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09 April 2003

Amid Scenes of Celebration in Baghdad, White House Urges Caution

(White House Report, April 9: Baghdad Celebrates; Interim Iraqi
Authority) (530)
As many parts of the world watched television images of American tanks
entering Baghdad's city center while Iraqis cheered and threw shoes at
a statue of Saddam Hussein, the White House cautioned the American
people that the war is not yet over.
"What you're seeing on TV in Baghdad is only that one section of
Baghdad," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer reminded reporters
April 9 in his early morning briefing. "There are many dangerous areas
in Baghdad for our armed forces that remain. There are many other
cities in Iraq that are dangerous. ... Our men and women remain in
harm's way."
"We are still in the middle of a shooting war," he said, adding,
"there are other cities that have yet to fall."
Fleischer noted, however, that today is "an historic moment." The
scenes seen on television, which later showed U.S. Marines helping
Iraqis topple the statue of Saddam Hussein, Fleischer said, are
"heartening signs of military progress and mankind's taste for
freedom."
"It is proof," he said, "of the desire of the Iraqi people to be free.
Given the chance to be free, the Iraqi people are taking it."
Fleischer said he had no information on the whereabouts and status of
Saddam Hussein following an April 7 attack on what military officials
called "a leadership target" where the Iraqi leader was believed to be
meeting with his sons and other senior officials.
President Bush, in remarks he made with British Prime Minister Tony
Blair April 8 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said, "I don't know
whether he survived. The only thing I know is he's losing power."
Bush is pleased, Fleischer said, "to see progress of the military
campaign and the (television) images of the Iraqi people finding
freedom." However, he added, "he remains very cautious because he
knows that there is great danger that could still lie ahead."
MEETING IN IRAQ TO DISCUSS INTERIM IRAQI AUTHORITY
Vice President Cheney, speaking in New Orleans April 9, announced that
the United States will soon hold a meeting near al Nasiriyah, in
southern Iraq, where "we will bring together representatives of groups
from all over Iraq to begin to sit down and talk about planning for
the future with this Iraqi interim authority and getting it up and
running."
Cheney originally said the meeting would be held April 12, but his
staff later told reporters that the meeting would not take place quite
that soon. When the meeting does take place, it will be the first of
many such meetings, and will send "a very powerful signal about the
future of Iraq, that there are people from both inside and outside
Iraq who care about their country and who will be able leaders of
their country," he said.
At the White House, Fleischer said "we don't know all the names of all
those people yet." The timing of the meeting will depend on a number
of factors, "including the security situation on the ground," he
added.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)