DoD News Briefing
Thursday, June 24, 1999 - 2:25 p.m.
Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA
.....................
Q: Sorry to get you to a different part of the world for a second, but on Iraq. Could you bring us up to date. Since March 24th, while the world has sort of been consumed by Kosovo, what U.S. military forces have really accomplished in Iraq in Northern and Southern Watch? And a second related question, will you now think about changing your policy of making gun camera video on strikes against Iraq available, which you had not done because you said it would be a security risk. Now that we've seen so much Kosovo gun camera, will you start making Iraqi gun camera available?
Mr. Bacon: Probably not. I can tell you that in April in Operation Southern Watch, coalition forces responded seven times to provocations from Iraq. That is, they attacked targets seven times in the south in April, four times in May, and six times in June to date, including one yesterday. So that's a total of 17 strikes in April, May and June.
In Operation Northern Watch, the number is 28, including a most recent strike in the north on June 22nd.
The impact of these strikes, I think, is the continued containment of Saddam Hussein. As you know, we patrol these no-fly zones, which account for 60 percent of Saddam Hussein's airspace, in order to prevent him from attacking his neighbors or attacking his own people. I think that the patrols have been successful in preventing that.
I think also they are part of a broader containment policy that involves economic sanctions as well as political isolation for Iraq. I think that he's brought the political isolation on himself by refusing, I think, in several ways: one, by refusing to comply with UN Security Council Resolutions, and therefore continuing to act as an outlaw or pariah state; second, by doing things like threatening the regimes of countries around him, therefore incurring their at least political hostility. And I would say he's isolated himself as well by doing nothing to eliminate the problems that got the sanctions imposed on him in the first place.
Q: Do you see a build-up of Iraqi troop movements in the south these days?
Mr. Bacon: I'm not aware that there's been anything recently. There are from time to time movements of Iraqi troops. As you know, what he can move in the south is limited by demarches that have been imposed by the coalition forces. But I haven't seen anything unusual in the south.
...........Q: Can I ask why you say you think you probably won't release videos from strikes in Iraq after, as Barbara said, so many videos were released from the conflict in Yugoslavia?
Mr. Bacon: I'll take the question again, but so far every time that we've examined it, we've decided not to release the videos.
Q: Do you know why?
Mr. Bacon: For tactical reasons. If we change that, we'll release them. I'll raise the question once more.
Q: One of the reasons given for the AGM-130, for example, was that it might reveal too much detail to the Iraqis and help them in creating more realistic decoys or something. But a lot of AGM-130 video was released during the conflict with Yugoslavia, which Saddam could have slapped a tape in his VCR and learned everything that there was to learn about the type of detail that it gets. I'm just wondering whether...
Mr. Bacon: And undoubtedly did.
Q: I'm just wondering whether that holds up at this point.
Mr. Bacon: You're saying if we made a mistake once we should continue to make it?
Q: Did you make a mistake by releasing videos from the Yugoslavia conflict?
Mr. Bacon: Time will tell.
Thanks.
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