1:45 pm (EDT)

Real Audio of Briefing

MR. DENIG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center; also welcome to journalists who are in the New York Foreign Press Center. We are glad to have all of you here today for this, third, in our series of special briefings for journalists from Arab and Muslim countries; and here to moderate this session is Ambassador Chris Ross, the Special Coordinator of the State Department for Public Diplomacy.

Ambassador Ross.

AMB. ROSS: Thank you, Paul. (In Arabic) Welcome to all of you. As you know, we have been organizing periodic events for Arab and Muslim journalists in recognition of the high interest of Arab and Muslim public opinion in events in Iraq. Among the many aspects of these events that have been of interest is the socio-economic conditions of the Iraqi people, and what we are doing about them through a large program of relief and humanitarian assistance.

To discuss these issues with you today, we are honored to have the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios. Andrew also serves as Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance, and as Special Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sudan. He has had quite a wealth of previous experience including four previous years at the U.S. Agency for International Development, a number of positions in the private and public sectors, and a stint as a state legislator, so he is truly a renaissance man and I invite him to take the floor.

MR. NATSIOS: Thank you. Thank you very much. As of today, the United States Government spending on emergency humanitarian relief for Iraq and for reconstruction is at $594 million, almost $600 million is what we have spent so far. We all know that the budget went through, and the budget was nearly $2.5 billion for the non-military part of the reconstruction effort; of the almost $600 million that we have spent already, $516 million is gone to emergency relief, and of that much of it has gone to UN agencies. There is a perception that we are not working with the UN. In fact, a great bulk of the money that the United States Government has spent is going through UN agencies; six UN agencies, and then two international organizations from Geneva, Switzerland, and the rest is going to reconstruction.

Let me mention just some of the organizations that are getting assistance from the U.S. Government to do reconstruction and relief work: the World Food Program to provide food assistance to the people of Iraq through the public distribution system, we have provided $435 million; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, $21 million; the World Health Organization has received $20 million; UNICEF has received $20 million; the International Committee of the Red Cross, $10 million; the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, $3 million; the International Organization for Migration Out of Geneva, another international organization, $9 million; UN OCHA, which is the UN agency that reports to the Secretary General, that does coordination of international humanitarian response, they are the UN umbrella agency that does the responses. We have funded with core funding, in order for them to perform this role. They are now in Larnaca, Cyprus, and they are going to move their operation into Iraq very shortly, we're told; and so a lot of what we are doing is through and with United Nations agencies.

We have also given $25 million worth of grants to internationally known NGOs. A WFP convoy with 50 Jordanian trucks with 1400 metric tons of wheat flour arrived today in Baghdad. We had teams out over this weekend for the first time simultaneously in Baghdad, in Basra, in Nasariya, and a number of smaller villages. This is the first time we have been able because of improved security to get out to these areas to do assessments that will be necessary for us to direct our relief resources and reconstruction resources.

The dredging of the port of Umm Qasr will begin within the next 10 days, and that will allow much larger ships to enter the port, both for reconstruction purposes, but also for shipments of food. Up until now, only smaller ships of food could enter the port because the port had not been dredged. I can go into a lot more detail, but I thought now I would answer questions.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Mr. Natsios.

MR. NATSIOS: Yes.

AMB. ROSS: Please when you ask your question, identify yourself and keep the question brief.

QUESTION: Sure. My name is Said Arikat, Al Quds newspaper. Sir, why was it that the foreign regime was able to restore electricity to Baghdad after bombardment within hours, while we are now into the second week, in some areas the third week, and electricity is not restored? And you cannot conduct any humanitarian effort without electricity. Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: Well, first, you can conduct food distributions. You don't need electricity for food distributions, and for emergency medical care, you don't need electricity. But you do need it for water and for the sewer systems, that's absolutely correct. Water was restored this weekend to Southern Baghdad. It's a matter of finding out what, in fact, was wrong. And it's not at all clear to us that it was the military campaign that led to the shutting down of the electrical supply. There is some evidence that it was deliberately done by the regime in order to increase the chaos in the city. Whatever caused it, the fact is half the city now has it, and the rest will have it very shortly.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Khaled Abdelkareem, with Middle East News Agency of Egypt. Mr. Natsios, do you know that Reverend Franklin Graham is heading or sending teams for humanitarian affairs and humanitarian assistance in Iraq?

