when that would be -- we don't query them on a regular basis but rather let them take the due process and follow through and take the time they need.

Q General, Bobby Ghosh from Time magazine. Can you talk a little bit to what has been taking place in Mahmudiyah in the last few days? Since Private Green was arrested in the U.S., has the military here been in contact with the survivors of the family, with other members of that family? Has there been any talk of compensation? Are they being taken through the legal process that is going to take place? What sort of communications have you had with that family?

GEN. CALDWELL: Bobby, I'll have to get back to you. Specifically, the last two or three days, we've had ongoing discussions with family members down there. As you know, they've made -- the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is -- would like to get to get the forensic analysis from the scene and from the deceased, if they can, and they've been working that with the families. There has been dialogue ongoing. I just have not tracked it each day, but we'll be glad to get that for you and tell you where we are at this point.

As far as the former member of the United States Army who's now a civilian, as we all know, he has in fact been apprehended by the U.S. attorneys in the United States and -- currently under detention there.

Q General, can you tell us what, if any, sort of review of the leadership of the 101st Brigade that was involved in both the alleged rape/murder, as well as the checkpoint incident that resulted in two soldiers being kidnapped -- is there any review of procedures in that unit? What can you tell us about the investigation beyond those -- the bigger-picture investigation?

GEN. CALDWELL: Obviously, in each one of these cases, we either do an informal or a little more formal 15-6 investigation, looking at all the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the incident itself, from an administrative standpoint. There are ongoing things being looked at, but they have not made the results of those known at this point. We expect to see the results of several of the 15-6s probably brought to conclusion here in the next week.

(Pause.) Are there any other questions?

Q Have you gotten any kind of an explanation from former Private Green's superior officers as to why they were out there alone at that traffic checkpoint?

GEN. CALDWELL: That's one of the things that are in fact being investigated and that would not be made available at this point yet. It'd be part of the whole investigation, and once they complete that -- those kind of details will be made known. And I think you'll see when the first of the 15-6s are concluded here in the next week or so -- or next two weeks -- the results, as much as we can release that are not of a criminal nature, will be made available.

MODERATOR: Just remind you to state your name and organization, please.

Q Thank you. Larry Kaplow with Cox Newspapers. I wonder if you could talk a little more about why there is immunity for U.S. troops, and whether that's getting harder to maintain as time goes on here. You've got a court system that you hand over the people you detain to the Iraqi courts.

And secondly, how are you being transparent? I mean, you -- it seems that you release things when they become official, a matter of record, when there's a -- but we don't about the cases, for example, that you investigate and decide not to prosecute on so much. I mean, what are the efforts you're making to be transparent?

GEN. CALDWELL: Any time there's a situation where there's been the -- an Iraqi civilian's been injured or hurt or something of that nature, we always put a press release out on it. There's been no attempt not to share that information and making it known to others. So -- I mean, that -- there's nothing that we hide there at all. We put out press releases every day stating when incidents occur.

Secondly, in terms of immunity, there's not one servicemember here who is immune from prosecution if they do something that is not -- that is of a criminal or unethical nature. Every member here in the armed forces of the United States is held to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and if they find that they have in fact violated the code of conduct by which we upheld and we feel very strong about, then if fact they can be subject to prosecution under that. So there's nobody who's immune from prosecution over here. We will hold ourselves accountable for our actions. Q (In Arabic.)

GEN. CALDWELL: The question was, where was the exact location where that ambush took place?

What I'll do right after this, I'll give you an actual chart, if you don't already have it, that lays it out and shows you exactly the street and everything right where it was.

And I'll provide that to you right after this. We have that, and we'll give you the exact location. I just didn't bring the chart in with me that specified it, but we'll pull that up for you right after this and give it to you. But it was obviously here in Baghdad. It was where the 6th Iraqi Army is operating -- 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade of the 6th Iraqi Army that was the one who was involved, along with the national police as part of that operation.

Q General, hi. This is Jay from AFP. Two questions. One is, could you give us some more details about the steps and efforts taken to rescue or seek the freedom of this Sunni MP who was kidnapped, because just an hour back there have been apparently reports that her kidnappers have made a contact and demanded the release of detainees and this kind of stuff. One.

