WEBVTT

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uh

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this is just a child . Would you

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please give us more details about the

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former operation ? What kind of

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resistance are you facing in Samara ?

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And my second question is we've heard

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this week , a lot of accusations

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against Iran that the Iranian

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government is supporting the insurgency

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and there is some inspiration from the

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Iranian Revolutionary Guards . Do you

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have any information on that ?

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Let me handle the first part of your

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question . First of all , it's warmer

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was an operation on the desert . It

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really marked a change and it marks an

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evolution our ability to get outside

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many of the large metropolitan areas

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and begin to do and conduct operations

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intelligence . We received both from U .

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S . Sources from Iraqi sources uh in

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areas where we think insurgent networks

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are operating . Uh and that's really

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why the size of the operation was the

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way it was , is that it was a huge area

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10 kilometers by 10 kilometers . We had

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intelligence that we had anti coalition

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terrorists and foreign fighters working

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in that area . Uh and it took a lot of

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Iraqi soldiers and us support To get

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into the area that we wanted to work .

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We'll be in there for a couple of days

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searching for cash , eight . Um uh ,

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the amount of resistance we had was

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very very light I think the last count

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I had is that we have 31 individuals

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that we have detained but we found

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caches of just about everything uh ,

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that you find everything from 120

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millimeter rockets to 107 millimeter

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rocket , 130 30 millimeters project

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those mortars . Uh , some s A seven

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components uh , and ammunition . So we

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found what you would expect to find ,

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what we expected to find out . There

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will continue to look for cash days ,

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uh , and any other terrorists and

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foreign players that might be in the

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area . Uh , as far as Iran , we watched

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developments that are happening in Iran

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all the time . Uh , and I really don't

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have any other comment about that

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except to say that that's something

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we're looking at all the time uh , to

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see what impact they're having inside

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Iraq General Jim

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Manion from France Presse . You said

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that the carrion violence of paper

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down on the other

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hand , there have been the face of

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killings of civilians in

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people who have been shot strangled

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and left in many buses are on the

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side of the road . So who is behind

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that ? Uh , the security forces

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involved in that . And uh part of that

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question , during the operation ,

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after the February 22

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operation , some of the security forces

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allowed militiamen go through their

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lines in Baghdad . What , what has been

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done about that ? Uh huh . Well , the

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Iraqi army's performances , I like I

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said , it's been absolutely magnificent .

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I don't know in every case who's

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conducting these ? I think some of them

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are conducted by Al Qaeda in Iraq ,

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some of these events that to make it

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look like it's sectarian , but there's

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no doubt in my mind , there's

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retribution being taken by both sides

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by groups of individuals , some of them

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may be militias , some of them just

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maybe angry young men who go out and

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conduct some of these these horrible

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attacks . And I know way want to

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downplay this violence , it's

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absolutely deplorable . Uh , and we

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have , we have kicked off the scales of

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Justice to give Iraqis confidence that

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Iraqi security forces , the coalition

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forces , particularly in Baghdad , are

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there in larger numbers , are there ?

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They see him on the street a lot more .

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And I think that operation is having

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the fact we want uh inside Baghdad . Um ,

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so I see that as a positive thing and I

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will tell you that the attacks that you

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speak of have tapered off in the last

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few days and we hope to continue that

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way . But I also know that we could see

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more and I expect to see more . But the

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scales of justice is working operations

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like swarmer where we're able to get

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out of the large areas and get out into

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some of the locations where we have not

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been able to focus forces uh

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and take down uh many of the

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locations where terrorists and foreign

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fighters and insurgents are both

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operating from uh and holding their

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supplies are very , very important in

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working to stabilize Iraq and

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make that the opportunities for

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violence less

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really general this is lisa burgess

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with stars and stripes . I believe we

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spoke last week to the Shiite commander

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of Iraq's army divisions . And he told

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you at that time that the public order

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battalions for the Ministry of Interior

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was his worst problem . And he said , I

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quote , when the Minister of Interior

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Forces come , the people say the

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Shiites are here to kill the civilians .

