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02 May 2003

Iraq Still "Dangerous" Place, Rumsfeld Warns

(U.S., British defense chiefs brief in London) (320)
By Christine Johnson
Washington File White House Correspondent
Major military combat activity in Iraq is over, but that does not mean
the war is over, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters
during a press availability with British Defense Minister Geoffrey
Hoon at Heathrow Airport outside London May 2.
"It would be a terrible mistake to think that Iraq is a fully secure,
fully pacified environment," Rumsfeld said. "It is not. It is
dangerous. ... And it's not finished."
Rumsfeld also said it is still not known exactly how many U.S.
military forces would remain in Iraq, because the numbers "would
depend on so many variables that have yet to be determined," including
the size of contingents provided by other coalition partners.
"What we do know," he said, "is that we'll have as many forces in the
country as is necessary to see that it is a sufficiently secure and
permissive environment so that the humanitarian and reconstruction
work can go forward, and so that the Iraqi people can fashion some
sort of an interim governmental authority and then, ultimately, a
final authority."
Hoon replied to a question about the so far unsuccessful search for
chemical and biological weapons in Iraq, which was a major
justification for coalition military operations against the regime of
Saddam Hussein.
"Well, we've always made clear that the effort to locate and precisely
identify weapons of mass destruction [WMD] would take some time," Hoon
said. "We were well aware, in the course of the U.N. inspections, of
the determined efforts by the regime to dismantle a weapon, to scatter
them around Iraq, to hide them. And obviously, it will take time, not
least now that we have the cooperation of certain individuals involved
in those programs, that we can anticipate that success. But it's an
effort that is continuing as we speak."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)