WEBVTT

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and joining me now is Brigadier General

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Jeffrey Hammond . He's the Assistant

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Division Commander , Support First

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Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood who

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is joining us now live via satellite

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from Iraq . Good morning . Mhm Good

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morning . Thank you very much for

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having me on . This is a very exciting

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time and a very , I would say a very

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dangerous time . As we proceed with the

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elections in Iraq . Please explain your

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role in and those of the people who

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serve under you as far as the election .

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We have a division here out of Fort

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Hood texas , a little more than 37,000

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soldiers . In fact , it's about as

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large as an entire U . S . Army corps

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and our mission here is to assist the

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Iraqis in setting the security

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conditions so that the more than four

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million registered voters here in

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Baghdad can go out on sunday and place

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their vote for the future . To that end ,

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we find ourselves primarily in a

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support role with the primary

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responsibility for actually securing

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and protecting it . The more than 1400

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polling sites belonging to the Iraqi

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security forces themselves . And we

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understand that there have been some

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arrests , made , some some really

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progress made . Tell us about that and

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the latest that you can that you can

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share with us . Well , we've

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anticipated that as we got closer and

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closer to the election , that there

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would be significant spikes by the

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insurgents to attempt to disrupt and

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derail the activities To that end .

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Over the last 30 days , we have

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pressured the insurgent In a variety of

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different ways with the results being

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that we've captured over 800 of these

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insurgents and over about 100 and 10

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weapons cache A's . And in doing that ,

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I think we've cut off significant

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resources that he would otherwise use

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against us and have caused him to

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regroup a little bit . However , having

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said that , I firmly believe that we're

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going to see this spike in violence

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over the next 48 hours . It's most

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likely that this insurgent will do

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every single thing within his power to

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try to bring the elections to their

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knees . They try to intimidate and

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drive fear into the Iraqi population to

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cause them to not get out and vote well

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even with that very serious threat .

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What is the mood of the people there ?

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It's very upbeat . Over four million

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people registered to vote . In many

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cases , they're not entirely sure who

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we're voting for what this election is

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all about because this something new .

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However , the average Iraqi on the

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street will tell you I plan to vote

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because it's all about this thing

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called democracy . It's something I

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really want to see . And with that in

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mind , I think we're going to see the

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majority of people actually get out and

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place their vote . That doesn't mean

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that we're not going to have our share

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of incidents and attacks . I fully

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expect that we will . However , it's

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our responsibility as the U . S . Army

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to provide the necessary support to

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mitigate these effects as much as

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possible well . We wish you and your

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treat members well and safety in this

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all important mission . And we thank

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you for joining us today . Live from

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Iraq as the Iraqi elections are about

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to begin . Thank you so much . Thank

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you . Thank you .