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13 April 2003

Rumsfeld Says Transition to New Iraq Underway

(Coalition presence brings security, cooperation , stability) (660)
By Howard Cincotta
Washington File Special Correspondent
Washington -- Iraq's transition from the regime of Saddam Hussein to a
new nation governed by the Iraqi people is underway, even though
pockets of resistance and urban disorder remain, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld said during several television news interviews on
April 13.
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert and CBS's Face the
Nation, Rumsfeld said that, while disorder and looting have occurred,
the presence of U.S. and coalition forces are creating conditions
where police and medical personnel can return, citizens can come
forward with information, and volunteers can assist with public safety
and the flow of humanitarian aid.
"We have to make this transition of some disorder to a period of
order," Rumsfeld said on Meet the Press. "And provide the opportunity
for the Iraqi people to fashion their future. And it's not going to be
the United States that's going to be fashioning their future. They're
going to fashion their future. And they have an opportunity here to be
liberated, be free, and fashion an Iraqi solution to how they want to
live their lives. And that's a wonderful thing."
Rumsfeld pointed to examples throughout Iraq of police, fire, and
medical personnel returning to work and engaging in joint patrols, as
well as clerics urging people not to loot or engage in acts of
destruction.
"It is the presence of coalition forces that gives people enough
confidence there is going to be order," Rumsfeld said on Meet the
Press, "to allow local people to come up and say ... let's get going."
The war isn't over, Rumsfeld warned, noting that Fedayeen Saddam and
other death squads are still attacking coalition forces. He said that
troops had found 80 explosive vests for suicide bombers, along with
indications that another 30 vests had been removed. U.S. forces have
also intercepted busloads of non-Iraqis entering the country,
especially from Syria. Many of these personnel were sent back,
Rumsfeld said, while others were detained as prisoners of war.
The Syrian government is "making a lot of bad judgment calls in my
view," Rumsfeld said on Meet the Press, "and they are associating with
the wrong people and that hurts the Syrian people."
On Face the Nation, Rumsfeld outlined the three basic phases of the
transition in Iraq. First, the war has to be won, meaning the last
pockets of resistance have to be eliminated, he said. The search for
weapons of mass destruction is part of this phase, according to
Rumsfeld, as well as the intelligence work to find Ba'ath Party
records and other critical information about the regime.
"We have to find the people on the war criminal list and we have to
find the people who would like a better life and would therefore would
be willing to cooperate with us," Rumsfeld said.
The second phase of the transition, according to Rumsfeld, is to
provide for the humanitarian needs of the people. Rumsfeld said the
United States has organized for that effort, with the assistance of
the international community. The third phase is for Iraqis to meet and
establish an interim government. "And then that constitution will have
a mechanism to select their permanent government and leadership,"
Rumsfeld said on Face the Nation. "And it will happen as soon as
possible, we hope."
On other subjects, Rumsfeld said that he remained confident that
coalition forces would eventually find the regime's weapons of mass
destruction. "The intelligence community has been over a period of
years reporting all kinds of information about the chemical and
biological activities, and the reinstitution of the nuclear program,"
Rumsfeld said on Meet the Press. "We're not going to find anything
until we find people who tell us where the things are. And we have
that very high on our priority list, to find the people who know."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)