*EPF203 11/07/00
Defense Department Report, Tuesday, November 7
(Iraqi commercial flights, anti-leak legislation, forward deployment) (840)

Iraqi Commercial Flights Pose No Threat To No-Fly Zones

On the topic of whether recently-begun commercial flights within Iraq erode the effectiveness of the no-fly zones over Iraqi territory monitored by U.S. and British planes, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon answered in the negative and said that people must "distinguish between the sanctions and the no-fly zones."

The economic sanctions were imposed to force Iraq to meet certain provisions of U.N. Security Council Resolution 688, he said, while "the no-fly zone was imposed to keep Iraq from attacking its neighbors or attacking its own people, namely the Shi'a in the south and Kurdish people in the north. We think the no-fly zone has been successful in preventing Iraq certainly from mounting attacks against its neighbors but also from attacking its own people. And we think that they will continue to be successful even if Iraq continues these civilian flights -- the Baghdad to Basra shuttle, for instance."

Bacon said the U.S. military is able to "discriminate between military flights and mobilization flights on the one hand, and civilian flights on the other."

A reporter noted that when the no-fly zones were first announced, all flights had been barred by fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft below the 32nd parallel and above the 36th parallel, and asked when it was interpreted to mean that civilian flights were not included.

Bacon said the purpose of the no-fly zones "has not changed in the least, and that is to prevent military mobilizations. In 1997, Iraq did use some helicopters to fly pilgrims back from the Haj (religious pilgrimage) and we allowed that and made it very clear that we weren't going to shoot down civilian aircraft that didn't pose any military threat to Iraqi neighbors or to its own people. That was our policy in 1997 and that's our policy today."

Asked whether the Iraqi civilian flights, using converted military transports, can be identified as civilian by the U.S. military, Bacon said the Iraqis have "used a variety of planes...some helicopters, some smaller planes...and they have repainted some IL-76's to use to carry passengers...on the way from Baghdad to Mosul. They've only been doing it for three days but they tend to be on a fairly predictable pattern. They leave in the morning from Baghdad (and) come back in the afternoon.

"We can clearly distinguish between the civilian flights both by the size of the planes and their routes, and military flights, and will continue to do that."

He added that the Iraqis are following normal procedures in filing internally their flight planes.

Asked whether there is danger to the civilian aircraft "given the activity in surface-to-air batteries and things like that," Bacon said that was an interesting point since "the Iraqis have been firing wildly at times at the coalition U.S. and British planes enforcing the no-fly zone and obviously there is some risk that, due to lack of communications or over-enthusiasm, that they might fire at one of their own planes.

He said the United States is being "very careful" to distinguish between civilian and military planes "and we hope they're being as careful."

ANTI-LEAK BILL GETS PRESIDENTIAL VETO

Responding to a question on the Defense Department's reaction to President Clinton's veto of the Intelligence Authorization Act's provisions on leaking of classified information, Bacon said there were obvious differences on "the best way" to stop leaks, but he stressed that "the weight of opinion was that we have to do a better job of controlling leaks than we have."

He said the president's veto message alluded to misclassification of information that led to his veto of the bill, legislation which some felt was "too sweeping" and "too clumsy." However, Bacon said, "Many of the leaks that have been published in the last few years have been damaging leaks based on legitimately classified information." Such leaks, he said, reveal sources and methods and make it harder for the United States to deal with its allies in intelligence-sharing operations.

BACON LISTS FORWARD DEPLOYMENT FIGURES

Asked about U.S. troop deployments overseas, Bacon said the United States' largest deployments are in Europe and in Asia, with 100,000 forwardly-deployed troops in each region. The Asia group includes 70,000 in South Korea. Bacon also listed: Operation Southern Watch in Iraq with 17,000 troops; Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia and adjoining countries with 6,000 troops; Joint Guardian in Kosovo and Macedonia with 6,000; and "currently 2,400, mainly Army, as part of Operation Desert Spring in Kuwait, as well as 1,900 in Turkey as part of Northern Watch."

Asked whether Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, who has suggested a cutback in deployments, had asked for a briefing from the Pentagon, Bacon said Secretary Cohen had offered him one "but he did not avail himself of it."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http:// usinfo.state.gov)
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