DoD News Briefing
Thursday, October 16, 1997 - 1:10 p.m. (EDT)
Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD (PA)
...................
Q: The Iraqi Congress Opposition Group is saying from Turkey that Iraq is building up its military in northern Iraq in the no-fly zone, no claim that 200 tanks and about 10,000 troops are concentrated about 30 kilometers southwest of Arbil. Do you have anything on that?
A: I do not, but I can tell you that many reports by the Iraqi National Congress turn out not to be completely accurate. Let me tell you what's going on here.
Normally Iraq has about 100,000 troops in northern Iraq along the Kurdish autonomous zone border. those 100,000 troops include two divisions of Republican Guards. Currently Iraq is conducting its fall exercises, so there are some movements of troops as part of these fall exercises, but we have not seen any unusual movements taking place in northern Iraq in recent days. But I want to point out that there is a fairly significant military force there on a regular basis.
Finally, in terms of the no-fly zone, I've said in the past that there have been occasional violations of the northern no-fly zone. We have not seen anything new in terms of stationing aircraft there. That, to the best of my knowledge, has not happened.
Q: So I take it you haven't any indication of any unusual tank concentration...
A: We do not.
Q: You said they are not stationing airplanes in the northern area, but is it violating the northern no-fly zone since the last briefing?
A: He has been, I believe, in the last couple of days there's been one or two violations.
Q: Fixed wing again?
A: Yes.
Q: Surveillance flights?
A: We believe so.
There has been some fighting among Kurdish groups -- the two Kurdish factions, the PUK and the KDP, in northern Iraq. There have been, we think, some observation flights in connection with that fighting.
Q: Do you have any information about the individuals on board the C-130 evidently from the UAE and Pakistan? They seem to have told local officials that they were involved in a military exercise. Were they involved in any kind of training or anything with the United States? They'd come from Dulles and were heading to England?
A: No, they were not here on a training mission that involved the United States. They were transiting through the United States with State Department permission. We're looking into the circumstances of the flight right now, but they certainly had permission to fly through the United States with that UAE C-130.
Q: So they weren't participating in any kind of military exercise in connection with U.S. forces?
A: Not that I'm aware of.
Q: There are reports that the plane was carrying two Mercedes, weapons, and ammunition. Do you have any sense of what their purpose for transiting the United States was, their origin? I guess their ultimate destination was back in the UAE.
A: I assume that was the case. We're looking into the details of this flight now, and I don't have anything for you on it.
Q: Did the State Department consult the Pentagon when they gave the UAE permission to make this transit?
A: I'm not aware that they did, but I'm not aware that they normally consult with us when they give countries transit rights.
...................Q: Can you give us an update on MIRACL? Have any possible test dates been identified yet?
A: I dodged specific test dates on Tuesday, and with perfect consistency I'm going to dodge again today on the same basis. We haven't been very good at predicting test dates and carrying out the tests, but we believe that the period during which tests can be completed will end on about October 23rd, so any test they hope to conduct will have to be done relatively soon.
Q: What happens if they're not conducted in that timeframe?
A: They're not conducted.
Q: Does that mean they have to scrap the whole...
A: That's my understanding, yes, unless the experts figure out that there's a longer period of time during which to conduct the test. But my understanding is they predict that this satellite will go into eclipse, as they say, on October 23rd, and that tests won't be possible after that.
Q: Is this the only target of opportunity or are there other aging satellites up there that may provide...
A: All the focus has been on this one. What makes this an attractive target for the test -- remember the purpose of the test is to evaluate the vulnerability of our own systems. What makes this attractive is that it was a satellite that had sensors on it -- infrared and other sensors on it. It was actually put up to test sensor packages. So it's a good target for testing the laser.
...................
Q: Is the Pentagon ready to ask or demand that our government ask the Russian government to cooperate in a complete accounting of its military weapons? Especially its nuclear weapons that might be missing or available to the black market? This grows out of Mr. Yabakov and Mr. Ledbed's testimony and the Customs sting down in Miami and a few other things.
A: First of all, this is an issue of great importance and seriousness to our government and to the Russian government as well, and we've had a number of discussions with them about the whereabouts and fate of their nuclear weapons.
The government of Russia claims they have good controls over these weapons, and I think you were here when former Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodianov spoke to that specific question.
There was an article in, I think it's in the recent issue of Foreign Affairs by the former Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch, in which he said there have been many reports of lost or missing or stolen or improperly transported Russian nuclear weapons, but that these reports generally, almost overwhelmingly turn out not to be true. Nuclear materials as well as nuclear weapons. But this is an area of continuing discussion between the United States and Russia. As I say, it's something both governments take seriously and we'll continue to pursue this with them.
We do have a program, an extremely successful program called the Nunn/Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program which has been extremely important in reducing and controlling the nuclear threat in Russia, and some of that money has been directed to the security of nuclear weapons.
Q: Some very credible people in Russia have said the Russian statements....
A: I understand that. We take this issue very seriously and we're looking into it.
Q: But that means that playing it safe here is not the best policy? I mean, wouldn't that be the best policy? To ask for them to...
A: I don't know how many ways I can say this. This is an issue of continuing concern to our government and to the Russian government. We have continuing conversations with them about this. We have a well funded government program called the Nunn/Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program that's designed to work on this particular issue. It's something that our intelligence people watch closely. It's something that our military officials watch very closely. And it's something that our diplomats spend a lot of time on.
Press: Thank you.
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