03 August 2001

Defense Department Report: Iraq; Russia Consultations

Defense Secretary Says Iraq's Air Defenses Have Been Improved

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters August 3 that it appears that Iraqi air defenses have been "quantitatively and qualitatively improved" since they were degraded in February by coalition air strikes.

He attributed some up the air defense upgrade to the installation of fiber optic communications cables that enable various sites to be linked together for greater coverage. Although some fiber optics were destroyed in February, he said, they were later re-laid by the Iraqis, which raises the question of the value of air strikes and the duration of their effect. "And one tends to want to do things that will have somewhat more lasting effects," Rumsfeld added.

In examining what possible action might be taken against the Iraqis in response to their efforts to try and shoot down coalition aircraft, the secretary said the regional commanders have a range of options available to them.

Asked about the recent comment by National Security Affairs Adviser Condoleezza Rice on the need for a more resolute response to Iraqi tactics, Rumsfeld declined to comment.

"Our interest," he said, "is in understanding what's taking place in that country" through the pattern of coalition aircraft flights that are being conducted.- "If, in the last analysis, you're reasonably comfortable that you have a reasonable understanding of what's taking place on the ground, which gives you a reasonable warning time, then ... it ends up with a not unsatisfactory outcome from the standpoint of the Northern and Southern No-Fly Zones."

Rumsfeld Will Brief Russians On U.S. Strategic Issues

Rumsfeld said he and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith will host a team of Russians next week for an exchange of information on how to make the relationship between the United States and Russia more normal, natural and workable.

This follows the distribution of a U.S. paper in Moscow, prepared by the U.S. national security team, which the Russians have been reviewing. The secretary said he expects them to have a number of questions to raise with U.S. defense officials and Joint Staff policy officers. The two sides will discuss some planned U.S. nuclear reductions with respect to the Peacekeeper missile and some ideas regarding the Trident submarine, he said.

Following the U.S.-provided briefings, Rumsfeld said he hoped the Russians would have "a much more detailed understanding of the kinds of things we're thinking about with respect to our offensive and defensive capabilities and the various ways that our two countries can cooperate" in political, economic and security arenas.

He plans to travel to Moscow on August 13 to meet with his counterpart to follow up on a previous meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov as well as the July Bush-Putin talks in Genoa.

Rumsfeld pointed out that there is considerable remaining "baggage" between the United States and Russia left over from Cold War days.

It exists in people's minds, in the structure of their relationships, and in existing treaties, he said. It will take time to work through it all, the secretary said, to "see if we can't set the relationship on a different basis, on a basis that is not premised on hostility between the two countries, that is not premised on fear as to the possibility of an attack by the old Soviet Union into Western Europe, that is hopefully premised on the 21st century and the kinds of technologies that exist today and the kinds of relationships we have with other nations in the world that are not hostile relationships."