20 August 1998
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 19:20:00 -0400
From: dltranscripts_sender@DTIC.MIL
Subject: DoD Transcripts of News Briefings
To: DODTRANSCRIPTS-L@DTIC.MIL
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= N E W S B R
I E F I N G
= OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
= (PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
= WASHINGTON, D.C. 20301
====================================================
DoD News Briefing
Thursday, August 20, 1998 - 2:30 p.m. (EDT)
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen
(Also participating in this briefing is General Henry H. Shelton, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Secretary Cohen: Good
afternoon.
As you've already heard from President
Clinton, we have today conducted military strikes at several facilities that
have supported international terrorist groups. The United States and
the rest of the community of civilized nations have made it clear time and
time again that the violence and the bloodshed and the murderous acts of
international terrorists will not be tolerated.
Today's military strikes against
those terrorist camps and facilities are a part of a continuing effort to
defend U.S. citizens and interests abroad against the very real threat posed
by international terrorists.
In the wake of the tragic and
treacherous attacks on our embassies in East Africa and in light of the
continuing patterns of specific threats against U.S. citizens and facilities,
we've taken these actions to reduce the ability of these terrorist organizations
to train and equip their misguided followers or to acquire weapons of mass
destruction for their use in campaigns of terror.
We recognize that these strikes
will not eliminate the problem, but our message is clear. There will
be no sanctuary for terrorists and no limit to our resolve to defend American
citizens and our interests, our ideals of democracy and law against these
cowardly attacks.
Those who attack our people will
find no safe place, no refuge from the long arm of justice.
General Shelton is going to provide
you with as much operational detail as we can on the facilities that have
been struck, but I need to forewarn you -- there will not be much operational
detail provided. We are engaged in a difficult confrontation with the
forces of international terrorism, the unique nature of the terrorist threat,
the lack of regard for international law, the willingness to specifically
target innocent civilians, transnational operations which defy traditional
means of influence. All of these factors and more have forced us to
adopt some very different approaches to the problem, and therefore we do
not intend to provide, at least for now, the specific numbers or units of
U.S. military forces that have been involved, nor will we discuss the specific
weapons and tactics employed in these strikes.
With that, General Shelton will
give you some details about the facilities that we targeted and why they
were chosen.
Q:
Excuse me, Mr. Secretary. Can you just briefly tell us at least whether
these were airstrikes or...
Secretary Cohen: General
Shelton is going to give you a brief summation of what targets were
attacked.
General Shelton: Thank you,
Mr. Secretary.
Good afternoon. First, let
me underscore what Secretary Cohen has said. This is not simply a response
to some specific act, but a concerted effort to defend U.S. citizens and
our interests around the globe against a very real and a very deadly terrorist
threat.
As many of you are aware, our
intelligence community has provided us with convincing information based
on a variety of intelligence sources that Usama Bin Ladin's network of terrorists
was involved in the planning, the financing, and the execution of the attacks
on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Attacks that killed over 300
people including 12 Americans, and wounded thousands more.
This is by no means the first
time the Usama Bin Ladin network has been connected to terrorist attacks.
Bin Ladin himself has admitted to attempting to kill American servicemen
on their way to and serving in our humanitarian mission to Somalia in
1992. His supporters and followers have tried to assassinate the President
of Egypt and even the Pope.
And as recently as three months
ago, Bin Ladin himself repeated his fatwa against Americans in order to attack
Americans and our allies throughout the world and to make no distinction
between military and civilians, including women and children.
The facilities we struck today
in Afghanistan and Sudan are important parts of the Bin Ladin network of
terrorist groups. At 1:30 p.m. (EDT) simultaneous military strikes
were carried out against known terrorist training facilities in remote regions
of Afghanistan and an industrial facility in Khartoum, Sudan. The targets
selected and the timing of the strikes, 7:30 p.m. in Sudan and 10:00 p.m.
in Afghanistan, were part of our overall effort to minimize collateral damage
at the sites.
Now if I can direct your attention
to these photo boards. The three facilities in Afghanistan we struck
are the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr base camp, training camp, and support complex.
