*EPF504 03/15/2002
Defense Department Report, March 15: Afghanistan, Commissions, NPR
(Operation Anaconda fighting "winding down," Rumsfeld says) (540)

OPERATION ANACONDA FIGHTING NOW IN MOP-UP PHASE

Combat operations are "winding down" in eastern Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told journalists at the Pentagon March 15, with troops searching caves and clearing areas where fighting took place.

Marine General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S., coalition and Afghan forces involved in the operation now number fewer than 1,000. Rumsfeld said the searchers are finding weapons, ammunition, and some intelligence information.

Both Rumsfeld and Pace refused to give estimates of total enemy forces killed and escaped, saying the number is not knowable. Pace, however, was able to give details about an incident during the fighting in which an enemy vehicle was attacked and destroyed. U.S. troops subsequently found eight dead fighters in the vehicle, along with three dead women and three dead children. One additional child was found alive but injured, and was immediately evacuated to a military field hospital for treatment, Pace said.

DECISIONS MADE ON MILITARY COMMISSIONS, RUMSFELD SAYS

"We have ... pretty much completed the work as to how the [military] commissions generally will be conducted, in the event someone is ultimately appointed to be tried by a commission," Rumsfeld said. "[W]e've come to conclusions with respect to 6, 8, 10, 12 of the critical issues, and then some of the decisions can be left to the convening authorities, as is the case in most judicial systems," he added. (President Bush directed in November that military commissions be provided for as an option in dealing with Taliban and al-Qaida detainees who come under U.S. military control.)

However, "We have made no decisions with respect to who might or might not be assigned to a commission," Rumsfeld said. Furthermore, he declined to elaborate on the issues that had been decided, saying, "if I were to give you a quick cursory summary, it would be pieces. And it seems to me it's critically important for people to look at the totality of it. Therefore, when we release it, it will be released in writing. There will be questions and answers, and we will see that there is as little confusion as is humanly possible," Rumsfeld explained.

NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW NOT AN EMBARRASSMENT, RUMSFELD SAYS

Asked whether he was personally embarrassed that news stories leaked classified details of the Defense Department's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) during the visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Rumsfeld replied, "The answer's no. I am disturbed by the leak because I think it's just enormously unprofessional."

Calling the review "a very fine piece of work," Rumsfeld noted that not only had the Russians been briefed on the report previously, but that Ivanov's visit during the publication of the stories provided a fortuitous occasion to brief the defense minister personally and in detail on its contents.

"There's nothing surprising nor particularly notable in there with respect to Russia," Rumsfeld said, "except for the fact that the president of the United States had indicated that he's going to draw down deployed ... [offensive] nuclear weapons by some two-thirds, ... which certainly ought not to disturb Russia or anyone else."

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

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