USA: US. ADMINISTRATOR PAUL BREMNER AT A SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING TO REQUEST APPROVAL OF THE LATEST BILLION DOLLAR PACKAGE FOR IRAQ.

Record ID: 956788

  • Title: USA: US. ADMINISTRATOR PAUL BREMNER AT A SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING TO REQUEST APPROVAL OF THE LATEST BILLION DOLLAR PACKAGE FOR IRAQ.
  • Date: 22nd September 2003
  • Summary: (U7) WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 22, 2003) (U.S. POOL - ACCESS ALL) 1. HAS/WS/PAN: U.S. CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR FOR IRAQ PAUL BREMER READYING TO TESTIFY AT A SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING ROOM ON CAPITOL HILL. 0.14 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR FOR IRAQ PAUL BREMER SAYING: "Some suggest that we should move soon to give full sovereignty to an Iraqi government. I firmly believe that such haste would be a mistake. Iraq has spent a quarter century under a dictatorship as absolute and as abusive as that of Nazi Germany. As a result political distortions and inequities permeate the fabric of political life. No appointed government, not even one as honest and dedicated as the Iraqi Governing Council, can have the legitimacy necessary today to take on the difficult issues the Iraqis face as they write their constitution and elect their government." 0.54 3. HAS/WS: SENATORS LISTENING TO BREMER'S SPEECH. 0.59 4. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BREMER SAYING: "I will say this that in the kind of circumstances we're in which is obviously a rather fluid, complicated situation, we have to be flexible about the plan. Our motto is strategic clarity and tactical flexibility. We've got to be clear what we want to get in all four of those areas. We've got to be clear about the end state that we want. we have to be flexible how we get there. That plan drives our work every day in Baghdad." 1.26 5. MV: WEST VIRGINIA SENATOR ROBERT BYRD HAVING A DISCUSSION WITH COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN. 1.40 6. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BYRD SAYING: "The President's request for an additional $87 Billion for the military and for the reconstruction of Iraq is eye-popping. E-Y-E, eye-popping. This request comes at a time when the American people are expressing serious reservations about the President's go-it-alone occupation of Iraq. The American people are asking questions about the reconstruction plan. They're questioning the wisdom of a policy that has our soldiers serving as sitting ducks in an Iraqi shooting gallery." 2.22 7. MV: BREMER LISTENING TO BYRD'S SPEECH. 2.28 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BYRD SAYING: "The administration was wrong on its claims that American soldiers would be welcomed with open arms as liberators. And the administration remains wrong in its refusal to share authority and responsibility for the restoration of Iraq with the rest of the world. " 2.48 9. MV: COMMITTEE MEMBERS LISTENING TO BYRD'S SPEECH. 2.55 10. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BREMER SAYING: "We cannot simply pat the Iraqis on the back and tell them they are lucky to be rid of Saddam and ask them to go find their place in a global market to compete without the tools of competition to do so, would invite economic collapse followed by political extremism and a return to terrorism. If after coming this far, we turn our backs and let Iraq lapse into factional chaos some new tyranny and terrorism we will have committed a grave error. Not only will we have left the long suffering Iraqi people to a future of danger and deprivation, we will have sewn the dragon's teeth which will sprout more terrorists and eventually cost more American lives." 3.40 11. HAS/WS: BREMER SITTING AT TABLE DURING HEARING. 3.45 (W8) WASHINGTON D.C, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 22, 2003) (POOL - ACCESS ALL) 12. MV: U.S PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH MEETING WITH IRAQI MINISTERS OF ELECTRICITY AND PUBLIC WORKS 3.51 13. SCU: BUSH, LISTENING. 3.56 14. WS/INTERIOR: OF U.S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR CONDOLEEZA RICE AT PODIUM. 4.01 15. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR CONDOLEEZA RICE SAYING: "It is a country that needs an orderly process to get to the writing of a constitution, which after all, will create the institutions on which a new society in Iraq can be based. A constitution that deals with issues like the rights and protection of minorities, the importance of the rights and protection of woman. Those are the kinds of issues that institutionalized in institutions. So Ambassador Bremer has been talking about a seven- step-plan, a constitution followed then by elections and then by the transfer of sovereignty and it makes perfectly good sense to do this as soon a possible but to do it in a way that is responsible. I think that, as all of us has said, the French plan which would somehow try to transfer sovereignty to an un-elected group of people just isn't workable." 4.54 16. MV/TRACK: RICE LEAVING BRIEFING ROOM. 5.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 6th October 2003 13:00
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  • Location: WASHINGTON D.C., USA
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  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA1D72ROG854D73S8J2XP0VD99P
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