BRIEFING BY RICHARD BOUCHER

SPOKESPERSON

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

January 16, 2003

Excerpts

...

QUESTION: I'd like to try once more, Richard. If by the 27th, 28th of this month, after the -- after the report by Mr. Blix and Mr. Baradei is submitted it to the UN, if it does not contain adequate reasons to move against Iraq, is the US willing to put off that decision longer in order to give the inspectors more time to discover more things?

MR. BOUCHER: That --

QUESTION: Are you willing to delay a month or two months --

MR. BOUCHER: No, that presupposes so many things. First of all, it starts with ‘if's' and second of all, it presupposes so many things it is an impossible question to answer at this time. The 27th is an important date because we will be getting an informal report from the inspectors on what Iraq is and is not doing. We will hear from them. We and other members of the Council will consider that situation.

The decision to be made -- what we would be looking at first -- is not whether or not to go to war. What we will be looking at is the question of: Is Iraq cooperating or not? That is – is Iraq fulfilling the terms of the UN resolution or not? Is Iraq taking advantage of its final opportunity? Is Iraq cooperating actively, as required by the UN resolution?

If the facts do not support a conclusion like that, then at that point we and other members of the Council have to consider what to do about it. But I do not want to build up the 27th as the particular date for a particular decision. It is a date to look at whether or not Iraq is cooperating or not, with all the information the inspectors can provide us at the time, with all the information that we know from other sources, and with all the history of how we have gotten here. Has Iraq answered the questions of previous inspectors? Have they accounted for what they bought in the meantime? I am afraid, you know, as I said, so far Iraq has failed to answer those questions.

QUESTION: Do you see that as a date from which to make a decision, a definitive decision, on what the US will do?

MR. BOUCHER: The issue on January 27th -- and soon thereafter -- is whether or not Iraq is cooperating with the United Nations. The decision that we and others make about that will determine what happens after.

QUESTION: And depending on whether people want to go on with strictly Iraqi matters, this is related, I guess.

MR. BOUCHER: Strictly Iraq.

...

QUESTION: Richard, what about the fact that they've said that they haven't found a smoking gun? I mean, how important is that?

MR. BOUCHER: It is true, but it is not the answer to the whole question. The question is: ‘Is Iraq actively cooperating?' They are never going to be able to open up every door in Iraq and see if there is a smoking gun inside, but they are going to be able to ask all the questions that have been asked from before, all the questions they have now, and know whether or not they are getting straight answers. So far, they are not.

But the issue is: ‘Is Iraq actively cooperating?' As I said before, we know what disarmament looks like. Are we seeing it?

QUESTION: Are you satisfied with the work that the inspectors are doing right now? Do you feel that they are being as aggressive as they could be?

MR. BOUCHER: I think we have said before we feel the inspectors are doing a diligent job. They have been gearing up. They have added new capabilities. We have seen them be able to do new things in the recent week or so that they were not able to do before. They have the helicopters in and things like that. We do look for them to make use of all the authorities they have. So far, the Iraqis have not allowed unimpeded and private access to individuals. That is something we think they need to do. So, I think we would say they are in the process of gearing up and doing more and more, using more and more of their authority. That is a continuous process because they have not used them all yet.

...

QUESTION: Assuming on the 27th that the answer is no, Iraq is not cooperating, and that seems to be your belief that that will be the answer, is the United States then willing to give the inspections more time?

MR. BOUCHER: Let's see where we are then, what they report then. We are looking forward to their report. We are looking forward to comparing it against everything else that we are seeing and that we know. Let's see what the Iraqis do when they go this weekend. They are going this weekend, as I said. They are going this weekend because there is a whole series of things the Iraqis have not done. We will see how much the Iraqis do them. Let us see where we are on the 27th.