• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
December 13, 2002

INDEX:

MR. BOUCHER: All right, the first thing I would like to do is to call your attention to two publications that we are putting out today, and I have a statement by the Secretary which I'll read portions of. He says he is pleased to announce the issuance of two new State Department publications today. One is called Iraq: From Fear to Freedom -- it's the one over here -- and the other is Iraq: A Population Silenced.

These publications document why the current Iraqi regime remains a threat to its own people, its neighbors, and the international community as a whole. The document, Iraq: From Fear to Freedom, is primarily aimed at overseas audiences. It will be translated into several languages in the region. Our embassies will use it and we'll put it on our website for people to use to explain the situation in Iraq.

The second document is more specifically focused on the human rights abuses and atrocities by the Iraqi regime and what the Iraqi citizens face every day in terms of executions, torture, rape, disappearances and other oppressions.

The Secretary says, "As we consider how to disarm Iraq, it is important to keep in mind the context of our efforts, and these documents help provide that context for the discussion."

So those are available, at least for review, through the Press Office. Because of the funding of the Fear to Freedom document, there are limits on our distribution domestically, but it's also available on the International Programs website.

So, with that statement, I would be glad to take your questions on this or any other topic. Who wants to start? Front row? Jonathan.

QUESTION: On Iraq or on these documents

MR. BOUCHER: These documents or any other topic, I think.

QUESTION: Or the other documents? How about that? The other Iraqi documents.

MR. BOUCHER: Oh, the 12,000-pager? Ours are shorter. And we probably say -- well, never mind.

QUESTION: There are a lot of reports floating around saying that your analysis has come to the conclusion that the declaration by Iraq is inadequate. Can you say that? Is that correct?

MR. BOUCHER: I can't say that our analysis has come to any conclusion. Our analysis is not concluded. We are not going to speculate or prematurely talk about our analysis. We will judge the declaration's honesty and its completeness only after we've been able to thoroughly examine it, and we will provide our assessment at the appropriate time.

As the President has said, and we've said previously, we know that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and has programs to create more. We know that from previous inspections. We know that from our own information. We know that from what Iraq has bought in recent years.

So the question is to test the declaration against that -- against what is known throughout the international community -- and we will do that in a thorough and careful manner and provide any conclusions or assessments at the appropriate time.

QUESTION: A related matter is, could you tell us about Iraqi efforts to obtain, buy uranium in Africa in the last few years since the inspections ended?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think I can say anything new on that at this point. I'm trying to remember -- we put out -- I remember press reports about it several months ago, but I can't remember now if we put out any official information at that time. But I don't have any new information on that.

Betsy.

QUESTION: Richard, can you say whether, once you have reached your conclusions on this 12,000-page report, whether this administration will be more forthcoming in presenting information in public that refutes what is said in the document if you do not feel that it is adequate or --

MR. BOUCHER: Let's talk about -- I can't speculate exactly at this point on how we will discuss it when we discuss it because we're not yet at the point of discussing it. But let's remember the context for this.

The burden is on Iraq. Iraq is required by the Council to fully, finally and completely disclose all its information and all its programs. The burden is on Iraq to actively cooperate with the Security Council, to actively cooperate with the inspectors. So the test is whether Iraq is fully disclosing and whether they are actively cooperating.

Now, in that respect, what they say in the document and what they don't say in the document may be equally important. One could even say that what's not in the document may be as important as what is in the document. And so we have to look at it from all points of view, and that is what we're doing. We'll go through it very thoroughly.

As we present our assessment, if we have facts and other things we want to bring to bear, we will. But the test is not on the United States. The test is on Iraq to fully disclose its programs. And if they don't say things that people know, then they will fail to do that.

Elise.

QUESTION: You say that the burden is on Iraq to disclose, but if you are going to say that Iraq is not fully disclosing, isn't then the burden on the member-states to say how they know that Iraq is not fully disclosing?

MR. BOUCHER: I think the burden remains on Iraq, whatever happens. How we choose to discuss things when it comes time, we'll leave that for then.

I am not, at this point, going to speculate on what we will conclude, and therefore I can't tell you how we will discuss it and what we will present as facts when we do.

But in any case, Iraq needs to account for what was left over after the previous inspections, for what the previous inspectors have all talked about. It needs to account for the purchases it has made and the activities it has conducted for these years. It's not a matter of hide and seek. It's not playing games. It's a matter of Iraq cooperating in a fundamental sense, and in a way it never has done before.

