Back. well, you are a busy beaver w/research!
And I thank you. this article esp resonates w/me. My brother walked out of the building 20 minutes before the bombing..
Each time I go visit him in OK city, the visit to the memorial is heart wrenching..
Iraqi Reconstruction Director Jay Garner, first press conference in Baghdad, Apr. 24, 2003:
Ret. General Jay Garner and Maj. Gen. Tim Cross (Ret) British Army:
Gives brief recap of his movements. "We arrived here Mon. Spent Mon. in Baghdad"..(too fast)
Lists staff: "I have a coordinator for Civil Administration, a coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, coordinator for Reconstruction, coordin. in the north who is in Urbil, in the south...in Umm Qasr -> moving north., Chief of Staff, Dept for Policy..." etc..
Questions:
Maj. Gen. Tim Cross (Ret) British Army, reassures press the US isn't doing this alone, along with him there are ...."2 other int'l officers..one from Japan, and one from Australia...will be joined by others later on." ( MG Cross's job is to internationalize the agency.)
JG: "I don't have a calendar for the length of time. We'll do it as fast as we can....I think you'll start to see the governmental process next week...and it will have Iraqi faces on it"..."As we start the reconstruction effort, when the Iraqis are ready to accept the leadsership, we'll turn it over to them - there' s no doubt of that."
JG: "We want to reopen the ministries next week...we have a coordinator for each ministry.".."If they have no furniture...we'll buy the furniture"..."It's very important that people start back to work...it's a good plan."
TC: "We are trying to int'l that, we're trying to int'l the teams that will work with the ministers..."No one's going to run the ministries, but the Iraqis themselves. We need to be absolutely clear about this."
Re. how to know who's trustworthy to hire - JG: "We need to do some vetting...we have a data base."
"That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard in my life." JG to a question I couldn't hear.
Re. oil: (General I didn't catch the name ):- "Oil is flowing in the south 175,000 barrels a day to the refinery in Basrah..and to the power plants in area...strictly for domestic...not export"...Also anticipate (more oil from north....and natural gas - sorry, see transcript)..
Re. money from the oil: JG: "They (the President, etc.) have been very emphatic that the oil for Iraq is for the people of Iraq." "Once sanctions have been lifted "..(oil will be sold... money will be for the Iraqi people)...
FoxNews left...turned to MSNBC:
TC: "Quite a lot of the stuff remains in Baghdad...one of the things we're going to do is find it." (re. looting of museum).
JG: "If those people who have the artifacts....(we've announced, or are announcing..) "if they bring them back there will be no repercussions.".
Re. JG's praise for the Kurds the other day (upsetting the Turks) - JG: "What I said is that in the 12 years since we've provided security up there and liberated the Kurds...that the Kurds have done a great job of (bringing a growing economy, parliament)..."I said that what they've done there could be a model for the rest of the country"...that up in the north...they can help by what they did - bringing Iraq back to the Dem. process.."
MSNBC cuts away - NO ONE IS showing this (~7:15 EST) - FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span and every other broadcast news network chooses not to show the American people this historic first press conference w/ the reconstruction team in Baghdad.