A number of terrorist groups are
associated with these facilities including Bin Ladin's al Kadar, the armed
Islamic Group, and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. These bases provide
refuge for terrorists, house the infrastructure for their funding international
travel, and are used to train terrorists in the tactics and weapons of
international terrorism.
The base camp is the main headquarters
facility for the complex and it includes storage, housing, training and
administration facilities for the complex. It is also the key command
and control node.
The support camp is the primary
logistics area for the complex and includes storage for a large amount of
weapons and ammunition.
The four primary training camps,
one of which is shown here, are used for training terrorist tactics,
indoctrination, weapons, and the use of improvised explosive devices.
Within the camp are numerous structures -- tent stands, obstacle courses,
firing ranges, and burned areas for explosive testing and training.
The blowup of the west camp is
indicative of the camp characteristics in general and includes evidence of
continuing expansion of the facilities.
We have also had convincing
information that for some time the Bin Ladin network has been actively seeking
to acquire weapons of mass destruction including chemical weapons for use
against U.S. citizens and our interests around the world.
This next photo is for the Shifa
chemical complex in northeast Khartoum, Sudan. The intelligence community
is confident that this facility is involved in the production of chemical
weapons agents including precursor chemicals for deadly V series of nerve
agents like, for example, VX.
We also know that Bin Ladin has
extensive ties to the Sudanese government which controls this chemical
facility.
Before taking your questions,
let me emphasize that although we are confident that Usama Bin Ladin's network
was involved in the criminal attack on embassies and the murder of more than
300 innocent victims, the actions we have taken today should not be viewed
simply as retaliation for those attacks. Rather, as the President and
as Secretary Cohen have said, this has been an exercise of self defense against
an imminent and continuing terrorist threat.
There can be no safe haven for
terrorists. The international community must not tolerate such acts
nor accept those nations who would aid or harbor terrorists. We owe
it to our citizens and to the citizens of all law abiding nations to do all
that we can to prevent terrorist actions and to bring those responsible for
spreading hate and death to justice.
With that, Secretary Cohen and
I will take your questions.
Q:
Mr. Secretary, can you tell us, does this just involve U.S. strikes, missile
strikes, or were troops actually put on the ground, albeit temporarily...
Secretary Cohen: For the
time being we are not going to discuss this in view of the fact that there
may be other operations that might be required. We do not want to place
any of our forces in any kind of jeopardy or compromise their position.
So for the time being we are going to simply indicate that strikes were carried
out, and we will at a later time discuss that.
Q:
Were these brief strikes? Are they still going on or have the strikes
ended?
Secretary Cohen: The strikes
should have ended.
Q: What are the whereabouts of Usama Bin Ladin
right now? Do you believe that you killed him in these strikes?
Secretary Cohen: I have
no idea where he is at this time. We designed this operation to attack
his infrastructure, and that's precisely what we have done.
Q:
Do you know whether he was in any of these facilities when the strikes
occurred?
Secretary Cohen: We do not
know.
Q:
What were some of the...
Secretary Cohen: That was
not our design. Our design was to take down this structure which is
responsible for training hundreds if not thousands of terrorists.
Q:
What were some of the barometers of success here on the plant and also on
the camps? Total the structure, part? Can you give us a sense?
Secretary Cohen: Our plan
was to attack these sites with sufficient power to certainly disrupt them
and, hopefully, destroy them. Some of these are solid structures, others
are less so. But we believe given the targeting that was done, with
the capability that was unleashed, it would cause sufficient damage to disrupt
them for some time.
Q:
Were there any U.S. casualties in these raids?
Secretary Cohen: Not to
our knowledge, no.
Q:
Have you had any BDA yet?
Secretary Cohen: It's too
early to make that assessment just yet.
Q:
Can you also clarify, was there one training camp? I believe you said
there were four...
General Shelton: There are
a total of four training camps. All four were hit. We only addressed
one of those today.
Q:
Is it correct that seven sites in Afghanistan essentially were...
General Shelton: That make
up the one complex, yes.
