26 October 2003
Wolfowitz Says Terrorists Will Not Succeed in Iraq
Briefing at Baghdad Hospital October 26
The terrorists who attacked the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad are "a small number of bitter-enders who think they can somehow take this country backwards by de-stabilizing it, by scaring us away," but they will not succeed, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said in remarks at the Baghdad Hospital after meeting with victims from the attack October 26.
Wolfowitz was on the 12th floor of the hotel when it was hit by rocket-propelled grenades, but he was unhurt in the attack, according to the Department of Defense.
Following is a transcript of Wolfowitz's remarks, as released by the Department of Defense:
(begin transcript)
United States Department of Defense
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz Briefs at the Baghdad Hospital
DEPSECDEF WOLFOWITZ: I'd like to begin by mentioning that Col. Gagliano, the senior surgeon here, and Col Pritchard, the commander of the hospital, are just two of many examples of incredible Army medicine I've run into over the last few months. Thank you for what you're doing.
We just met with the five critically injured from this morning's blast. Almost symbolically, it's an incredible mixture of one UK civilian coalition partner, and four Americans, -- three civilians, one military and the civilians are from three different agencies. This really has been a team effort. It continues to be a team effort and as I said this morning the victims of this attack, including a colonel who tragically died, are real heroes. The criminals responsible for their death and their injuries are the people who abused and tortured Iraq for 35 years. They're a small number of bitter-enders who think they can somehow take this country backwards by de-stabilizing it, by scaring us away. They're not going to scare us away; we're not giving up on this job. We're going to finish this job and we will be unrelenting in our pursuit of these terrorists and criminals -- the remnants of a sadistic and abusive regime.
I just had a short phone call with Secretary Rumsfeld to inform him of the situation as we saw it here and he expressed his own sympathy to the victims of this attack and his relief that all of you are safe.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031026131307aegi0.567898&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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