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File: doc33_04.txt
4
we're seeing in Some of the EP~ debriefs~ is that in his rush to get even :nore forces
dovn into the ~uwsiti theater of operations, I th~nk he has il~ prepared, ill armed,
and ill trained some of these folks. I th~nk this organization ndght be evjaence Of
Just that type of effort,
0: Can you tell fro~ the bunkers that you got yesterday, if these a~re tbe kind
of bunkers that are designed to be fought fro~ or were they ~ust ~es1gned as
t~orary ehelter? Row did they stand up, elpecially to the helicopter assaults? ~o
* YOU think they're typical of the front line bunkers?
A: ~ wouldn't say they're typical of the front line bWnkerS. The ones that we
did go into this afternoon, or revisited I guess would be the best term, they were a
con~ination of a fighting hole/bunker/living spoce. That's not out of the Ordinary.
* I think we, ourselves, ha~e done that on previous occasions. Their construction,
froin our point of view, was less than to be desired for overhead protection,
* especially when you put a tin roof there Just to hold ~p the sa:me. It was ~ore of an
* atte~pt, I think, to Carnouflage the bunker than it was to really provide ?verhead
protection.
0: Saddani ~usseIn ii scheduled to make what they'~e calling an i~ortant
speech in the next few zainutes, or few hours anyway. Ras any of the allied military
activity over the past 4~ hours or so been speci~ically designed to persuade him that
he should withdraw froni Xuwait now rather than wait for a ground war to begin?
A: ~o, I don't think ~`d make that statement, or accept that statetnent. I
* don't think we have done anything different in the execution of our campaign plan
over the last 24 or 4S tours than we have over the past four and a half or five weeks
no~. We continue to do Just as we have done previously -- reassess the battlefield
each and every cloy, and plan our strikes in accordance with that reassessment.
0: Can you talk at all about the opening of the berin along the front for
offensive purposes? The eneny can see so:ne of these0 Have there been more in recent
days, in the last couple of ~ys?
A: We have opened son~ berms alon~ the border because, as ~`ve inentioned to
you on.several occasions, the border is not a clearly defined marker on the ground as
you night in~ply by looking at a map. So we have opened holes in the berm to allow us
to go across it, and to kind of enter this -- for lack of a better terrn -- no man's
land, or this land between the berm and the border area. So to facilitate cur
operations, we have done that. It's another atten~t to make sure that our reconnais-
* sance and counter-reconnaissance efforts can continue unabated.
0: Do you have any further word on this most recent SCUD launch towards Rafr
Al Batin? Were the SCUDs intercepted, did they cause any darnage, was it a conven-
tional warhead?
A: Qnite frankly, ~ don't. In fact it's really funny, I swept into the war
roosi and said I'm on the way to co~ over here, is there anything new. And General
~ohnston, who you're all tamiliar with, said no, nothing's happening. Then I Just
Lappened to talk to the ~-3 on the way out, and I said is anything going on? He
said, other than the SCUD launch, I Said what SCUD launch? General Johnston said,
* oh, I thou ht you knew about it. I said no, I didn't know about it because you can't
hear the S rena or the alarms in where we normally work. So I was co~letely
* ignorant of it, so I Just got whatever I could get on the way over, and basically it
was that there were two confirmed launches, that they were on an azimuth1 and we can
determine basically from where they were shot from and on the azimuth they were firea
at, basically where they would inpact. That's why ~ said in the KJC~(~ \Lrea. Essen-
tially, beyond that, I don't have any other reporLa to give you0 It takes a little
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