*EPF202 02/20/01
Defense Department Report, Tuesday, February 20
(Greeneville inquiry, Russian missile defense, FBI spy) (880)

RUMSFELD SUPPORTS CIVILIAN GUESTS ON MILITARY VESSELS, AIRCRAFT

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has "expressed his support for the worth of having an orientation program for citizens to go out and see what their Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps can do," Defense spokesman Admiral Craig Quigley said, in response to a question on the advisability of permitting civilians on military craft in the aftermath of the recent collision between a U.S. submarine and a Japanese fishing vessel.

He said Rumsfeld's comments came at a senior staff meeting the morning of February 20. Rumsfeld will ultimately advise the armed services on how and when civilian guests may take part in orientation cruises and flights on military vessels and aircraft, he added.

"Also, by the same token [he will] take a look, as the President has asked him to do, about the particulars of this, and issue the appropriate guidance to the services," Quigley said.

SURVEY OF EHIME MARU CONTINUES, TO ASSESS POSSIBILITY OF RAISING SHIP

The two robotic submersibles the Navy has tasked with surveying the Ehime Maru continue to do a survey of the sea bottom and "are accomplishing the same purpose in trying to do a detailed bottom survey in the vicinity of the ship itself as it sits on the bottom," he said. Detailing the sequence of events, he said that for the next several days the submersibles Deep Drone and Super Scorpio will "conduct this detailed survey of the bottom in the immediate vicinity of the ship." Quigley said that "when they have that survey data in hand," the government will solicit proposals from world-class salvage corporations as to how they might accomplish raising the vessel.

"We still don't know if it is technically feasible to raise that ship. We don't have any in-house expertise in the Department of Defense that is capable of doing that, but there may be commercial salvage firms somewhere in the world that have that capability," he said. "We will provide the bottom survey information, as well as whatever other information might be useful to those salvage companies for them to consider whether that company can perform a salvage of that vessel," and if it is technically feasible, the vessel will be raised.

Responding to a question on whether cameras will be permitted in the room where the Court of Inquiry on the accident will convene, Quigley said he believes the Navy will follow Federal Court procedure "and that is to do an audio and video feed into some separate room ... to allow reporters to be present for reporting purposes, but no cameras or recording devices in the courtroom itself." There will be a sketch artist, he said.

DOD WILL STUDY FBI SPY CASE TO SEE IF INTELLIGENCE CHANGES ARE NEEDED

Asked whether the FBI has briefed the Pentagon on the case of an agent who allegedly passed secrets to Russia, Quigley said "certainly not in a formal way" yet, adding that from their current information they do not see any direct involvement with DOD. "But I'm sure as that case plays itself out, and more details are known, we're going to be very interested in the overall understanding of what he may have compromised," he said.

He added: "With intelligence issues being as cross-cutting as they are today and impacting on several agencies at once, it is entirely possible that DOD will care very much about some of the information that is brought to light as this case continues." He said the DOD will work with the Justice Department and try to learn if any changes are needed in procedures or equipment that would have a real impact on some of the counter-intelligence issues that were discussed by FBI Director Louis Freeh.

DOD WELCOMES RUSSIAN PROPOSAL FOR EUROPEAN MISSILE DEFENSE PLAN

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev February 20 handed to NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson the Russian proposal for a European missile defense system, Quigley said, adding that the Defense Department wants more detail and "will take a look at the proposal in the days and weeks ahead."

"We're very heartened by the fact that by this action [the Russians] acknowledge that there is a very real missile and WMD [weapons of mass destruction] threat to Europe," he said. The manner in which the proposal was portrayed by Minister Sergeyev as it was given to Lord Robertson "does not include any protection for the continental United States under the proposal as we know it," Quigley added,

It was portrayed, he said, as a European missile defense as an alternative proposal to the U.S. missile defense system. "That's good, as far as it goes, but it doesn't do anything to provide missile defense for the United States," Quigley said. "We haven't seen it yet; we're eager to do so. Let's see where we can cooperate. If the Russians have a proposal there that would make sense and do some good in protecting Europe from missile attack and weapons of mass destruction, let's have a look and see where we might cooperate."

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