And the second thing is, something different. Two, three days back, Dr. Rubaie released a list of Iraq's Most Wanted, 41 individuals. And if you see the list, it's more of the officials of the former regime and family members of Saddam Hussein and those kind of people, while extremist groups like al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunnah are way below on the list of wanted people. For the U.S. it has always been al Qaeda, al Qaeda, al Qaeda in its global war of terror, the same thing is in Iraq. Now, is there any kind of -- or does it affect any kind of -- commit resources in tracking down these people or is there any clash of priorities when you look at insurgency, specifically in terms of Iraq insurgency, because Dr. Rubaie has said that if you get these people, 90 percent of the terrorist attacks in Iraq will be over, while the U.S. military just goes on saying it's al Qaeda, al Qaeda, al Qaeda. Could you throw some light on this?

GEN. CALDWELL: In terms of your second question there, obviously we work very closely with the government of Iraq. I mean, we're here at their request and they set the priorities. If in fact there is a request to reorient some of the activities that we're doing, we'd obviously take that in consultation with the government of Iraq and look at how they would like us to refocus or reorient the priorities that we have going.

As far as I know, at this point there has not been a discussion per se like that. There is a continual dialogue that goes on with the leadership here in the government of Iraq, I mean on a weekly basis, multiple times. And if those -- they continually reevaluate from the Baghdad security plan how we can help support Iraqi security forces there, to the training of Iraqi security forces within the country, to operations outside of Baghdad in Iraq itself. And so if at any point there is some orientation they want us to make, or reprioritization, we would.

When we talk about focusing on al Qaeda in Iraq, we normally are using very specialized kind of assets and equipment and elements that are honing in on some organization and structure like that. The vast majority of the forces here, the 127,000 forces that the U.S. military has here, continue day to day to conduct operations with their Iraqi counterparts, those operations being as prioritized and so directed by the government of Iraq, really.

Q (Off mike.)

GEN. CALDWELL: And your first question again was?

Q Yeah, if you will give some details on what exactly is being done to secure the release of the Sunni MP -- kidnapped Sunni MP.

GEN. CALDWELL: Without discussing too much the operational aspects that's ongoing, obviously this is a significant operation that has been undertaken with Iraqi security forces in the lead, with a lot of coalition force assets in support of them, from aerial assets to ground assets. They have already conducted several operations last night. They obviously did not produce the results we had hoped they would. But they're continuing to work and exploit the information they glean from those locations. It's a pretty full-court press going on right now.

We obviously are extremely concerned about this because this is an attempt to thwart the road towards democracy, towards, you know, rule of law. I mean, here is a parliament member who's had her life, you know, threatened. I mean, that kind of activity is not something that's acceptable in a country where we're trying to establish security. So we're all working very diligently towards finding and returning her back safely.

Q Josh Partlow from The Washington Post. You had mentioned earlier that you may expect a rise in car bombings. And the prime minister's office also said something similar recently. I was wondering if you could say any more about if there's specific intelligence or anything you can address about what you expect in terms of a rise in car bombings, and if there's any response planned in terms of increasing troops, or that sort of thing, in Baghdad.

GEN. CALDWELL: Obviously, we're concerned about -- we know al- Masri. That's one of his -- I mean, that is one of his key specialties is vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. We do know he's basically been recognized by Osama bin Laden now at this point as being the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

We have seen a slight increase in vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices within the city of Baghdad. In the last 24 hours, we've conducted seven raids on locations where we knew there would be possibly vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices being made and took down seven localities where they in fact were doing that. Each one ended up being a confirmed location that had in fact the parts and components to build vehicle IEDs, and we're targeting that very specifically at this point. We have seen a rise in them. They have not been as effective as they have been in the past, which can lead to many conclusions as to why that might be. But our concern is any time there is a piece of something like a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that can cause a lot of civilian casualties, we want to take that off the road.

The Iraqi security forces have engaged in extensive dialogue with us about different -- as we call TTPs -- techniques, tactics and procedures -- that are being implemented out at the checkpoints to include moving certain checkpoints to certain areas, putting additional intelligence collection on finding where VBIEDs might be being made and where they might be used. So I think you're going to see a lot more focus and energy going after those in order to minimize the loss of civilian casualties.

