26 June 2003
Bremer Says Coalition Will Prevail Against Ba'athist Holdouts
(Points to Signs of Increasing Confidence Among Peaceful Iraqis) (1150) U.S. Administrator for Iraq L. Paul Bremer said that the pockets of Ba'athist regime holdouts perpetrating violence against coalition forces in Iraq will be controlled. "We are acting forcefully in response," he said in a June 25 interview with CNN. Bremer said that, while there was no evidence Saddam Hussein was commanding these operations, remnants of the regime were attempting to intimidate the population. "They go around in the bazaars and villages and say 'we are coming back and you should not cooperate. Saddam is still alive and when we come back, we will remember the people who cooperated with the coalition,'" he explained. He noted, however, the increased willingness of peaceful Iraqi citizens in Baghdad to report the movements of alleged Ba'athists. The isolated attacks were not, Bremer told CNN, a fundamental threat to the Coalition's objectives, which are to bring about a free and independent Iraq with a democratically elected government. Following is the text of Ambassador Bremer's interview with CNN, aired June 25. (begin transcript) CNN WOLF BLITZER REPORTS Interview With Paul Bremer Aired June 25, 2003 - 17:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. BLITZER: Is the situation in Iraq out of control? Can the U.S.-led coalition create order out of what seems to be some sort of chaos? Earlier today I spoke with the chief U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, the veteran diplomat Paul Bremer. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Let's get to the key question at hand. Was the U.S. prepared for what seems to be an incredibly chaotic situation unfolding on the ground inside Iraq? PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: I think we were. And I don't think it's incredibly chaotic, Wolf. What we're seeing is a number of incidents that happened. We've had a tragic one in the British sector yesterday. But we've had a fairly constant level of attacks against coalition forces since the war ended. This was to be expected. We're dealing with it. I don't think it poses a fundamental threat to our overall objectives, which are to bring about a free and independent Iraq with a Democratically elected government. I think that's what I think we will do here. BLITZER: As you know, there's a lot of Americans concerned, at least one soldier, Marine seems to be getting killed on a daily basis since the president declared an end of major operations on May 1. How much longer is this kind of sniping going to continue? BREMER: It's hard to know the size of the opposition we face. It is true that we're losing men and women regularly. You have to remember that two-thirds of those are from accidents. They are not from hostile action. It doesn't make it any easier. We are faced with a group, small groups of Ba'athists, ex-members -- members of the ex-regime, Fedayeen Saddam, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from the Republican Guard, who seem to be operating in small groups and attacking our forces. We are acting forcefully in response. And I think as we gradually impose our will on these people, I think we'll find that the security in these isolated areas, and most of the country, after all, this is not a problem. But in these isolated areas we are gradually imposing our will and then I think we'll see things calm down. BLITZER: You've heard suggestions from Ahmed Chalabi, the Former Iraqi Opposition leader, says Saddam Hussein personally is not only alive and well, but he's coordinating, he's orchestrating these attacks against coalition forces. Is Chalabi right? BREMER: We don't have any evidence that -- yet, that shows that these attacks are being centrally directed. We can't yet exclude it. But, so far it looks like they are operations that are undertaken independently by people who sympathize with Saddam, no question. But we don't yet see any sign of central command and control. We are obviously looking very closely for that to see if it comes about. BLITZER: Is it your sense, Mr. Ambassador, that with Saddam Hussein still out there, presumably alive some place inside Iraq, many Iraqis simply don't have confidence in the U.S. and the coalition and as a result, they are holding back and going forward and cooperating with you? BREMER: I don't think it's a question of them not having confidence in us. I think there is certainly a degree of intimidation by these ex-Ba'athists, these ex-regime people who are certainly going around. We see intelligence reports that indicate that. They go around in the bazaars and villages and say we are coming back and you should not cooperate. Saddam is still alive and when we come back, we will remember the people who cooperated with the coalition. But there is some good news here. Our police are now reporting -- we have 8,000 policemen now operating in Baghdad, Iraqi policemen. And they are reporting over the last two weeks an increasing number of phone calls from citizens calling in and saying, by the way, there's some Ba'athists in the two houses down from me. We saw Ba'athists go into that building. Until a few weeks ago we weren't getting those phones calls. That suggest to me that, in fact, at least here in Baghdad, people are beginning to be more confidence that we are here. We are going to succeed. And they are more willing to step out and support us. BLITZER: Is it fair to say, Mr. Ambassador, the war is still going on? BREMER: Well, we certainly have pockets of violence and military violence that is going on. There are areas of the country, particularly in the triangle roughly from Al Ramadi out west of Baghdad, up to Tikrit, Saddam's hometown and then southeast to Bakuba (ph). There is certainly a remnant of the regime there that is actively engaged in military operations. I would not say it's a war. There's no doubt about the outcome. We, after all, have 150,000 American troops here and another 20,000 coalition troops. So there's no strategic threat to us here. BLITZER: What would happen exactly on the Syrian border, the other day. Syrian forces got injured. There was a firefight involving U.S., coalition troops and Syria. BREMER: Well, what was involved here, and I don't want to go into many of the details. But what was involved here was not an effort against Syrians. We had an indication that a group of Iraqis were trying to cross the border illegally and we intervened to stop that. And that's basically all I can say about it at the moment. (END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: We'll have more of my interview with Ambassador Paul Bremer tomorrow at noon Eastern here on CNN. (end transcript) (Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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