Q You talked yesterday about a large number of Sadr followers who were killed either in Najaf or Sadr City or both. I wonder if you could specify any specific numbers and give us any more details on that?
GEN. KIMMITT: Let me give you some details. As a soldier, it's tough to go out and have to fight, and I can tell you it's even tougher when you've got 17-year-old kids picking up RPGs and aiming them at you. It's very tough to have to do your job at that time, and we don't take any glory and we don't take any pride in having to do it. So, frankly, anytime we have to kill one of those kids because he's aiming a weapon at us, aiming an RPG at one of our soldiers, aiming a rifle at one of our tanks, it's not a good day. But that is more than one. And so - it serves no purpose to talk about the numbers of young Iraqis that we've had to kill because they have been entranced and followed into the lure of Muqtada al-Sadr and his group. So I would be more than happy to talk about things that have military significance, but frankly, the sheer volume of people that we have had to kill to achieve this is not something I'm -
Q But earlier this week you were giving us numbers, and all of a sudden yesterday we stopped getting numbers, and I wonder -
GEN. KIMMITT: Right.
Q - is that a change in policy?
GEN. KIMMITT: Not at all.
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GEN. KIMMITT: Let me give you some details. As a soldier, it's tough to go out and have to fight, and I can tell you it's even tougher when you've got 17-year-old kids picking up RPGs and aiming them at you. It's very tough to have to do your job at that time, and we don't take any glory and we don't take any pride in having to do it. So, frankly, anytime we have to kill one of those kids because he's aiming a weapon at us, aiming an RPG at one of our soldiers, aiming a rifle at one of our tanks, it's not a good day. But that is more than one. And so - it serves no purpose to talk about the numbers of young Iraqis that we've had to kill because they have been entranced and followed into the lure of Muqtada al-Sadr and his group. So I would be more than happy to talk about things that have military significance, but frankly, the sheer volume of people that we have had to kill to achieve this is not something I'm -
Q But earlier this week you were giving us numbers, and all of a sudden yesterday we stopped getting numbers, and I wonder -
GEN. KIMMITT: Right.
Q - is that a change in policy?
GEN. KIMMITT: Not at all.
"We don't put them in Abu Ghraib to detain them for a period of time or to detain them until proven innocent," said the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt. "They are deemed to be a security threat by a judge through multiple sources of evidence. It's that simple.
"If they were innocent, they wouldn't be at Abu Ghraib," he said.
"The percentage of persons that were released because they've served their time — that percentage is zero," said General Kimmitt when he was asked this week about the reasons for the releases. "The number that were released because they were innocent? That number, too, is zero. Persons are held at Abu Ghraib because they are determined to be security threats, imminent security threats here in country."
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"If they were innocent, they wouldn't be at Abu Ghraib," he said.
"The percentage of persons that were released because they've served their time — that percentage is zero," said General Kimmitt when he was asked this week about the reasons for the releases. "The number that were released because they were innocent? That number, too, is zero. Persons are held at Abu Ghraib because they are determined to be security threats, imminent security threats here in country."
Previous Kimmitt KaKa:
The military official, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, said the damage to the holy site could have been caused by clashes between two different militant factions inside the city or by forces loyal to the militant cleric Moktada al-Sadr "to try to provoke outrage so they could blame it on the coalition forces."
The general added: "We just can't tell you how much we decry the attempts by Moktada's militia, Moktada possibly himself, to violate the sacred holy shrines of the Shia religion for his own personal gain, for his own personal advancement."
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The general added: "We just can't tell you how much we decry the attempts by Moktada's militia, Moktada possibly himself, to violate the sacred holy shrines of the Shia religion for his own personal gain, for his own personal advancement."
US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesperson, denied on Saturday the raid had hit a wedding party. "There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations too. Bad people have parties too," Kimmitt said.
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Speaking in Baghdad on Friday, top US military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt insisted that coalition forces adhered to the Geneva Conventions.
"Any suggestion that torture is used is false and offensive," he said.
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"Any suggestion that torture is used is false and offensive," he said.
