Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Tuesday Briefing

DoD News Briefing
Tuesday, September 26, 2000 - 1:30 p.m. EDT
Presenter: Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, DASD PA



Q: Anything happening in Iraq? Any developments --



Quigley: No, still fairly -- I mean, we continue to watch things very
carefully, as we have for these past several weeks now. But so far the
fact remains that we have seen nothing in the way of threatening,
offensive-oriented movements of any Iraqi military forces.


So that's very reassuring. We'll continue to watch.



Q: What about defensive movements?



Quigley: There have been some defensive movements of forces in the
near-vicinity of their home stations or home assignment areas. But we
attribute this, in part, to the annual training that is going on at
this time of year, as well as just defensive dispersals. But nothing
in those movements, again, that can be translated into an offensive
nature -- to move against a neighboring nation or the Kurds in the
North or the Shi'as in the South.


Q: Have you seen them returning to barracks?



Quigley: A little, but very spotty reporting on that so far, John.



Q: Is there anything that can be done to stop these flights coming
into Iraq? For instance, I think the French are planning a second
flight, and the Jordanians are talking about sending a flight in; the
Indians also have talked about that. I mean, that seems to be a
growing trend there.


I know in the South, there's a maritime interdiction force that's used
to stop ships that are trying to come in illegally.


Quigley: Well, I guess the -- one of those we have something to do
with and the other we don't, Jim.


I'll speak to the maritime interdiction operations, which we clearly
do have a role to play. I think the earlier flights that you mentioned
in your question, I think are -- that really is a part of the
political process and being worked through the United Nations. And we,
the American military, have no role in those discussions, that I'm
aware of.


The maritime interdiction operations in the Arabian Gulf, we do, as
we've discussed many times before from the podium. And we remain an
active partner in that process.


Q: On that note --



Quigley: Chris?



Q: -- with oil prices having been so high last week, have you seen an
uptick in that kind of activity?


Quigley: No, we have not. As a matter of fact, the numbers of vessels
that have been either diverted or ordered to a holding area -- one in
the North, one in the South -- while further inspections and test
results come back, have been quite low; five during the entire month
of September.


We attribute that -- despite the near-record price of oil per barrel
on the world market, we attribute that to the Iranian's government
being more restrictive in the use of their territorial waters to allow
smuggling to take place. And for that, we're very appreciative.