*EPF205 03/23/2004
Transcript: Defense Dept. transformed to respond to terrorism, Rumsfeld Says
(Defense Secretary Says U.S. Actions in Afghanistan Successful) (1020)
The Bush administration understood the terrorist threat from the time it took office and reshaped the Defense Department to respond to that threat, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said March 22.
"When we came into this Pentagon three years ago, we began the process of helping the department move from being capable of dealing with just armies, navies, and air forces [to] focusing more on the asymmetrical threats including terrorism", Rumsfeld said at a Defense Department (DOD) briefing.
He also said the decision to go into Afghanistan led to an enormously successful activity that took a relatively short period of time.
"The al-Qaida training camps were destroyed, pressure was put on the al-Qaida and the Taliban was thrown out of power, and we now have a success story in Afghanistan with a new government, a new constitution and elections to be held later this year," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld made his remarks soon after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Rumsfeld described the progress being made in Colombia in the fight against terrorism as "impressive" and said that Colombia's leadership "is focused and determined and courageous."
Following is a transcript of Rumsfeld's remarks:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of Defense News Briefing
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
March 22, 2004
(Also participating Colombian President Alvaro Uribe)
SECRETARY RUMSFELD: We had good discussions and had a chance to review the progress being made, and I must say that I find the progress being made in Colombia to be impressive. The leadership there is focused and determined and courageous, and has my respect and admiration.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary could you comment on the importance of increasing the number of military personnel in Colombia?
RUMSFELD: Well that is a question being considered by the Colombian government and the United States government and the Department of State and the Congress. There are a lot of people in discussions now, and we'll see what finally comes out.
URIBE: And I want to thank Secretary Rumsfeld for your continuing help to Colombia.
Q: Mr. Secretary, others in the administration spoke out today [inaudible] the very beginning this administration did not understand or fully address the threat from terrorism or al-Qaida. How would you answer that?
RUMSFELD: Well I think that any number of people in the administration responded to that and have answered it. Clearly having been the Middle East envoy after the Marines were killed in Beirut, Lebanon, in the 1980's I've been interested in and concerned about and involved, in one way or another, in the problems of terrorism; and you should remember that, above all, when we came into this Pentagon three years ago, we began the process of helping the department move from being capable of dealing with just armies, navies, and air forces, and focusing more on the asymmetrical threats including terrorism. That has been a focus of ours from the outset.
The work, as [National Security Advisor] Condi Rice mentioned this morning, the NSC [National Security Council] began the process of working through a plan to deal with al-Qaida from the early days of the administration and so it seems to me.--.the comments that struck me as unusual are the ones about Iraq. Because if you think about it, we were having our planes shot at on a regular basis in Operation Northern Watch and Southern Watch. We're concerned about the fact that that was the one place on the face of the earth where a country, in this case Iraq, was firing on the aircrews of the United States and the United Kingdom that were enforcing U.N. resolutions. So there's no question that there was discussion about Iraq, and it was in that context.
Q: Mr. Clarke alleges that you were pushing to bomb Iraq immediately after 9/11 in response to that attack.
RUMSFELD: I think you're mistaken. I can remember, in fact I said publicly in a press briefing, that -- I think the way I put it was -- someone asked about targets in Afghanistan and I said: "we're not running out of targets, Afghanistan is." I think I said something to that effect.
The problem was that, if you think about Afghanistan, is that it had years of being damaged through civil war, through occupation by the Soviet Union, through drought, and there were relatively few terrorist targets that one could go after from the air. That's why we immediately began the pressure to put forces on the ground, and I can certainly remember saying that Afghanistan did not have many targets because at some point, when you dealt with the terrorist training camps, you begin to just go back at them and bounce in the rubble, and that doesn't accomplish much; in fact the cross-benefit of that is notably adverse to the United States.
RUMSFELD: I'm a little cold. I'll take one last question.
Q: [Inaudible] Mr. Secretary others in the administration have spoken out today -- [blank spot] -- from the very beginning this administration did not understand or fully address the question of terrorism and al-Qaida. How would you answer that?
RUMSFELD: That's just not true. I mean, the fact of the matter is, the president decided to go into Afghanistan, we did. It was an enormously successful activity; it took a relatively short period of time. The al-Qaida training camps were destroyed, pressure was put on the al-Qaida and the Taliban was thrown out of power, and we now have a success story in Afghanistan with a new government, a new constitution and elections to be held later this year. That's obviously what took place. I can't speak for everyone in the building; it is true we were talking about the fact [that] our planes were being shot at in Iraq, but in terms of connecting it the way some seem to want to do it seems to me would be a misunderstanding of the situation.
RUMSFELD: I said only one more.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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