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If the Iraqi security forces are going

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to be key to preventing civil war ,

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they're going to have to be seen as

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neutral brokers . If a Shiite commander

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is himself identifying that as an issue ,

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how do you see that happening ,

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first of all , as you know , national

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police units ? And this is the year of

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the police and we'll be working very ,

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very hard with many of those units . I

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think what that commander told me was

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the perception was , and I thought that

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was a very important point . He didn't

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actually accused those forces of doing

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that . He said , the perception was

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that these largely Shia units and many

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of them are , many of the national

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police units have a large percentage of

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Shia in their ranks . These

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organizations were perceived by people

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in a time of heightened sectarian

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conflict like we had and particularly

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the area where this was taking place in

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and around the nor one area we're

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creating that kind of perception . Uh ,

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and I quite frankly , uh , saw that as

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a very important statement from him .

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He did not accused Iraqi security

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forces of Iraqi National Police of in

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fact doing that . He indicated the

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perception of some of the people . And

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I think that's a natural phenomenon

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that's going to happen . But we will be

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working very , very hard with all the

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police , the local police that I think

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are sometimes forgotten over here . Uh ,

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critical place that they have uh , in

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securing the metropolitan areas , the

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large urban areas and some of the

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smaller villages that they have regular

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police . In addition to that national

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Police units who we will be working

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with all year long in a way that we

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have not been able to before .

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The other least Alisa Maier from AP

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Radio . I've got two questions about

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operations . Former , I'm wondering if

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you could describe what the composition

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of the leave behind force will be once

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the operation is completed , whether

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it'll be Iraqi or american , both ,

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whether it'll be uh police commandos ,

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whatever , and also about the timing of

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it . Could you explain to us ? Um ,

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there are some people that say there's

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a political subtext here and I'm

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wondering if you could describe whether

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in fact there was a long period of time

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that transpired between conception and

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execution . I really can't ,

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I can't figure out what people did the

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analysis that they did . I think that

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anybody has been on the ground and

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there are a lot of folks that have been

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on the ground . I think today we have

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some people up there . We'll see that

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this is a largely uninhabited area uh ,

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that is 10 miles by 10 miles . Uh it is

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a huge area where we had some direct

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intelligence , but where we felt what

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we needed to do was really look through

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that entire area to look for these cash

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AIDS , there's a science to hiding this

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stuff . Uh we went out there with that

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in mind uh as for stay behind forces

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again , I don't want to comment on

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calling operations . I can't tell you

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will be working in a number of days and

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we'll continue to work in there again

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at a later date . If intelligence

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indicates that we need to go back in

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there . Um , but we will be working

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with the people . The small population

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is in there to work some of the non

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kinetic lines that I mentioned earlier ,

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but there was no attempt on anybody's

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part back here at the time . This to

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anything other than the intelligence

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that was coming in . It was an

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operation that we have been working for

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a couple of months . And quite frankly ,

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one of the biggest problems I have over

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here sometimes all the days seem the

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same is remembering what day of the

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week it is and also the actual day .

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But I do remember they say packaged

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Jonathan karl of abc . If you don't

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mind two questions , one , focusing on

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the first part of your statement about

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civil War . You said you think we're

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closer now or maybe closer now than we

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ever have been to a civil war . I'm

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wondering what makes you say that one

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of the indicators you're seeing , and

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secondly , can you just clear up for me ,

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there have been all these confusing and

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conflicting reports coming out about

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this alleged spot on the Green Zone

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with the Interior Ministry saying one

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thing , the Defense Ministry saying

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another at the end of the day , what

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actually happened where they're

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actually people fired the Defense

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Ministry for this ? And did these guys

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get pretty close to infiltrating ? I I

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have no solid

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reports of the report that occurred

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inside the greens . I've read what has

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been said , and I will tell you that's

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an unconfirmed report as far as I'm

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concerned . And that's not all I can

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say on it is for anything that happened

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in the Defence Ministry . Um that is

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something that's handled above my pay

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grade and I have heard of not ,

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nor do I believe that there were any .