Q Larry Kaplow again. Just back on the question earlier, I mean, what's -- why not give the Iraqi courts access to these cases in a legal way? It's not just for soldiers. Obviously, you know, there are thousands of contractors here who appear to be immune from prosecution in the Iraqi courts.

First of all, let me make sure that's true. You all are not subject to prosecution in Iraqi courts as far as I know, and can you tell me the reason for that?

GEN. CALDWELL: Larry, I'll have to get -- I mean, there's -- that's a large legal issue that I'd have to get back to you with specifics on. I'll be glad to get you one to -- specifically from the legal folks, to have them work that up for you. But the bottom line is and I think what's most important to understand is we hold every servicemember here 100 percent accountable. They are not immune from anything.

Q Let's say, for example, in the case of Private Green, he wasn't -- he got through your system, and he's being charged in a civilian court in America, and there may be other cases like that. So an Iraqi court would presumably be able to charge someone or at least hold them accountable if they ever returned here or asked for extradition.

GEN. CALDWELL: In the case of the civilian, Green, who used to be a former soldier in the United States Army, as you know, he was arrested on Friday, June 30th, after a warrant for his arrest was issued by the U.S. attorney. He is subject to civilian prosecution under what's called the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows crimes committed in foreign countries by members of the military -- or even former members -- to be prosecuted as if committed within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. So he in fact is going to be held accountable, and the U.S. attorney's office -- back to the United States -- has already issued -- as you know, has arrested him as of Saturday, this past Saturday. And he's in custody at this time.

MODERATOR: We just have time for two more questions. Bobby and then Kirk.

Q (Off mike.)

Q Kirk Semple from The New York Times. Can you explain why there's been this confluence of cases involving military -- allegations of military personnel killing unarmed civilians, all of a sudden?

GEN. CALDWELL: We've got the four cases that were -- thoroughly investigate -- they've come to light. We're very fortunate that we have had different people -- in two cases, military personnel -- that have reported it -- as you know, in two other cases, one by an Iraqi and one by Time magazine. And we feel fortunate that we have been -- brought those to the surface, to allow us to fully investigate them and ascertain exactly what happened.

We have literally had hundreds of thousands -- about a million American service members who have served honorably here in Iraq and, like I said earlier on, you know, literally who have bled and died in pursuit of freedom here for the Iraqi people. And when you start talking about a handful, literally -- you know, .001 percent of those who have served here -- that is not at all indicative of the performance of the other great men and women who have continued to serve and serve today in this country and literally each day are dying, with their Iraqi counterparts, as everybody tries to establish a stable and secure Iraq.

So I would not correlate the actions of those few with the great deeds of the many that continue to serve here. MODERATOR: It's the last question, unless there is anybody who hasn't asked a question. Go ahead, Bobby.

Q General, when you were doing an assessment of the past months' successes and challenges, you mentioned the price of gas, the availability of gas was -- did you mention gas, or did you just say electricity?

GEN. CALDWELL: I said gasoline.

Q Okay. Anyway, so as I gather, the price of gas in the black market today hit one dollar for a liter. What role does the U.S. military have in helping deal with those shortages and bring the price down, since that is so crucial to everything that happens in this country?

GEN. CALDWELL: Bobby, obviously we've got what we call ministry advisory teams that work with the ministries to help them think through some of these challenges and issues. Price liberalization is a key aspect. Part of the World Bank's requirements, as they move on for their monetary fiscal responsibility they have to establish here in this country, and they have certain gates where they're supposed to be going through the liberalization of gas prices. They haven't always been well-announced in advance, which leaves people to believe sometimes it's a last-minute decision, but it's not at all. You can actually lay that out and see when that should be occurring by what they had -- they, the Iraqi government, had worked out with the World Bank and others.

But we're here to support the government of Iraq in any way they want, and we provide any assistance they ask. They have the lead in this. It's their responsibility to decide. They make the decisions how they're going to do it; we don't. We strictly provide advisory support in any manner we can. So we have no say so in the final decisions of any of that, it's strictly an Iraqi decision.

Okay, thank you very much.

END.