Q:
Seven sites in Afghanistan?
General Shelton: That make
up the one complex.
Q:
Could you tell us where this is in Afghanistan generally?
General Shelton: It's basically
about 94 miles south of Kabul. Proximity to the Afghan border...
A few kilometers to the Pakistani border.
Q:
Did Pakistan provide permission for overflight or did they participate in
any way?
Secretary Cohen: We're not
going to discuss any operational details of this.
Q:
Did any other country take part in these raids?
Secretary Cohen: No, this
was simply the United States.
Q:
In Khartoum, is that a residential area that that's near? What sort
of area is that?
General Shelton: In Khartoum,
the target was located in an industrial complex area. There are surrounding
facilities. We did everything we possibly could to minimize the collateral
damage associated with that, but it is in an industrial area so we would
anticipate very minimum numbers of collateral damage.
Q:
When did you get the first sense to plan this to execution? Are we
talking nine or ten hours, or two days?
Secretary Cohen: We began,
as you know, it was just a week ago today that all of us, certainly the Chairman
and myself, were out at Andrews Air Force Base welcoming home the bodies
of ten Americans who died in the bombings. We indicated at that time
with our words, and now we're indicating with our deeds, that American citizens
were not going to be allowed to be attacked with impunity. From that
moment forward, certainly, we intensified the information gathering to try
and track down those responsible for this terrorist action. It's been
a combination of sources of information from a variety of places that led
us to the conclusion that Usama Bin Ladin's terror network was associated
and responsible for this bombing. Our effort was to try to target those
facilities and infrastructure that allow him to continue to train terrorists
to carry out terrorist operations.
In addition, as the Chairman has
just said, we also had some very compelling information as far as threats
against other Americans and a combination of the attacks that were made,
coupled with the threat of future attacks to come, certainly intensified
our effort to target these facilities.
Q:
Are you at all concerned, Mr. Secretary, that these strikes may in fact provoke
retaliation somewhere, in fact may encourage more aggressive terrorist
actions?
Secretary Cohen: There has
been a long history of terrorist actions directed against innocent American
people. We believe that a number of other terrorist activities and
plans were underway. We have an absolute obligation, indeed a duty,
and we'd be derelict in that duty if we did not take action to interrupt
those plans and to try to insulate the American people and our friends from
these activities.
So I am satisfied that this action
will help prevent some of those plans from being carried forward, but they
were determined to carry forward more terrorist actions. So by us taking
action now, we hope to prevent more Americans from dying in the future.
Q:
Were the forces involved U.S. based forces, or were they operating out of
third countries...
Secretary Cohen: Let me
just say, they were U.S. forces. Period.
Q:
The other plans, the other things that were being planned, did they also
involve truck bombings? Or there was some allusion to chemical
weapons. Did any of them involve the use or planned use of chemical
weapons?
Secretary Cohen: The information
that we had led us to the conclusion that future activities, terrorist
activities, were planned. It was not specific in terms of whether it
would be a bomb or other types of terrorist actions. That's not something
that we would try to be driven by. But we anticipate there could be
future truck bombs as we saw in the past cases so we took this action to,
again, interrupt the training of these types of activities.
Secondly, we had information that
led us to believe that Usama Bin Ladin and his organization were indeed trying
to acquire chemical weapons and to utilize them in future activities.
Q:
...chemical weapons?
Secretary Cohen: We don't
know that at this point. What we do know is the facility that was targeted
in Khartoum produced the precursor chemicals that would allow the production
of a type of VX nerve agent that has been talked about at some length.
Q:
Was that facility being used to assist terrorists with the knowledge of the
Sudanese government?
Secretary Cohen: You'll
have to ask the Sudanese government on that account. We do know that he's
had an association in the past with the Sudanese government. We do
know that he has had some financial interests in contributing to this particular
facility; whether or not it's with the full knowledge of the Sudanese government
remains to be determined.
Q:
Mr. Secretary, I came in late so I apologize if this question has been
asked. Some Americans are going to say this bears a striking resemblance
to "Wag the Dog". Two questions. Have you seen the movie?
