Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Briefing
DoD News Briefing
Tuesday, November 07, 2000 - 1:35 p.m. EST
Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA
Q: Has this - the Iraqi commercial flights that have begun recently
represent a Iraqi success in further eroding the effectiveness of the
no-fly zone?
Bacon: I think you'd have to distinguish between the sanctions and the
no-fly zone; the sanctions, economic sanctions, that were imposed to
force Iraq to meet certain provisions of U.N. Security Council
Resolution - I think it's 688. The no-fly zone was imposed to keep
Iraq from attacking its neighbors or attacking its own people; namely,
the Shi'a in the South and Kurdish people in the North.
We think the no-fly zone has been successful in preventing Iraq from
-- certainly from mounting attacks against its neighbors, but also
from attacking its own people. And we think that they will continue to
be successful, even if Iraq continues these civilian flights, the
Baghdad to Basra shuttle, for instance.
Q: Doesn't it in any way affect the enforcement of the no-fly zone,
complicate it?
Bacon: The purpose of the no-fly zone is to prevent Iraq from
mobilizing forces to attack its neighbors or its own people. We do not
think that these civilian flights will interfere with that at all,
that we can discriminate against - we can discriminate between
military flights and mobilization flights on the one hand, and
civilian flights on the other.
Chris?
Q: When the no-fly zones were first announced, it was said that they
barred all flights, fixed-wing and rotary flights, below the 32nd
Parallel, originally, and above the 36th Parallel. When was it
interpreted to mean that civilian flights, such as the ones that have
now begun, were not included in the air exclusion and --
Bacon: Well, the purpose of the no-fly zones has not changed in the
least, and that is to prevent military mobilizations. In 1997, Iraq
did use some helicopters to fly pilgrims to and - at least from the
Hajj, back from the Hajj, and we allowed that and made it very clear
that we weren't going to shoot down civilian aircraft that didn't pose
a military threat to Iraqi neighbors or to its own people.
That's our policy. It was our policy in '97, it's our policy today.
Q: Well, how do you know that these planes are, in fact, civilian
planes? Aren't they converted military transport planes?
Bacon: Well, they've used a variety of planes. They've used some
helicopters, they've used some smaller planes we would call puddle
jumpers, and they have repainted some IL-76s to use to carry
passengers. And I think they've used them at least once, an IL-76, on
the way - from Baghdad to Mosul.
These flights tend to go on a - they've only been doing it for three
days, but they tend to be on a fairly predictable pattern. They leave
in the morning from Baghdad, they come back in the afternoon. We can
clearly distinguish between the civilian flights, both by the size of
the planes and by their routes and other ways, and military flights.
And we'll continue to do that.
Q: Do you receive any notification from the government of Iraq about
the flight plans or flight paths of these aircraft?
Bacon: No, except they are filing - or following normal procedures
and filing internally their flight plans, et cetera.
Yes?
Q: Ken, you said you can discriminate between the civilian aircraft
and other things. Is there any danger to those civilian aircraft,
given the activity of surface-to-air batteries and things like that?
Bacon: Well, that's actually a very interesting point. The Iraqis have
been firing wildly at times at the coalition U.S. and British planes
enforcing the no-fly zone. And obviously, there is some risk that, due
to lack of communications or over-enthusiasm, that they might fire at
one of their own planes. We don't - we are being very careful to
deconflict civilian from military planes. We hope they are being as
careful.
Q: Doesn't it, though, make it more complicated? If Iraq were to
continue to send more and more civilian planes into the no-fly zone,
which you've said the United States would not shoot down, for obvious
reasons, doesn't that then make it more complicated in enforcing the
no-fly zone ban against military aircraft?
Bacon: It's easy to distinguish between fighter aircraft, clearly, and
large transport aircraft; civilian transport aircraft. We think that
we have, with our radar assets, our surveillance assets in the area,
the ability to distinguish. And we have spent a lot of time monitoring
Iraqi air traffic and a lot of time monitoring Iraqi behavior, and we
think that we know enough to make those distinctions.
Q: Have you had any change in procedure or policy to ensure that there
isn't any mistake, that U.S. pilots don't accidentally shoot down any
civilian aircraft?
Bacon: Well, it's long been our procedure and policy to avoid shooting
down Iraqi civilian aircraft, so there has been no change in that
policy.
Q: But, I mean, in terms of the procedures. Have you done - now that
there's another complicating factor, has anything been done to - a
new procedure instituted there does have to be a visual identification
of an aircraft before it could be shot down? Have there have been any
changes to ensure that an accident doesn't happen?
Bacon: There have been appropriate changes made to make sure an
accident does not happen.
Q: Can you tell us anything more about these changes?
Bacon: No.
Q: But what's been the pattern recently on military incursions from --
(inaudible)?
Bacon: I don't recall seeing any information about military incursions
for some time. Now, the incursions have been episodic, when they have
occurred, and they have tended to be very - very narrow, short
incursions, where they dart back and forth across the boundaries to
the no-fly zone. But I - in the information I've been seeing, I
haven't seen any evidence of incursions recently.
Yes?
Q: Is the whole fall military exercise cycle, is that over with in
Iraq? Are things back to where they normally are? Can you give us an
update on that?
Bacon: Pretty much over. As you know, some troops, including the
Hammurabi Division, had moved southwest of Baghdad several weeks ago,
and they have largely now returned to their garrisons. So I'd say
that's pretty much over.
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