News

01 April 1998

[EXCERPTS] TRANSCRIPT: PENTAGON SPOKESMAN'S REGULAR BRIEFING, MARCH 31, 1998


Pentagon Spokesman Ken Bacon briefed.

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Q: Statements out of Saudi Arabia yesterday didn't seem to (be) very
clear. They suggest possibly investigation of the Khobar Towers
bombing was at an end or nearing an end. Do you know or does the
Pentagon know whether the Saudis have completed this investigation?
And are you all frustrated that you don't seem to be getting the
results out of this?


A: Well, first of all, as you know, it's the FBI that is working
directly with the Saudis on the investigation of the terrorist attack
against the Khobar Towers barracks in 1996. That investigation, from
all our knowledge, is continuing on the Saudi side as well as the U.S.
side. We have been working cooperatively with the Saudis on that, and
we continue to do so. We've received no official word, and I checked
this with the FBI yesterday; no official word from the Saudis that
they have completed their investigation.


Q:  Do you feel any frustration at that?



A: We're frustrated that we haven't been able to answer this very
complex question, but it's not always easy to, as the German
journalists in this room know from their own experience at
investigating terrorist acts in Germany. Sometimes it takes a very
long while to sort out who's responsible for a terrorist act. This is
one of those frustrating cases where it's taking a long time.
Everybody would like to be able to bring this case to closure.
Everybody would like to bring the culprits to justice, and we'll
continue to work to be able to do that.


Q: Do you have any confidence that this thing will be settled, that
culprits will be identified and punished?


A: I am always hopeful that justice will be done.

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Q: On another topic, what is the status of your revision of the
report, which according to the Miami Herald, stated that Cuba does not
represent a significant threat to U.S. national security?


A: I don't know why you used the term "revision." There was, I think,
an inaccurate newspaper report today suggesting that Secretary Cohen
is delaying this report in order to revise it. Secretary Cohen has not
seen the report yet. He's seen it when it's been held up like this,
but he has not had a chance to read the report, and I don't even think
he's received a final version of the report yet.


Many reports are sent to Congress under the Secretary's signature. On
a report dealing with a politically supercharged issue like Cuba, he
wanted to read the report before it went to Congress, and he will have
a chance to do that, but he hasn't had a chance to do that yet.


When he does read the report, one of the things he's going to look at
carefully is whether enough of the classified report has made its way
into the unclassified report that can be made public. In other words,
to make sure that the unclassified report is a true mirror of what's
in the classified report. I suspect that will take a couple more days
for him to complete.


Q: So there will be an unclassified version that he'll release and
make copies of?


A: Yes. Yes, there will be an unclassified version that will be
released.


Q:  And no assessment until he finishes?



A: Well, there's not that assessment. There have been assessments in
the past of the strength of the Cuban military. There was a fairly
detailed assessment that was made public by the DIA a couple of years
ago. It's available on the Internet. It was presented to Congress and
you can go read that report, and you can make a decision whether the
strength of the Cuban military has changed dramatically in the last
two or three years.


But we know that the Cuban military is small. We know that it only has
about 60,000 people in it. We know it's primarily a defensive force.
We know that it spends, that members of the military spend a lot of
time, maybe up to 50 percent of their time, on self-maintenance,
self-sustenance. Growing their own food, repairing their vehicles,
etc. So we know a lot about the Cuban military, and a lot of this has
been published before, and I invite you all to go back and look at it.


Q: In general, what would you say has happened in the last two years
since the last DIA report was done?


A: Well, we all know that the Cuban economy has been in the tank, and
usually you have to have a strong economy to sustain a strong
military. And I'd say that's probably been the greatest pressure that
the Cuban military has had to deal with over the last couple of years.


Q: What does the Secretary think of General Sheehan's suggestion that
there should be some sort of military contacts with the Cuban
military?


A: I don't know. I haven't discussed that with him.


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(end transcript)