Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/25/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=PENTAGON / RUMSFELD (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-302585

BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA

DATELINE=PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says U-S officials are getting what he terms useful information from the interrogation of detained former Iraqi government figures. More from V-O-A Correspondent Alex Belida at the Pentagon.

TEXT: Mr. Rumsfeld will not specify what information U-S investigators have received in interrogations so far from senior Iraqi detainees.

But the U-S Defense Secretary tells reporters at the Pentagon the information is useful.

/// RUMSFELD ACTUALITY ///

You can be certain that the people who we have reason to believe have information are being interrogated by inter-agency teams and they are in fact providing information that is useful.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Among the latest and most prominent of the detainees is former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who surrendered to U-S officials in Baghdad this week.

Mr. Rumsfeld hopes Mr. Aziz will also provide crucial information -- perhaps on the fate of Saddam Hussein and his sons or the location of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons.

/// RUMSFELD ACTUALITY ///

He clearly is a very senior person and was in that regime and we intend to discuss with him whatever it is he is willing to discuss with us.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Mr. Rumsfeld will not say where those among Iraq's 55 most wanted former officials who like Mr. Aziz have been taken into U-S custody, are being held.

But he makes clear there are no plans to send either the prominent detainees or the seven-thousand or so other Iraqi prisoners to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where terrorists from Afghanistan are being held at the U-S Navy base.

Mr. Rumsfeld says it is more convenient and cost-effective to keep them in Iraq.

/// RUMSFELD ACTUALITY ///

To the extent they have to be held for some period of time, it's a lot more convenient to hold them in Iraqi prisons than it is to build prisons in Guantanamo and transport them down there.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Meanwhile, Mr. Rumsfeld says suspected sites where Iraq may have hidden its chemical and biological weapons are being explored on a continuing basis.

But he announces no significant discoveries, saying a long road lies ahead and asserts only a small fraction of the number of potential sites have been visited.

(Signed)

NEB/BEL/RH