QUESTION: Right, but at some point, I mean, you're judging them against a standard, the Iraqis against a standard of what you believe that they have. So, at some point, don't you think, once they disclose, you know, once you know exactly what they are going to disclose --

MR. BOUCHER: We're judging them against the standard of the UN resolution, that they need to provide a full and final disclosure. Either we may know that they haven't done so, if we know of things that they have not disclosed. We may judge that they have not done so if the inspectors find things that they have not disclosed. We may know that they have not done so if other countries report the purchases that Iraq has failed to account for. There may be any number of ways that one finds that Iraq is not telling the truth, as Iraq has never told the truth in these things in the past. So, exactly where we get to, we'll talk about when we get there. I don't know what information we'll be prepared to provide at the time. That's all I can say at this point.

QUESTION: Can I ask something about -- what do you think of Saddam Hussein's decision to allow a UN envoy to Iraq for talks on Kuwaiti prisoners of war, seized Kuwaiti property? Until now, they have refused to do this.

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. We'll see what it produces, I think. That's about all I can say at this point. I don't have any complete analysis at this point.

QUESTION: But when you say -- when we've been focusing a lot on weapons of mass destruction and full disclosure of that, but there are times when you talk about --

MR. BOUCHER: Iraq's other obligations remain and Iraq needs to comply with all the UN resolutions. And that is a point we have made and the Security Council has made. But the question is compliance, not meetings.

(...)

QUESTION: Richard, I guess it was last week when you were asked about the accounting for the munitions that were left over. You said you wouldn't take Iraq -- you wouldn't just go by what the Iraqis said in public about this, but you would look at the document.
Having looked at the document, have you come to -- have you found anything --

MR. BOUCHER: You're trying to avoid using the word "conclusion" in a sentence, aren't you?

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Have you found a discrepancy? Is there a discrepancy on this issue?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not in a position to describe at this point any assessments, discrepancies, conclusions, contents, understandings, initial feelings, vibes or anything else coming from the documents. We'll do the thorough and detailed assessment that we promised and we'll talk about it when we're ready.

(...)

QUESTION: Richard, you stressed the need for use of diplomacy with North Korea. I know this question has been asked before, but especially this week I think it deserves re-asking. If Iraq, Iran and North Korea are on the "axis of evil," and this week there have been revelations about Iran's potential, which we can talk about, I guess, in a minute, Iran's nuclear potential, nuclear facilities, and North Korea talking about its intention to reopen its nuclear facilities, why the distinction between Iraq and North Korea and Iran? What makes Iraq the most dangerous country right now and the most imminent threat?

MR. BOUCHER: I think the President has made clear that the situation with Iraq is unique. Iraq's repeated and continued defiance of UN Security Council resolutions represents a challenge to that organization. Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction represents a challenge to the whole world, to all the potential victims. The fact that Iraq has used gas against its own people, the fact that Iran has used gas against -- that Iraq has used gas against Iran represents a threat that the international community needs to recognize. The fact that Iran has repeatedly invaded its neighbors represents -- Iraq, I'm sorry. The fact that Iraq has repeatedly invaded its neighbors represents another unique facet to that.

The fact that the United States has a very strong nonproliferation policy, as represented in the Strategy for Weapons of Mass Destruction that we put out this week, is not a secret. And the fact that we pursue this in a variety of places is what's important. But we do pursue it in different ways in different places. The obligations for Iraq are to cooperate with the United Nations and we're trying to solve that peacefully. But we've made clear, given the unique circumstances of Iraq, Iraq has to be disarmed one way or the other.

In other cases, there's a different kind of effort all aimed at the same thing -- in bringing people into compliance with their international obligations and having them meet international standards of transparency and disclosure.

(...)

QUESTION: Germany and the UN. There were reports in the German press this morning that the United States is maneuvering in New York to deprive Germany of its wish to take on the Sanctions Committee when it comes into the Security Council in January. Is there any truth to that?

MR. BOUCHER: There is discussion going on among Council members because there are a number of different committee chairs that will be elected at the beginning of next year.

The UN Sanctions Committee on Iraq is one of several important committees whose chairmen rotate in 2003. Committee chairmen are elected by the Council as a whole and the Committee chairmen routinely rotate among Council members. So we have begun discussions with Security Council partners as well as incoming members, but there's four or five different new members to the Council, including several European countries -- I think Spain and Germany, I can't remember if there are others -- and we're talking to all these people about how to -- who wants to take which committees. But there are a number of very important committees that are coming up and we look forward to seeing our friends and allies occupy some of these important posts.

QUESTION: Do you think that Germany would be suitable for head of that Sanctions Committee?

MR. BOUCHER: I think I'm sure Germany will get a suitable assignment. But I'm not going to -- these are private discussions on who is going to do what committee and we'll just try to let them work out.

QUESTION: You haven't raised any specific objections to Germany chairing that specific committee?

MR. BOUCHER: These are private discussions on who is going to chair which committee and we'll just let it work out in the Council.

Thank you.
[End]