Posted on 04/27/2003 9:03:58 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Operation Dirty Laundry. Good luck!
I'm off to take a child for a check up. That usually means my whole morning is blown.
LOL!
Putting away clean laundry is the part I hate. I'd rather iron than face drawers. LOL!
Steve Doocey said to Brian Kilmede something like, "Stepped in? You beat him up!" Details, please. (^:
LOL! Good moooorning Situation Room! Anybody see Nancy Harmon (D) on Fox. She's all a dither that we haven't found WMD, says some may have been destroyed and some may have been hidden, but we had just better hurry up and find it or it's going to give her "pause". sigh
What I wish the anchors had brought up was how much time Hussein was given by the French, Germans, Russians and UN to hide or destroy WMD while we were "negotiating". I still think we are going to find some BTW.
Prairie--(hope Saddam is lying dead somewhere on his birthday today).
Memo to Nancy Pelosi: A Failed Plan?
1. We took Iraq in less time than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.
2. It took less time to find evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
3. It took Teddy Kennedy longer to call the police after his Oldsmobile sunk at Chappaquiddick than it took the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard.
4. We took Iraq in less time than it took to count the votes in Florida in the year 2000!
And the Democrats called the Iraq effort a failed plan?
DoD Transcripts:
*Rumsfeld with Abu Dhabi Television - Apr. 27
*Rumsfeld and Franks at Abu Dhabi Stakeout - Apr. 27
CENTCOM - Apr. 28:
*1-3 AIR DEFENSE ARTILLERY, SOF, ASSIST TOWN WITH FIRST ELECTION
*BAGHDAD MEETING POOL 7
*BAGHDAD MEETING POOL 6
*BAGHDAD POOL REPORT 5
*BAGHDAD MEETING POOL 3 & 4
*BAGHDAD MEETING POOL 2
*BAGHDAD MEETING POOL 1
Rummy = Energizer Bunny, lol!
Today's DNC talking points: "are we there, yet?" re. WMDs. They just don't listen.
For the impatient, worried and misinformed press and pols: WMD info from CENTCOM - proven trustworthy experts running this war (stop listening to the 'Joe the village liars' who are working to undermine our efforts in Iraq):
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks:
Q Martha Brant with Newsweek. I've got a couple of questions about WMD...Do you know how many of the teams in Iraq are actually dedicated specifically to WMD? I'm just trying to better understand the system in place, if CENTCOM is a clearing house for that info. And how does it work?
GEN. BROOKS: Well, let me give you some of that. First, we continue to receive more and more bits of information. Some of this comes from individuals that we take into our custody. Some of it is offered freely by citizens that have some piece of information.
As I mentioned before, we did organize for what we call site exploitation, which means that we have teams that have been dedicated solely to that purpose. The METs, the mobile exploitation teams, are only one example of that. And I'll come back to what they are and how they are configured in just a moment.
But with each piece of information, we go and we pursue it, see if there's something there that's worthy of further examination. It may be in some cases that tactical units receive the information first. Someone that's local or someone that's taken into custody says, "I have something I think you ought to see." And they'll take a tactical unit to a location and begin an initial examination.
All of our tactical units have the ability to do some initial detection of chemicals, and they use their equipment, which is very sensitive but nevertheless doesn't provide full confirmation of what an agent might be. If there's something that requires further examination as a result of these initial finds or something that looks suspicious or some papers, perhaps, that might indicate they are associated with a chemical, biological or other weapon-of-mass-effect program, then more examination will occur.
When there's a suspected agent involved -- and I mean a chemical or a biological agent involved -- we may commit additional assets. For example, there are some mobile systems we have. A chemical reconnaissance vehicle that's common to several of our units has the ability to do some onboard testing to try to narrow down what the agent might potentially be. That's happened in several cases.
In some of those cases we found, at a later time, that the materials were dual-use. They could have been used in a weapons program; they might also have been used in an agricultural program. And the quantities and substances were not something that would indicate weaponization.
