***** United States Department of Defense News Transcript On the web: http://dod.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030411-secdef0090.html Media contact: media at defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: public at defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711
Presenter: Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld Friday, April 11, 2003 - 2:00 p.m. EDT DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers . . . .
Q: Yes, but Mr. Secretary, I'm asking about what plan was there to restore law and order?
Rumsfeld: . . . . Think what's happened in our cities when we've had riots, and problems, and looting. Stuff happens! But in terms of what's going on in that country, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to see those images over, and over, and over again of some boy walking out with a vase and say, "Oh, my goodness, you didn't have a plan." That's nonsense. They know what they're doing, and they're doing a terrific job. And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. . . .
[The full text of the transcript is available at <http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030411-secdef0090.html>.] *****
Now:
***** New York Times May 14, 2003 New Policy in Iraq to Authorize G.I.'s to Shoot Looters By PATRICK E. TYLER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 13 - United States military forces in Iraq will have the authority to shoot looters on sight under a tough new security setup that will include hiring more police officers and banning ranking members of the Baath Party from public service, American officials said today.
The far more muscular approach to bringing order to postwar Iraq was described by the new American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, at a meeting of senior staff members today, the officials said. On Wednesday, Mr. Bremer is expected to meet with the leaders of Iraqi political groups that are seeking to form an interim government by the end of the month. "He made it very clear that he is now in charge," said an official who attended the meeting today. "I think you are going to see a change in the rules of engagement within a few days to get the situation under control."
Asked what this meant, the official replied, "They are going to start shooting a few looters so that the word gets around" that assaults on property, the hijacking of automobiles and violent crimes will be dealt with using deadly force.
How Iraqis will be informed of the new rules is not clear. American officials in Iraq have access to United States-financed radio stations, which could broadcast the changes.
A tougher approach over all appears to be at the core of Mr. Bremer's mandate from President Bush to save the victory in Iraq from a descent into anarchy, a possibility feared by some Iraqi political leaders if steps are not taken quickly to check violence and lawlessness.
But imposing measures that call for the possible killing of young, unemployed or desperate Iraqis for looting appears to carry a certain level of risk because of the volatile sentiments in the streets here. Gas lines snake through neighborhoods, garbage piles up, and the increasing heat frequently provides combustion for short tempers, which are not uncommonly directed at the American presence here.
Mr. Bremer did not spell out to senior members of the American and British reconstruction team whether his authority would supersede that of Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, the land forces commander in the country.
But in tackling the security problem, Mr. Bremer will confront the need for a police force, and the difficulty of building a credible one on the wreckage of Saddam Hussein's hated security establishment . . . .
[The full article is available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/14/international/worldspecial/14IRAQ.html>.] *****
***** New York Times May 15, 2003 Shooting to Kill By BOB HERBERT
The cover of the July 28, 1967, issue of Life magazine was one of the grimmest I'd ever seen. It showed a 12-year-old black kid in filthy sneakers and worn-out jeans sprawled on the filthy pavement of a street in Newark.
His left arm was bent at a gruesome angle. Blood was pooling beneath his body. He looked dead.
The article was about the Newark riots, one of the most violent outbursts of the 1960's.
The war in Vietnam was raging at the time. I remember staring at the magazine as I sat on a footlocker in one of the barracks at Fort Belvoir, Va. I was a very young buck sergeant who was finishing out his last few months in the service. While others were serving in Vietnam, I'd spent 14 months in South Korea. I couldn't wait for September and my discharge to come around.
I opened the magazine, still thinking about the kid on the cover. He was like zillions of kids I had grown up with. It was sad, depressing. Then I got to Pages 20 and 21. They are still shocking to me.
There, in a sequence of photos that would go on for four pages, was a guy I had known in my hometown of Montclair, N.J., a casual friend named Billy Furr.
The sequence starts with Billy looting beer from a liquor store. Then a squad car pulls up and police officers with shotguns jump out. Billy takes off, the tails of his light-colored shirt flapping. A uniformed cop in a yellow hard hat lifts his shotgun to his shoulder, aims and fires.
In a photo that covers two-thirds of Page 22, Billy lies on the blood-stained sidewalk, dead. On the next page was another photo of the 12-year-old boy. He was a bystander who was hit in the neck and thigh. Although seriously wounded, he would recover.
This all came back to me yesterday with the news report out of Baghdad that U.S. military forces would be authorized to shoot looters on sight. The first thing I thought was that Billy Furr had been dead these 36 years because he stole some beer. It was wrong, but the barbaric punishment in no way fit the crime.
Now, in the dawn of the 21st century, when this nation above all others is supposed to be a model of progress and fairness and justice and due process, the U.S. military was to be given the high sign to start shooting Iraqis like dogs in the street.
The news article, by The Times's Patrick Tyler, said the authorization to shoot looters on sight would be part of "a tough new security setup" that included the hiring of additional police officers and curbs on the use of high-ranking Baath Party officials in public service positions.
Mr. Tyler wrote:
"The far more muscular approach to bringing order to postwar Iraq was described by the American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, at a meeting of senior staff members [Tuesday], the officials said."
This government, I thought, is losing its mind. I went to the computer and began to put this column together. The president, the secretary of defense, military authorities and anyone else in a position of command should know that a policy of shooting looters on sight is wrong, and if it was being considered it needed to be stopped in its tracks . . . .
Americans should take a long, honest look in the mirror. We'll find that it's impossible to look good in the ugly garb of a colonial power.
[The full text is available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/opinion/15HERB.html>.] *****
***** U.S. forces shoot looter in Iraq By Pauline Jelinek
May 15, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- A day after denying a shoot-to-kill policy against Iraqi looters, U.S. forces wounded a looter from a group they said fired on Americans.
Looters fired on 101st Airborne Assault Division soldiers Thursday morning in Mosul, said the U.S. Central Command. Soldiers returned fire on the looters, wounding one, and four others escaped, it said . . . .
[The full text is available at <http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/05/15/looter/>.] ***** -- Yoshie
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