DoD News Briefing
Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD (PA)
Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1997 - 2 p.m.
Q: A German newspaper is reporting today that the UN suspects that the Iraqis are building new missiles, and that the United States is considering a possible cruise missile strike on Iraq. Have you any comment on that?
A: First of all, I think you should probably check with the UN about what their conclusions are. As you know, UN inspectors under UNSCOM go to Iraq from time to time to monitor their compliance with UN Security Council resolutions. Iraq has been notable for its lack of compliance with those resolutions. It has failed, for instance, to give a complete accounting to Kuwaiti POWs, MIAs. It has failed to return equipment that it captured from Kuwait during the Gulf War. It also does not grant free access to the UNSCOM inspectors, and as you know, that's led by Rolf Ekeus.
The UN sanctions against Iraq prohibit it from building missiles. We know, and UNSCOM has reported this in the past, that we believe they are hiding as many as 18 to 25 SCUD missiles in Iraq. This is against the sanctions. We've made it very clear to Saddam. Saddam continues to violate the UN Security Council resolutions in a number of respects. I've enumerated those before. We think it would be wise for Saddam to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions. We've said that many times in the past. We'll continue to say that. You'll have to go to UNSCOM in particular to ask them what their reports are, what their latest reports are. Obviously I can't describe what our future actions will be, but we've shown time and time again that we're prepared to protect U.S. forces and prepared to protect our interests in the Gulf.
Q: Does the Pentagon see any evidence that they are rebuilding their missile forces?
A: I think that the UNSCOM inspectors are those who go in from time to time, and they're the people who should talk about what Iraq is or is not doing at this time. I would just refer you to UNSCOM on that.
Q: Are there indications in this building that as far as you know, they are hiding inventory or that they might be building new inventory?
A: We believe that they possess an operational SCUD missile capability of about 18 to 25 missiles. Some of those have been hidden.
Q: But you have no direct indication that they're building new ones?
A: I told you, and I'll say it again. You should talk to UNSCOM about what UNSCOM's findings are about Iraq from its latest visit there.
Q: Is the U.S. currently looking at a strike as an option?
A: I'm sort of wondering how quickly or how slowly or how evasively to answer that question. Would you like to give us all our contingency plans? We don't discuss operational plans. You know as well as I do from sitting here and watching our actions over the last couple of years that we're fully prepared and fully ready to protect our troops and our interests in the Gulf.
Q: In the past when there have been heightened tensions in the region, the U.S. has moved additional assets into the Persian Gulf. Are there any such movements underway now?
A: We have about 20,000 to 21,000 military personnel in the Gulf right now. That number bounces up and down according to ship deployments, primarily -- whether we have Marine Amphibious Ready Groups there and whether we have carriers in the area. There's a carrier there about nine out of every 12 months, and sometimes in times of tension there are two carriers there. There are Marines on station there, usually for at least six out of every 12 months. So there is a fairly steady rotation of Marines and carriers through the area. We can augment our forces with Air Expeditionary Forces from time to time, and also with Army forces going in to exercise with prepositioned equipment. This happens in a normal rotation. There is nothing abnormal happening right now about force levels in the Gulf. But I want to point out that we have about 20,000 or 21,000 people there now, and that's a very substantial force.
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