Hi unclewest; Re context of the alleged "no prisoners" quote from Rumsfield:
DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld
News Transcript, Dept. of Defense, November 19, 2001
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Q: We're getting reports that Mullah Mohammed Omar is trying to negotiate a surrender from Kandahar, a surrender for himself, the Taliban, including those now being encircled by Northern Alliance forces at Kunduz. Is that true? And if so, what are the terms of the surrender the United States will accept?
Rumsfeld: The United States is not inclined to negotiate surrenders. Nor are we in a position, with relatively small numbers of forces on the ground, to accept prisoners.
The negotiations that are taking place are, for the most part, taking place with the opposition forces and elements that are putting pressure onto the various cities you've mentioned, whether it's Kunduz or Kandahar or whichever. That means that those discussions are taking place.
Needless to say, we have some ongoing discussions with those forces, and it's our hope that they will not engage in negotiations that would provide for the release of al Qaeda forces; that would provide for the release of foreign nationals, non-Afghans, leaving the country and destabilizing neighboring countries, which is not your first choice either. The idea that they would keep their weapons is not a happy one from our standpoint, either. So, we are able to provide input into that process, but we're not in a position of determining it or controlling it.
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Q: Mr. Secretary, you said last week that some al Qaeda and Taliban leaders had been captured. Have they been interrogated, and are you getting information from them?
Rumsfeld: Anyone who has been -- we are not capturing people -- the United States.
Q: Opposition forces --
Rumsfeld: Opposition forces. Right. And I assume that opposition forces who capture people are talking to them and seeing if they can find information that might be helpful to them in figuring out how they can get others to surrender, particularly in a place like Kunduz, which is a static situation, where there's a fierce battle going on.
And to the extent that there are senior people, I'm sure we're having an opportunity to talk to them, as well.
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Q: Mr. Secretary, you had mentioned earlier that the U.S. is not inclined to negotiate nor to accept prisoners. Could you just elaborate what you meant by "nor to accept prisoners"?
Rumsfeld: We have only handfuls of people there. We don't have jails, we don't have guards, we don't have people who -- we're not in a position to have people surrender to us. If people try to, we are declining. That is not what we're there to do, is to begin accepting prisoners and impounding them in some way or making judgments. That's for the Northern Alliance and that's for the tribes in the South to make their own judgments on that.
Q: So they would be taking -- you're not suggesting they would be shot, in other words.
Rumsfeld: Oh, my goodness, no! You sound like Charlie! (Laughter.) (Laughs.) Summary -- summary -- I remember that line.
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Q: So you would like it to be a fight to the death in that particular -- [i.e. Kunduz Arabs]
Rumsfeld: Oh, no! They could surrender.
Q: Then what happens to them?
Rumsfeld: Well, one would hope they did not get let go into another country or even free in that country. They ought to be impounded. I mean, they're people who have done terrible things.
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Q: Can we see your shoes? And do you like to stand up when you work behind your desk?
Rumsfeld: I stand up all day long.
Q: And you do wear hiking shoes upon occasion? I've seen them, so --
Rumsfeld: Today I did not. And I wear them when I mentally feel I would prefer to be in Taos, New Mexico. (Laughter.) And they make me feel like I'm there. And today I haven't got them on. My wife's there, however, and --
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Q: And one more thing, totally unrelated. Are Special Operations forces going to be used in cave-to-cave operations, because that's what's sort of all of our speculation right now --
Rumsfeld: Yeah --
Q: -- or is it going to be left to Northern Alliance folks and whatever Special Ops forces may be with them?
Rumsfeld: If we were to do that, I would not be discussing it. And we have large rewards out, and our hope is that the incentive -- the dual incentive of helping to free that country from a very repressive regime and to get the foreigners in the al Qaeda out of there, coupled with substantial monetary rewards, will incentivize, through the great principle of University of Chicago economics -- (laughter) -- incentivize a large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves, looking for the bad folks.
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defenselink.mil
Sounds like the Pentagon may still be a bit pissed about that plane that was flown into their building.
-- Carl
P.S. Still no US combat casualties (from enemy fire), while 7 fatalities among journalists. What's going on here? |
