NO TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWAL
Following the surrender last week, of Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s former deputy prime minister, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed reporters to say coalition forces are making progress, but refused to speculate on a date when troops would return home. “What we’re seeing is, this isn’t World War I or World War II that starts and then ends,” said Rumsfeld.
He went on to deny suggestion that Pentagon officials have future plans they are unwilling to share with the American public. “There’s no attempt to avoid anything except getting more people killed,” said Rusmfeld.
Currently, he said, 135,000 American troops are stationed in Iraq. Those forces are still meeting resistance but not from a unified enemy, Rumsfeld said. Threats are being dealt with “one by one.” As evidence of the continuing danger to American troops, Myers and Rumsfeld showed pictures of an Iraqi military surveillance vehicle disguised as an ambulance.
But despite such dangers, progress is being made, they said. Power and other services are being restored in Baghdad, and even recent anti-American protests by Iraqis show that coalition forces are succeeding in moving that nation toward becoming a free society, Rumsfeld said.
Those protests come from a small number of Iraqis, manipulated by Islamic fundamentalists from Iran, Rumsfeld said, but “a majority of Iraqis are pleased to be free from Saddam Hussein’s rein.”
Reporters repeatedly asked what Defense officials will do with Iraqi prisoners of war. Over 1,000 have been released already, Rumsfeld said, and coalition forces in Iraq are holding and interrogating other prisoners believed to have information about members of Hussein’s government. Rumsfeld stressed that American forces do “need” that information in order to succeed in their mission.
With Aziz’s surrender, officials announced that 12 of the “55 Most Wanted” Iraqis were in custody.
CONTRACTS
Department of Defense officials announced contracts with several Arlington companies this month.
*Brown & Root Services, a division of Kellogg Brown & Root, received a $5.7 million modification to a base contract awarded June 29, 2000. The contract modification provides for repair of over 200 structures in Guam damaged during super typhoon Pongsona, which struck the island in December 2002.
*Sentinel-Centennial APG Joint Venture received a delivery order worth $256,733 on April 10 as part of a $75 million firm-fixed-price contract for maintenance, repair and construction projects taking place at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. over the next five years.
*Fluor Intercontinental is the only Arlington-based company in the last month to receive a contract for work overseas. On April 1 they received a $500,000 delivery order as part of a $100 million contract to work on destroyed roads and a destroyed bridge in Afghanistan. Workers will remove asphalt and build permanent roads and set up a temporary bridge. Officials expect work to be completed by the end of March 2004.