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But again , I have Green Zone is a very ,

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very important of the international

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zone is a very , very important area .

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I spent a year down there myself

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working to ensure that that was as

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secure as possible . We take all

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threats on the international zone is

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very , very seriously and we we

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investigate all threats on the

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international zone uh and worked very ,

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very hard , but I have no reports

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that would lead to some of the things

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that I've read in the press about this

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particular incident . I will tell you a

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civil war . I try to make it clear that

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uh I still think we're a long ways away

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from that . My point was that , you

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know , whether I think or anybody else

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thinks that sectarian violence , the

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perception by many is is in fact it is

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uh and perception is what is important

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here in a community . Uh , and I have

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to be concerned about that as we all

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are concerned about that , not only

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inside Baghdad , but throughout all of

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Iraq . Um , I still say , and I stand

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by that . We are a long ways away from

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that . And I think operations like

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we're conducting now . Um , let's go a

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long way in the moving this further to

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the left and further away from that ,

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wherever that tipping point might be .

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I can't tell you where that is , but I

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think we've got things moving in the

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right direction at this time .

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General Paul Burns . I just wanted to

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ask one more thing about your comment

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on Iraqis having control of 75% of

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their territory by the end of summer .

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What is it today ? For comparison

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person , boy , that's hard for me to .

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I've never looked at it as a percentage .

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I think I'd have to get back on that .

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I would say somewhere in the city of uh

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total land mass 150% . There's large

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areas . I don't know on board . Well ,

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that's not the case . So it's somewhere

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under 50% . But what's important here

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is it's a tremendous progress that has

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been made again . I left here and there

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were two battalions in one brigade was

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controlling battlespace in Baghdad .

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And yet now there's not a single

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province uh that I can think of where

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we don't have Iraqi security forces

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were winning battle space and doing

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just a fantastic job . Yeah .

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Tell Preston from places and I wanted

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to follow up on the second least

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question . Uh when we heard about the

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series of operations in Northern Iraq

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last year , the idea was that you were

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leaving Iraqi forces behind to secure

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the areas . Are you not doing that this

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time ? I understand that at least the

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second time that this particular area

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has been assaulted . So , are you

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playing to then leave it and and

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perhaps end up having to do this again .

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I'm not going to comment on what forces

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were gonna leave or any kind of

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operational matters of what we're gonna

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do in the future . Uh the issue is that

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we have good intelligence that we need

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to go out in this area . We need to

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look at this area . We need to conduct

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operations in this area , some focused

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on very specific targets , others

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focused on targets that we saw

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throughout that 10 miles by 10 mile

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area . And we conducted those

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operations , there's tell you there's

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not an intent to stay out in all 10

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miles by 10 miles , but I'm not going

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to comment on exactly where we're going

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to be at the conclusion of this

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operation . Just that we're not going

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to leave . And so we've done everything

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we need to do out in that particular

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area of operations . Then it right now

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actually , I should turn over to you to

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see if you have any last thoughts that

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you'd like to make before we run out of

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time here . No , it's great opportunity .

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I think operations like swarmer

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operations , you're going to see more

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and more up uh as we turn over more of

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the large urban areas to Iraqi forces

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were going to get out into some of

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these areas . Uh they're very manpower

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intensive to take a look and and and to

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look at intelligence uh that we've

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gotten areas that we may not have been

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able to get to before areas of the

14:38.880 --> 14:40.880
Iraqis are particularly given their

14:40.880 --> 14:43.350
capabilities good . And moving into

14:43.360 --> 14:45.471
helping us find the kind of things we

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found on swarmer . Um It will continue

14:47.800 --> 14:49.800
to do these kinds of operations . I

14:49.800 --> 14:51.800
thank you for your questions and uh

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happy ST Patrick's that everyone , well ,

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thank you for being with us this

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evening and we hope to talk to you

14:58.578 --> 15:00.800
again soon and and thank you for making

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your other subordinate commanders

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available to us in this format each

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week . It's our pleasure