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Daily Press Briefing
Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
December 10, 2002

INDEX:

(...)

QUESTION: Could you tell us what you have on the Iraqi weapons report, please?

MR. REEKER: I do not think there is a lot more to report following what Ambassador Boucher briefed to you yesterday on that report. I think the White House has had some comments on it this morning.

In keeping with the Security Council president's decision to allow access to the Iraqi declaration to those members of the Security Council with expertise to assess the risks of proliferation and other sensitive information to begin reviewing that document, full copies of the report have been made available to those members of the Council that have that expertise. As we discussed yesterday, the United States assisted by copying this declaration. We had been asked to assure that the document was copied in a controlled environment to guard against the inadvertent release of information.

So now countries will begin reviewing that document, and at this point I do not have any particular readouts. It is something that will clearly take time, as we discussed yesterday. It is a rather lengthy document. We will begin working with the other countries that can review that for sensitive information so that then we can prepare a working version of the declaration. This will ensure that the declaration is reviewed and distributed not only in a timely manner, but also while preventing the disclosure of information that would be proliferation-sensitive.

Terri?

QUESTION: There have been some grumblings on the sideline about Washington taking the first set of documents and whisking them down here to copy them off. Have you received any messages like that from Permanent 5 members or other Security Council members?

MR. REEKER: No. And, in fact, all Permanent 5 members have their copies, as I think we talked about yesterday. As I mentioned, based on the Council president's decision -- which was an appropriate one and consistent with the resolution -- we assisted in ensuring the safeguards against release, transmission of proliferation-sensitive information, making sure that that was not jeopardized.

So we did the copying of this. We got the copies to all of those members with that expertise and all together we will be assessing the full document to see about proliferation-sensitive information so that then we can make available to other members of the Council a working document as soon as possible.

Jonathan?

QUESTION: Phil, the people reading this, are they, at this stage, merely looking to eliminate the sensitive parts of it, or are they actually looking for discrepancies between what's in those documents and what you already know?

MR. REEKER: I think, first and foremost, is the review for sensitive information that I just discussed, and obviously the other countries that have this expertise are going to be reviewing it as well. I am sure they have to send it back to their capitals to do that. We will be analyzing the document, including testing the contents of the document against our own information. I could not characterize for you exactly where that process stands. We are obviously going to use all the resources we have in the US Government to do a very careful, thorough analysis of this, but I could not give you a time-by-time readout of that exact process.

QUESTION: You must have some idea of how long it's going to take them to do this.

MR. REEKER: I do not have any characterizations of time that I have been provided with, so at this point we will just have to wait and see. We want to make sure it is thorough. It is an important thing to go through very carefully. It is quite lengthy. Of course, once again, we want to review it for the sensitive information.

QUESTION: Again, the question arises of what the implications are if you do find a discrepancy between what's in those documents and what you say you know. What are the implications of that? Is that a material breach?

MR. REEKER: Again, I think I will stick with what we have said in the past. I do not have anything new to add on that. The President has discussed that. The United States is going to analyze this declaration with respect to its credibility and compliance with Resolution 1441, and then in due course we will provide assessments and others will do the same.

Nick?

QUESTION: Is there any kind of division of labor in the way that the 5 Permanent members in the United Nations are looking at this document, or are they doing basically -- are they looking for the same things? Are they reading the same parts of it? Do you know how they are dividing it?

MR. REEKER: I do not have that kind of detail. I would refer you to each individual country. We are certainly reviewing it, drawing on the specialized expertise that declared nuclear weapons states have. That way we can accelerate the review process and then make a working version that can be made available to others.

I think we want to try to do this in a timely fashion. As I said, I am sure other countries who have gotten their copies have got to send those back to their capitals for review by their specialists in this realm. So we will just have to see how this plays out, but I cannot offer you a particular timetable at this point.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Richard couldn't say what kind of team would be reading the document in Washington, whether it would be an inter-agency team or what. Do you know anything more about this today?

