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DoD News Briefing

Q: Iraq -- are there any indications of any troop movements in Iraq? For instance in northern Iraq against -- possible buildups against the Kurds?

A: There don't seem to have been any notable troop movements or changes in their air defense system recently-- since I spoke last week when there weren't any particular movements then.

Q: Since the United States has generally -- apparently changed its posture on Iraq, how does the Pentagon square what your boss, Secretary Cohen, said during the period where he held up the famous five-pound bag of sugar saying that every week that there are not inspections it is a threat to the United States and the rest of the world? Do we no longer feel that as urgently as this building apparently felt it and the government felt it?

A: Well, first of all, I don't think there's been a change of posture by the United States. We have supported robust and vigorous inspections since the inspection process began. We still support that. The U.N. Security Council, I believe, supports that as well, and it has been discussing ways to get the inspections back on track.

There's a representative now of Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the U.N., in Baghdad. I think he's due back in the next day or two-- Mr. Shaw. And he has been discussing this with the Iraqis. He'll come back and report to the Secretary General, and I assume also to the Security Council, and the Security Council will decide what to do next.

But we stand foursquare in favor of complete and rigorous inspections in Iraq.

Q: But it can happen, a change in posture, because before the United States told Iraq that unless inspections were able to be carried out freely at virtually anyplace, they could be attacked and, in fact, probably would be attacked militarily.

Now, Iraq is not being told that. In fact, the United States has made very clear that what might incite an attack against Iraq now would be any additional threats to Iraq's neighbors, but not its failure to comply with inspections, which is what he was talking about.

A: First of all, I don't think we have ruled in or out any options at this stage, and I think Secretary Albright has made that very clear.

Second, the U.N. is currently considering how to respond to what Iraq is doing, and they are in the process of figuring out their response at this stage.

I think we have made it very clear that we believe that UNSCOM inspectors and IAEA inspectors should be back on the ground doing their job, and that's what the U.N. Security Council is trying to work out with Iraq now.

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