18 March 2004
Bremer Says Terrorists Trying to Break the Will of Iraqi People
Says attacks will not succeed in goal
By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Security Affairs Writer
Washington -- Anyone who says that terrorists don't have a global reach or are not willing to attack any type of target "are denying reality," says Ambassador Paul Bremer.
Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator in Iraq, issued a statement March 18 calling an apparent suicide car bomb explosion in the Karrada District of Baghdad a day earlier the "latest outrage" against unarmed innocent Iraqi civilians.
"From Nairobi to New York to Bali to Moscow to Karbala and Irbil, earlier bombings have circled the globe," Bremer said. "Those who deny that terrorists are operating around the globe and are willing to attack any target -- are denying reality."
In a statement read by his senior adviser, Dan Senor, Bremer said terrorists are trying to halt Iraqi progress toward democracy by attacking targets that offer the greatest opportunity to inflict mass casualties. The goal of the terrorists is to break the will of the Iraqi people, he said, but Iraqis "have waited too long for democracy;" the Iraqi people "will not be cowed by these terrorists."
Bremer vowed to "stand with the people of Iraq against terrorism."
U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for Coalition Joint Task Force-7, concurred, saying that the coalition remains resolute in its mission "to hunt down extremists who attack innocent civilians and stand in the way of a free, democratic and sovereign Iraq."
Kimmitt, who joined Senor in briefing reporters on the March 17 incident, said that Iraqi police, fire and medical teams -- with backing from coalition forces -- responded to the bombing near the Mount Lebanon Hotel. He said it is not certain if the hotel was the intended target, because the crater caused by the explosion occurred in the middle of the street and the vehicle conceivably could have moved much closer to the structure, thereby, causing even greater damage. The military officer said it was possible that the vehicle packed with explosives could have been "prematurely detonated, or, may have been hit by another vehicle, rear-ended, causing the detonation."
Kimmitt said no one is sure of either the motivation behind the attack or the designated target. An investigation of the attack is under way and forensic experts are still examining the evidence.
Kimmitt did seek to squelch rumors the vehicle might have been destroyed by an incoming missile rather than a detonation, an interpretation that could be suggested by the way car and body parts were strewn in many directions. When a tragedy like this occurs, he said, it is not uncommon for grief and anger to be turned against the coalition and be manifest in the form of malicious rumors.
Senor said coalition forces are working hard "to better develop the counterterrorism capabilities ... and the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the Iraqi security forces."
In a follow-on briefing in Baghdad, U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, commander of the First Armored Division, reported that the number of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad has "just crested 10,000" on the way to a goal of 19,000. He also said recruitment is complete now for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), with training under way. The ICDC is equipped militarily except for trucks and communications gear.
Right now, Dempsey said, 47,000 ICDC, New Iraqi Army and Coalition forces are responsible for Baghdad's security. Recent attacks against hotels in Iraq, including Baghdad and Basra on March 18, reflect "a tendency to attack those establishments that have a Western character to them," he said.
Dempsey also provided his assessment of "Operation Iron Promise." He said 88 individuals were captured, one of whom "we absolutely know has a linkage between one of the international terrorist organizations and one of the extreme religious organizations that we know operates inside of Baghdad." It also resulted in the collection of 109 rifles, 44 rocket-propelled grenade-launchers, 71 artillery rounds, 54 sticks of dynamite and 10 machine guns.
Of the effort to combat attacks in Iraq, Dempsey said: "the single biggest impediment to gaining intelligence on homegrown domestic terrorism is an unwillingness on the part of the Iraqi people to acknowledge it." They have the misconception, he explained, "that all problems are outside problems. And, it's just not true."
He also acknowledged the difficulty of eradicating terrorism. It is much easier, he said, "to fight an enemy that fights you conventionally and who fights you in some similar fashion ... than it is to fight an enemy who uses the tools of terror."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who granted a series of broadcast interviews on March 16 at the Pentagon, said that security in Iraq varies across different parts of the country and even from month to month. "We've seen the peaks and valleys. And I think what I would say to people in Iraq -- if they're concerned about security -- is that they ought to be concerned," he said, "It's a dangerous place. And it's a battle in place and it has been for some time."
(The Washington File is a product of 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=2004&m=March&x=20040318175818sjhtrop0.5174066&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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