MR. REEKER: I do not think I could offer a specific readout. Clearly, the intelligence community will be involved. There are specialists here at the Department of State who have a lot of experience in this field that will be able to look at these things and analyze them. But I could not give you a specific readout of the roles of various agencies or departments within the US Government, but we do intend to do a very thorough analysis.

QUESTION: Has a particular agency been put in charge of the whole exercise?

MR. REEKER: I am not sure that anybody is particularly in charge. I think we are drawing upon all the expertise that we have. If it emerges that somebody has a particular lead in terms of how we go about reviewing this, I will try to let you know.

Anything else on this? Jonathan?

QUESTION: Iraq, anyway. Yes, the 92 million that the President asked the Pentagon to release in draw-downs for the Iraqi opposition, how do you expect that will be used and what is this, how does this fit in with the beginning of the Iraqi opposition conference, which I think is tomorrow in London?

MR. REEKER: I think they are two distinct and different things on the expansion, under the Iraq Liberation Act that the President noted yesterday in his memo. Just to recall that the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act states that the United States supports the efforts of Iraqi opposition to make their country free, and the President's decision to authorize the usage of the full $92 million which is remaining -- that is, the $92 million in draw down authority which you referenced. Jonathan, that continues the policy of this Act in support of Iraqi opposition.

You will recall that in 1998 when Congress passed this law, they authorized $97 million for this purpose. We had earlier allocated $5 million, of which I believe about $1 million has been spent. The Department of Defense really oversees this program and you might want to talk to them in terms of specifics of it.

Over the last few years, the Iraq Liberation Act has trained about 140 opposition members. Actually, that is in the past two years. This year, the Department of Defense evaluated the utility of expanding training of Iraqi opposition members under the Act. As part of that, the Department asked the Iraqi opposition groups themselves to tell us who among their membership might be available for training in an expanded program.

Under our plan, no single opposition group will act as the sole intermediary for assistance to other groups. So each group will work with the Department of Defense through a committee made up of designees under the Act, a variety of groups, and they will contribute trainees to the program and work with the Department of Defense in that regard.

So I think we are quite gratified with the response we had under that. Thousands of expatriate Iraqis all over the world have expressed an interest in participating, and in accordance then with the President's decision, the Department of Defense will be training many more Iraqis than they have in the past.

QUESTION: Well, as you say, thousands have sent in their names and they were -- they've been complaining for months that they never hear back from anybody after presenting these names. Does that -- does this get a change?

MR. REEKER: I think you would need to ask the Department of Defense that. They can talk to you about the nature of the training and the way that program goes. Obviously, the step that the President took in term of the designations yesterday will go a long way towards moving towards that after our review of it.

Christophe?

QUESTION: Yes, related to Iraq, do you have any comments about President Carter's speech today in Oslo warning against potentially catastrophic results, he said, of a preemptive war?

MR. REEKER: I do not. I have not seen those remarks and I would just refer you back to President Carter. I have not had a chance to review his remarks, but I think it would be quite easy to refer you to what President Bush has said in terms of Iraq and how war is a last resort. The focus is on Iraq disarming and complying with its obligations under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441. In particular, where the international community has come together to give Iraq a last opportunity to do this. That is very much what we are focused on.

George?

QUESTION: Back on the 92 million. I thought the legislation said that the INC was the designated conduit for this money. You mentioned several groups would be involved.

MR. REEKER: Under the plan, as I understand it, no single opposition group is going to be the sole intermediary for assistance. Each group is going to coordinate with the Department of Defense through a committee made up of representatives of a number of groups -- that are designated under the Act. The Iraqi National Congress is one of those groups, but the Iraqi National Accord, the Kurdish Democratic Party, the Movement for Constitutional Monarchy, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq are also groups designated under the Iraq Liberation Act.

Anything else on Iraq?

(No response.)

(...)

(The briefing was concluded at 1:55 p.m.)

[End]