And second, how do you respond to people who think that?
Secretary Cohen: The only
motivation driving this action today was our absolute obligation to protect
the American people from terrorist activities. That is the sole
motivation. No other consideration has been involved.
The Chairman and I have worked
with others for the past week, night and day, working with the community,
our intelligence community, and working with others. The only factors
involved were to prevent the kind of terrorist action that killed 12 Americans
last week and injured so many hundreds, indeed thousands more. That
is the only factor under consideration.
Q:
When did you know you were going to make these strikes? How soon after
the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania did you have sufficient intelligence to
know you were going to strike?
The second part, forgive me if
you've covered this already, even though you won't say whether these were
airstrikes or what kind, did they come out of CENTCOM in the Middle East,
or come out of CONUS?
Secretary Cohen: I'm not
going to discuss where they came out of. The planning has been underway
for several days. We have been meeting, as I've indicated before, nearly
around the clock for the past week, gathering information, satisfying ourselves
in terms of who was responsible, which organization was linked to the terrorist
bombings; also in trying to deal with the threats that were coming in fairly
rapidly about more terrorist activities planned against Americans.
So it's been an evolving process. Once we were satisfied then the plans
were worked up by our military.
Q:
You said seven sites. It looks like six sites, because one...
General Shelton: There's
the base camp, the support facility itself, and a total of four training
sites. So six sites.
Q:
Did the President order this strike? Was it you? When was that
decision made?
Secretary Cohen: The President,
as Commander in Chief, ordered the strikes.
Q:
When was that?
Secretary Cohen: During
the course of the past 24 hours.
Q:
Was Bin Ladin himself targeted personally?
Secretary
Cohen: No. We were targeting
these facilities and his infrastructure.
Q:
Was this [run] by CENTCOM or Special Operations Command? Can you even
say what CINC was in charge of this operation?
General Shelton: We will
not comment on the types of forces or types of platforms that we used in
this for operational reasons. And I might add, I understand your
frustration. You've got a job to do and you'd like to know as much
about the details as you can. I have a job to do, and that is to ensure
that whatever orders the Commander in Chief gives are carried out in a very
effective manner; and secondly, to ensure that we take care of the welfare
of the men and women in uniform. I take that obligation very
seriously.
After Desert Storm, I recall very
well a lot of detail was put out about how we attacked different targets,
things of this nature. We're in a different ballgame today. We're
going against a terrorist organization and that calls for some different
techniques.
Q:
How close to weaponizing a chemical weapon was the Khartoum plant?
Secretary Cohen: That's
a judgment that we can't make. We do know that this facility was used
for the production of precursor chemicals that could be used for producing
VX.
Q:
Can you say what the evidence was that convinced you that Usama Bin Ladin
was behind these bombings?
Secretary Cohen: As Ken
indicated before, you're going to be given a briefing following these remarks
of ours, but it's been a series of reports that we have analyzed, statements
made by Usama Bin Ladin himself, other information coming in as recently
as yesterday about future attacks being planned against the United States.
But we are satisfied there has been a convincing body of evidence that leads
us to this conclusion.
Q:
Is Bin Ladin a legitimate military target himself personally?
Secretary Cohen: To the
extent that he or his organization have declared war against the United States
or our interests, then he certainly is engaged in an act of war.
Q:
Were there specific threats that forced you to act today rather than tomorrow
or at some other point?
Secretary Cohen: No.
We have been planning this for several days now, and we decided to go forward
today.
Q:
Do you believe this closes the pipeline on any imminent activity? Or
do you think something could still have...
Secretary Cohen: This doesn't
foreclose anything. What we are prepared and have to be prepared for
is a long continuing effort to deal with terrorism. We are sending
a very strong signal that there is no safe haven, no safe place to hide.
There is no refuge for terrorists who kill innocent American people.
That's the message that we're sending and we will continue in that effort.
To the extent that other activities have been planned or indeed are carried
out, they will be met with a continuing response on the part of the United
States.
Q:
General, can you comment on whether there was any resistance at all in these
attacks?