There's yet another layer, and that's where these teams come in. We have teams that have been organized that have a variety of embedded capabilities. They're what we call inter-agency teams. So there might be someone that has expertise in nuclear, somebody that has expertise in chemical, someone that has expertise in biological, someone that has expertise in weapons themselves, someone that has expertise in artillery systems, all these things. They're task-organized. And if there's something that's suspected that may not be part of that team, we'll find the expertise added to the team and then put the team in place.
It is mobile. What that means is it can go to a variety of places in the country where we happen to find pieces of information. We've done a number of those at this point. Some of them have been to sites that we, before the war, anticipated might still be involved in the weapons-of-mass-destruction program.
We know that in the past they have been, but they haven't been examined in all cases. We've been to a number of those as we worked our way through the western desert, as we approached closer to Baghdad, as we took control of some depots and facilities like airfields.
Beyond that, as we find these additional bits of information that would indicate that things are buried, hidden, dispersed, disassembled, all these types of information that we're currently receiving, we go off on what we refer to as an ad hoc search, something that wasn't pre-planned but something nevertheless that we can respond to.
In reality, for every one of the ones we have planned, we're finding two or three more that require an ad hoc search, and so that work is ongoing. It's very deliberate. We don't get excited about it at the first indication. You've probably noticed that by now. And the reason is because it requires detailed examination.
When the mobile exploitation teams find something that's worthy of further examination from their part that exceeds their technical ability or that requires further verification, they can be evacuated to the United States for a more detailed examination.
And we've had some cases of that thus far. There have been some cases of that, where we've had some samples, for example, that have been taken back for further examination. And that's where we get the confirmation that, yes, it might be chemical, but it might be dual-use as well.
And so this is a very deliberate process. The most important part of it, frankly, is that with every day that goes by we get more and more information. We have more pieces of the puzzle being revealed to us. And, given some of the players that we are currently taking into our custody and those we continue to seek, we remain confident that we'll find the evidence of the program that's been in place in Iraq for some time.
_____
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks:
GEN. BROOKS: First, on the WMD, we did organize ourselves to have a number of teams that could go into sites and do what we refer to as exploitation, which is really doing a detailed examination to see if there's the types of things you described -- information, delivery systems, preparation, storage, or anything else that might pertain to the program, including information about how they may have been hidden.
At this point we have a number of teams that are operating out there. I don't know the exact number of teams that are currently in action at different sites. What we do have is several things that have been examined. Some have not proven to be chemical weapons, for example. Some prove to be agricultural, although they were stored in a way that would not indicate a normal use for agriculture. But nevertheless, we determined that those were agricultural products.
We have seen chemical protection-related things in a number of areas, chemical defense-related items. We certainly have encountered a number of delivery systems that have been captured or destroyed -- the Al-Samoud missiles, the Ababil-100 missiles, certain free rockets over ground -- that are capable of carrying chemical weapons.
But the real heavy-duty work of being able to get into sites and getting detailed access to people who have knowledge and the facilities about which they may have knowledge, that's ongoing. And we're really just in the earliest stages of that.
It is indeed true that as we came close to the cessation of hostilities, we'd have more and more opportunities and more and more access. And that's bearing out to be true. But it's very much putting together pieces of a puzzle, one piece at a time. And when you see the shape of the one piece, you can see how it may relate to other pieces that are out there. That's ongoing. It's deliberate work. And we remain confident in our approach.
________
As we find units on the battlefield, we've certainly encountered protective chemical protective equipment -- atropine injectors that were purchased under the oil-for-food program, a number of other things that indicated a readiness for operating in a chemically-contaminated environment, and we don't use chemicals. So that reinforces that someone expected that there might be chemical use on the battlefield.
And then so beyond that each one of these pieces is put back together. We move to different areas where things are buried. We've uncovered them, done some initial examination -- found other things that are buried that have yet to be excavated, and that work is ongoing. It's a very deliberate process. It requires diligence, focus and good information, and that information has to be harvested from different sources over time.
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