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DoD News Briefing

Dec-17-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

Excerpts from yesterday's press briefing at the Pentagon by Gen. Casey.

Link to DoD Transcript

Q: All right, you had said that with the fall of Fallujah for the insurgents, they don't have a safe house inside the country anymore. Mosul, since Fallujah has seen a lot of trouble up there, what is the status of Mosul now? And do you think that is becoming a safe haven for insurgents? And what are you doing to try to alleviate the ongoing problem up there?

GEN. CASEY: Let me talk about safe haven for a minute, what I mean when I say safe haven. For me, a safe haven is a place where insurgents and terrorists can go and plan, and build improvised explosive devices, and bring in recruits and receive them in, give them training, link them up with operations, stage for operations, rehearse operations, with impunity. And that's what they had in Fallujah, and that's what they don't have anymore. That's what they had in Samarra for a while. They don't have that -- (inaudible). That's what the Muqtada militia had in Najaf. They don't have that anymore.

So they've lost the ability to operate any place with impunity. So what's going on in Mosul, in my view, is not a safe haven. It's an area where insurgents have gone and have had some success against the local security forces.

Now our folks, operating with additional Iraqi security forces, have restored the status quo. But I will tell you more work needs to be done there to improve the security situation prior to elections, and it will be done.

Q: General Casey --

Q: I'm sorry. Could I just follow up? Do you see at all that Mosul is becoming a safe haven? Is there an effort at all, any intelligence that shows that these folks have actually started moving into Mosul and they'll make that kind of their Fallujah?

GEN. CASEY: I see no evidence that the terrorists are trying to make Mosul a safe haven as I define "safe haven." It is certainly an area where they are operating and attempting to disrupt the election process and the coalition and Iraqi security force operations, but not a safe haven.

The entire briefing is worth reading.


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