General Shelton: Resistance
in terms of?
Q:
Against our forces, I mean.
General Shelton: No.
That's an operational level of detail that I'd prefer not to share at this
time.
Q:
Did you have to get permission from Sudan and from Afghanistan to wage these,
or did you notify the governments in power?
Secretary Cohen: Again,
another operational matter that we're not going to discuss.
Q:
Can you tell us whether all services were involved?
Secretary Cohen: No.
Q:
Can you say if there were any casualties among the people at the camps and
in Sudan?
Secretary Cohen: It's too
early to make any assessment at this point.
Q:
How active were the camps in terms of training? Dormant? Did
they have skeleton crews? What can you say about that?
Secretary Cohen: They have
been active for a period of time and that activity continued through this
week.
Q:
Are you concerned about plume problems in Khartoum?
Secretary Cohen: We were,
and the Chairman can address that, but a detailed analysis was made and we're
satisfied that there was low risk of collateral damage.
Q:
General, can you say whether these camps involved hundreds of people, dozens,
scores, can you give us any rough estimate on the number of personnel involved
on the ground approximately?
General Shelton: In terms
of the intelligence has indicated that on occasion there were up to 600 that
were in the one facility in Afghanistan, at different periods of time.
It has varied over time.
Q:
Which facility, General?
General Shelton: The complex
itself.
Q:
The whole six site complex here.
Secretary Cohen: And it
could range anywhere from zero to that amount, so there's no way of telling
at this time.
Q:
Were the imminent threats against other embassies or military...
Secretary Cohen: Yes.
Q:
Military bases as well? U.S. military facilities?
Secretary Cohen: That's
something we always take into account -- force protection is at the very
top of the agenda as far as we're concerned when our forces are forward
deployed. So our military installations all are potential targets of
terrorists, so we take that into account. But these terrorist threats
were more directed toward our embassies.
Q:
Can you say when some more information might be available on the forces
used? In the next day or two?
Secretary Cohen: I'd say
several days away.
Q:
Are you keeping forces on standby for follow-on action?
Secretary Cohen: The answer
is we will have a capacity to conduct other operations if we need to do so.
Q:
General Shelton, the word assassination is going to come up, that Bin Ladin
was targeted for assassination. Under our current rules of war, is
he a legitimate military target?
General Shelton: Tony, I
think the best response I could give you to that is as the Secretary has
previously indicated. We were not going directly after Usama Bin
Ladin. It was an attack on his network of terrorist groups, as I think
you can see from the targets. We will continue to go after that if
we feel like it's appropriate and if the threats to Americans or American
interests continue.
Q:
Mr. Secretary, could you tell us again what the linkage was between the chemical
plant in Khartoum and Bin Ladin... What actually was there?
Secretary Cohen: We do know
that he had contributed to this particular facility. We do know he
has had an interest in acquiring chemical weapons. We do know that
this facility produces the precursors that can result in the production of
VX. That was a sufficient connection for us.
Q:
...some of the additional terrorist plots provided by the individuals already
taken into custody in relation to the Africa bombing?
Secretary Cohen: I'm
sorry?
Q:
Did we learn of some of these terrorist plots, the other threats out there,
from the individuals already taken into custody in Kenya and Pakistan?
Secretary Cohen: We acquired
the information from a variety of sources, and I believe the combination
of those sources led us to this conclusion.
Q:
Mr. Secretary, you stated here a couple of minutes ago that you wanted to
send a signal that there is no safe haven, no place to hide for terrorist
groups. Does that represent a policy position that this Administration
has now embraced? And does that represent any break with the past?
Secretary Cohen: No, it's
a consistent policy that we have had. If there are states who sponsor
terrorism, acts of terrorism, they will be held accountable. If there
are individuals within states who are being given safe harbor and who fail
to either turn over individuals or provide an aiding and abetting of them,
then this is a signal that they are not beyond the reach of the United
States.
To the extent that these terrorists
continue to threaten, to target Americans, then they cannot feel that they
are immune simply because they're in some other country.
-END-
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