Do you know that gentleman made some remarks against Islam and against Muslims -- and I am afraid.

Does the USAID have any mandate to stop some people from sending teams, as long as that may damage the message and the mission? Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: I was not aware that Franklin Graham was sending teams in. We have not given him any funding. There are 55 international NGOs in Jordan now poised to go in. I don't know the names of all of them. We have given grants to about six very large well-known international NGOs, like Care and Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee, the International Medical Corps, those kinds of groups. We cannot control who goes into a country anywhere. We don't have that kind of authority to do that.

Yes.

QUESTION: Amal Chmouny from Al Hayat newspaper. How are you going to deal -- the USAID -- what you are going to deal with and cooperate legitimately with the rebuilding issue, and what will be the role of the Iraqis?

And also, General Garner said (inaudible) now Mr. al-Zubaidi, who is -- who announced himself a governor. So how are you going to deal with -- are you going to deal with this matter?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, first, having someone come in from the outside and announce that he is the mayor of Baghdad is a little extreme. I mean, who elected him to be the mayor of Baghdad?

The way in which we operate in AID everywhere in the world -- we work in 79 countries and we have found over the years the best way to get support for what you are doing, and to make sure what you are doing is consistent with the cultural traditions and the religious traditions and the history of the country is to talk to people at the village level, at the neighborhood level, not high level political figures. That's for other people. That's for diplomats and the military.

But for AID, for our work, we go to the village level, and we will first see the religious leaders in the community. We will find doctors, who typically aren't -- there are politicized doctors, but most doctors are interested in caring for people. And so we find the doctors; we find lawyers; we find university professors, many of whom are a little bit more insolated from the old regime. For example, in Umm Qasr, the villagers came back and told us they didn't want the Baathist officials coming back. And we said that's fine, but you need to organize yourself in the neighborhoods.

People chose from each of the neighborhoods -- I think there are 40 or 50 neighborhoods in the city -- a representative for the council and a professor of English, who taught at El Basra University, spoke very good English, was chosen by this group to sort of be the spokesperson. He is not the mayor of the city, but he sort of speaks for the council.

Before we do anything in the city, we ask the villagers, through these local groups that are temporary in nature, until formal elections can be held what their priorities are, what do they want done first, what do they want done second. And everybody's first point is water, that is the great need, and water is connected to electricity.

So we recognize putting the electrical grid back online across Iraq is a top priority because it directly affects crime, too. Because if you have light at night, it's harder for people to loot. People like to loot anywhere in the world in darkness. And if there is light, it's harder for them to do that. But it's very important to run the pumps in the water plant. And we do know, for example, that one of the reasons the quality of the water is deteriorating is when the water pressure is very low in the water pipes, it creates what's called reverse pressure.

And what happens is all of the dirty water in the soil is sucked into the water pipes that aren't full with water. And so getting the water pressure up to maximum level is very important to protect the quality of the water. There is a direct relationship between the quality of the water and water pressure. This is a technical engineering question, but you can see why there is a relationship between getting the electrical plants working.

So that's the first priority is the electrical plants because water affects people's ability to survive. Children get sick if the water is dirty. They're particularly sick because they are more vulnerable. The death rate among children is very high and much too high. And, particularly, in the south, there has been no effort by the Baathist party to repair any over a 15 year period, any of the water plants. And that's why the death rates in the south appear from initial review to be much higher than they are in the central part of the country, and so that's a priority.

But the other thing that people asked us is a very simple thing. In Umm Qasr, for example, is they asked us to repair a municipal building. And they said, we don't want to go to the Baathist party headquarters to meet even though the building is okay. There is no damage to it. And they said the reason we don't is that is where our relatives were taken to be tortured and executed, and none of us want to go in that building because it's very horrible a place for us because we would hear people screaming at night during the torture sessions by the Baathist party over the years, and we will not step foot in there. And we said we respect that, "Where do you want to meet?"

And so they chose a municipal building that had no bad history or memory to it, and that we needed to repair that and we are beginning to do that this week for them. But we'll do that in each village as we go along. And they will set the priorities, and then we will respond to the priorities. It's the Iraqis country; it's not our country. So they need to make the decisions as to what the priorities are.

