*** Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - Day 16

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Pentagon briefing - Apr. 4:

Torie Clarke

Tribute to Mike Kelly -

"Many bad things that could have happened have not thus far...(oil fields, missiles at Israel, etc)...we have seriously weakened the regime of Saddam Hussein...pic of wheat being loaded on ship in Galveston, nearly 1 pound of flour for every man, woman and child in Iraq, pic of baby delivered by our military in Iraq..

"The regime would clearly do just about anything to hold onto power..." Iraqi facilities that may have been used for torture, police stat...ID's found of those who may have been tortured...

"Fear and terror is beginning to evaporate in Iraq." People rush to greet them...two questions most often asked: "can you stay?, will you tell my what time Saddam's finished?"

"The regime is fooling nobody."

"We will not stop until Iraq is free."

Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal:

Substantial no, of forces on ground at Baghd. airport...still engaging forces their - sporadic...Marines psuhing toward Al Kut...

Air craft flew over 1000 sorties...

Videos:

F-16 dropping prec. guided weapons on Iraqi troops hiding in Hadifah orchard -

Questions:

VC: "We have no idea where the tapes have come from...I just don't think it's that significant...doesn't matter who's dead or alive...they ahve less and less control of that country." "What we are focused on is continuing the kind of progress we've made so far " (Torie lists many successes...)..

VC: "We focus on results." We've made some pretty significant progress"..."We realize that the fighting from a desparate , dying regime could be pretty intense..

VC: "The communications ...in Iraq...up and down...I have no idea what people are seeing....there are more and more people in this country (Iraq) that are (condifent that Saddam's going to be gone soon)...

GM:"The regime deternmined early on...primary method of controlling its population is through the media.a..mobile systems, redundant...we've degraded it, but it's still (up some) "what we don't see is effective C&C from (Saddam's regime)..

GM:"We intend to limit those means to control the population (VC: and we're talking to the local people)...

GM: 'We believe that the RG 9which was 6) is now consisting of 4...confused...they have become intermixed...we velieve that each of those remaining four have been significantly (reduced)...nothing like when they started..."

GM: "We went into this expecting the unexpected...We've have to stay postured for anything this regime is capable of using."

GM: "What they're seeing is the doctrine and the synergy at work...surveillance, air, when we finally close w/ ground forces it is not even a fair fight...(we've already softened them up)..."There were some point contacts that were very violent, but the fabric, the cohesion of the defense isn't there"...

VC: "The first primary objective, obviously, is to win the war." (re. found possible WMDs) "It's not hard to speculate. These are people who have used (them). Not hard to speculate that they'd (do it again)...

Re. Iraqis taking off uniforms and fighting - GM: "Part of it is the action. What you do when you're not in uniform...in these cases the use of civilian clothing was expressly for the purpose of acting in a combatant way while hiding that they are combatants."

GM: "I (don't think) we've armed any elements outside of the Kurdish area. We're working with populations to (help them get rid of the bad guys)...

GM: "In the north, signifant Spec. Ops presence working w/ Kurds, bringing in Air division, in the West working on air fields, C&C, South...aid to Shias, etc., "probably the most effective and widest use of Spec. Ops in recent history."

Vince Crawley, Military Times...(Eugene Levy's evil twin) GM: "ID'ing those who give the order, suppression of their capability...air, and soft..go after their rocket systems, launch capabilities...to include (special ) targetting ..the Patriot w/ is engaged S-S and S-A missiles, we have bio, chem. prevention..they never had the potential to change the outcome...constantly surpressing their capability...."They have not fought logically from the beginning." We;ve got to be ready for the entire spectrum (of capability)...

VC: "It's hugely symbolic, though that's not why we do go in and do things...it's a big complex..(a lot of buildings, etc, around it) GM: "It's too early for us to use it for air ops." "It's a great location (near Baghdad)..

VC:"We deliberately didn't target some things because we didn't want them to be without water..(Torie lists once again our humanitarian aid...and the contrast between our guys and Saddam's regime)...

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