Pentagon briefing by Defence Secretary Rumsfeld

(9 Aug 2002) 1. Wideshot of Donald Rumsfeld, US Defense Secretary enters briefing room 2. Cutaway members of press at Pentagon briefing 3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Defense Secretary “Well I do not know if it is true. If it proves be true that large gatherings of these folks actually can be located and it actually happens and can be located you can be sure there will be people interested in that.“ 4. Cutaway reporters 5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gen. Richard Myers,US Joint Chiefs Chairman “I think on the issue of massing on the border, I think the Secretary pretty much covered that. We know that’s where a lot of the al Qaida fled, some of the Taliban probably for that matter. And it is a long border and I guess there is no doubt that there are pockets of them. Whether they are massing or not, I think remains to be seen. I would just tell you that from from what I have seen we have no evidence of that. On the other hand, General Franks and General McNeal inside Afghanistan work on a daily basis. We’ve got reasonably good intelligence, we get good cooperation from Pakistan and Afghanistan.“ Pentagon officials : (English) Donald Rumsfeld,US Defense Secretary “And it is very clear that the political and economic sanctions with respect to Saddam Hussein have not worked, the containment. A third part of the containment clearly was Operation Northern and Southern watch. And we know for a fact that he is continuing to operate in those areas and doing things that it is very hard to stop him from doing because he has got mobile anti-aircraft capabilities and when he shoots at us we shoot back and he has not hit us fortuitously but by the same token we have no done a great deal of damage to his air defences or any of his other capabilities. The big thing that was there was the weapon of mass destruction issue and he had agreed and the U-N had agreed that he would not have a WMD program. We know he does have one and he is continuing it. So there is no way any reasonable person could look at that record and say that it’s worked.“ 8. Wideshot Rumsfeld and Myers 9. SOUNDBITE:(English), Donald Rumsfeld,US Defense Secretary “I can say that we believe in the United States of America that it is not debatable that in fact there is ample evidence. Indeed, the words of the gentleman - no he is not a gentleman - the words of the individual proclaim his guilt and take pride in his accomplishments. I have no knowledge of what anyone else might say or think about it but UBL (Usama bin Laden) has certainly announced from the highest hilltops on video that he was involved.“ 10. Shot of Rumsfeld and Myers leaving at the end of briefing STORYLINE: United States officials say they are working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to determine whether al Qaida members are massing along the Afghan-Pakistan border, a persistent topic of recent speculation. At a news conference at the Pentagon on Friday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers told reporters that if large groups of al Qaida members were to be detected the US would pursue them. Rumsfeld said members of al Qaida along the Afghani-Pakistan border want to return to Afghanistan and disrupt Hamid Karzai’s government. Rumsfeld also commented on the situation in Iraq and argued that a regime change in Iraq, would be beneficial for Iraq, the region, and the whole world. Rumsfeld indicated that it was hard to assess whether or not the US policy of containing Saddam Hussein and Iraq had worked. Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: