(27 Jan 2004)
1. Brigadier General Mark Kimmit and Coalition spokesman Dan Senor walking in
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Kimmit, Brigadier General:
"We have a responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for Iraq. That is not to suggest that it is complete security, all times, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We believe that the amount of violence in the country right now is manageable. We certainly have enough forces in the country, we certainly are growing the Iraqi police service, the new Iraqi army, the ICDC (Iraq Civil Defense Corps) quickly and effectively. We believe we have sufficient capability to maintain a reasonable security level here within the country, and look forward to the UN coming down to make that same determination as well."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dan Senor, coalition spokesman:
"I would point you to the General Secretary's statement following the UN's bombing here in Baghdad last summer when he basically said that it is impossible to protect against these sorts of incidents all the time, everywhere, 100 percent security is impossible. If that were the case you wouldn't see bombings in Baghdad or in Najaf, nor would you see it in Istanbul, Bali, Jerusalem, Riyadh, New York City, and number of other areas that have been hit by terrorism. The important point here is for us to do everything we can to give the General Secretary the confidence that he needs."
4. Senor and Kimmitt walking out of news conference
STORYLINE:
The United States is confident that it can provide adequate security to any UN team that comes to Iraq to assess the possibility of holding early elections, coalition officials said on Tuesday.
"We believe we have got sufficient capability to maintain a reasonable security level here in the country and we look forward to the U.N. coming down to make that (assessment) as well," Brigadier General Mark Kimmit, Deputy Chief of Operations in Iraq, told a news conference.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed earlier on Tuesday to send a team to see if Iraq is in a position to hold early elections, provided the Americans can guarantee adequate security.
But security in Iraq remains challenging: three US paratroopers were killed on Tuesday in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad, and two Iraqi employees of Cable News Network (CNN) died in a shooting incident south of the capital.
Elsewhere, US troops killed three suspected members of a guerrilla cell during raids in the central Iraqi town of Beiji on Tuesday, the Army said. A suspected car bomb was also discovered near coalition and Iraqi Governing Council offices, delaying a regular briefing by the US command for more than an hour.
It is hoped that the UN's assessment will help break the impasse between the US-led coalition and the Shiite Muslim clergy over choosing a new Iraqi government.
Kimmitt acknowledged that the security situation is not perfect because of the ongoing anti-coalition insurgency, but "we believe the level of violence in the country is manageable."
He said the United States has adequate forces in the country along with a growing Iraqi police, army and civil defence force.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor, speaking alongside Kimmitt, also welcomed the UN decision, and noted that Annan himself had implied after the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August that "100 percent security is impossible."
"The important point is for us to do everything we can to give the Secretary General the confidence that he needs that we are minimising the risks and maximizing the security of the electoral team" that might visit Iraq, Senor said.
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