The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said there was no new U.S. thrust into the city. "We're not going to go wading into Najaf, we know how sensitive it is," he told Reuters.
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Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director for operations, Combined Joint Task Force 7, said a reporter had been "obviously been misinformed" at an allegation that Abu Ghraib prisoners are being held without clothes or food and sleep on the ground in tents.
Kimmitt assured that abuse had stopped at the prison. "We continue in the vast majority of cases to be in absolute adherence to the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of security detainees," he said.
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Kimmitt assured that abuse had stopped at the prison. "We continue in the vast majority of cases to be in absolute adherence to the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of security detainees," he said.
On Tuesday, before the Fallujah attacks, Kimmitt, the American military spokesman, appeared to back off at least somewhat from the command's emphasis on Islamic militants as the principal enemy. At a briefing, he offered an overview of the war in which he suggested that what has occurred, in effect, is a merging of the pro-Saddam insurgents and the Islamic terrorists into a common terrorist threat, and that, either way, "we just call them targets."
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Rockets launched from donkey carts. Explosives hidden in the carcasses of roadkill. Land mines taken apart and converted for attacks.
The U.S. military dismissed the tactics Friday as "militarily insignificant," though it acknowledged an "inventive, ingenious" adversary exploiting U.S. weaknesses.
"They're trying to break our will. They're trying to seize the headlines ... but they're militarily insignificant," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military deputy director for operations, said of Friday's attacks.
However, Kimmitt acknowledged the attacks point to "a very clever enemy who knows that we don't have the best intelligence in the world" and is cleverly exploiting "some vulnerabilities."
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The U.S. military dismissed the tactics Friday as "militarily insignificant," though it acknowledged an "inventive, ingenious" adversary exploiting U.S. weaknesses.
"They're trying to break our will. They're trying to seize the headlines ... but they're militarily insignificant," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military deputy director for operations, said of Friday's attacks.
However, Kimmitt acknowledged the attacks point to "a very clever enemy who knows that we don't have the best intelligence in the world" and is cleverly exploiting "some vulnerabilities."
Where does the Army find these looney tunes? Or does it create them?
Oh, and by the way....I haven't seen or heard anything about that top baddie, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri in quite some time. But, this is what General Kimmitt had to say back in November...
The US has announced it believes Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim [al-Douri], is behind some of the recent attacks on the Coalition.
US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said attempts to capture or kill Ibrahim had been intensified.
"We are getting closer every day," he said.
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US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said attempts to capture or kill Ibrahim had been intensified.
"We are getting closer every day," he said.
I wonder how close we are now.
We change most important bad guys on a rather regular basis it seems. Bin Laden - Saddam - Douri - Zawahiri - Sadr. Depending upon whom we're closest to, I guess.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
P.S. I got curious about al-Douri, and so I Googled and found this CPA Briefing from May 31 and published just today on the DoD website:
Now, in terms of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri -- we don't know where he is. We continue to place a large reward for him. We suspect that he has some measure of involvement in anti-Iraqi activities that we see on a day-to-day basis, and we would suspect that he is responsible for the deaths of many Iraqis over these past few months. So we will continue to hunt him, to bring him to justice.
And, guess who said that? Lo and behold, our dear General Kimmitt.
What led to this quote was a question, that seems to reflect my own:
Q (Through interpreter.) Farouk Newspaper -- (inaudible) -- bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Abu Zarqawi and Muqtada al-Sadr were heroes of the terrorism series. So who is the candidate after Zarqawi? Why did you fail to announce anything about your procedures in your surveillance? Thank you. The question is that all these names -- bin Laden, Zarqawi -- Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and al Zarqawi, Izzat al-Douri, Muqtada al-Sadr were all heroes of the terrorism in the American dictionary. They are terrorists that threaten the stability in Iraq and the world according to the Americans. After Muqtada al-Sadr and the Najaf, who is going to be the next name? Why is there silence with regard to Izzat al-Douri?
Ha.
I missed Zarqawi in my list. Sorry. They just come and go so fast.
