11 December 2002
Defense Department to Expand Training of Iraqi Opposition
(Reeker says thousands of Iraqi expatriates eager for training) (630) The U.S. Defense Department will expand its training of Iraqi expatriates with $92 million that President Bush authorized to be spent to support the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said. "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," Reeker said at the daily media briefing in Washington December 10. Reeker said the Defense Department has trained about 140 Iraqi opposition members during the past two years under the Iraq Liberation Act. The assistance is going to be distributed among a number of Iraq opposition groups, Reeker said. Following are excerpts from Reeker's briefing with his comments about Iraq opposition funding: (begin excerpt) 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: 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. (end excerpt) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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