AMB. ROSS: Back there.

QUESTION: Okay, Hoda Tawfik, Al-Ahram, Egypt. May I ask you about the contracts for rebuilding Iraq? So far you are giving the contracts to the American companies, which is understandable.

How about the Arab countries that are really legitimate, the sisters and brothers of Iraq? They have been working with Iraq; big companies in Egypt built a lot of areas of Baghdad.

So what is the trend now? How are you going to approach them? And is it only through you that any contracts can be done, or can anyone go and -- a big builder -- and go and do what you want?

MR. NATSIOS: There is some misunderstanding, in terms of the $2.5 billion. Some people think that's Iraqi oil money. None of that is Iraqi oil money, or Iraqi frozen assets. All of that is U.S. taxpayer money. It is our contribution from our own tax resources from the U.S. Treasury for the rebuilding of Iraq.

We expect many other countries to also contribute. Japan has indicated they are going to contribute; the British have already made a very large pledge; the German Redevelopment Minister was in to see me last week; the Danish Minister; the Norwegian Minister; we expect the Saudis will make a contribution in the Gulf State; we are hoping that Egypt and Turkey will make contributions as well. So that the only source of revenue is not the U.S. Government, that's the first thing I want to say. But the money that we are spending is U.S. Government money, U.S. taxpayer money.

Second, in terms of local firms, local companies, such as ones from Egypt, or Turkey, or Jordan, or Saudi Arabia, or Europe, countries in Europe, we expect that many of the subcontracts from the prime contractor -- the prime contractor is the one who keeps the records, and the books, and the accounting system consistent with USAID and U.S. Government standards and federal law.

The subcontractors don't have to worry about that. All they have to do is do what the prime contractor tells them to. And right now I am told the prime contractors are already looking for local companies, Iraqi companies, and companies from the region to work in Iraq, who know the country, know the infrastructure. They have built some of the hospitals. We understand, for example, 10 of the hospitals that were built in Baghdad were built by the Japanese. Well, they have an expertise there; it may be Japanese money that rebuilds those hospitals if they need to be rehabilitated.

So the subcontracting will be done in many cases competitively. So there will be a competitive bid for a subcontract, let's say, for example, to do 50 schools in Basra. And they will bid it out, and it will be published as a procedure for doing this in law, and we will follow those procedures. And we have waived, or we have put aside the rule, because the law is that even subcontracts has to be American companies.

We have rescinded that law just for Iraq in January; and so the law is no longer applicable for subcontractors. Subcontractors can come from any country except about six countries that are in the terrorist book. Libya -- companies from Libya will not be able to bid, or North Korea, for example.

QUESTION: Syria?

MR. NATSIOS: Syria.

AMB. ROSS: North Korea.

MR. NATSIOS: North Korea.

QUESTION: Sudan?

MR. NATSIOS: Sudan? I don't know if Sudan --

QUESTION: Sir, just to follow up.

AMB. ROSS: Identify yourself please.

QUESTION: My name is Khaled Dawoud. I also work for the same people as Ms. Hoda, Egypt's Al-Ahram.

MR. NATSIOS: Yes, there is a lot of reporters.

QUESTION: Just the two of us.

MR. NATSIOS: Yes.

QUESTION: You know, sir, you mentioned that this is U.S. taxpayers' money. But we also know that you have frozen the assets, Iraqi assets here worth $1.7 billion, and you are also seeking to lift the sanctions against Iraq, you know. And, basically, which is going to put you in control over the Oil-for-Food program.

MR. NATSIOS: No, no, no, no, it won't put us in control.

QUESTION: I mean, well, one way or the other, being there, you know, you are the only party who is going to be responsible for --

MR. NATSIOS: Well, but the $13 billion are in UN trust fund accounts. They are not in our account, so we can't control it.

QUESTION: So, I mean, I am just questioning this business of purely U.S. taxpayers' money considering the future, you know, money that you are going to get from --

MR. NATSIOS: The funds that are frozen are frozen in the Treasury Department. They have a separate account. They are not in the U.S. Treasury. The money, the $2.5 billion to be used for Iraq's reconstruction from my budget -- for the AID money is from U.S. taxpayer funds, not from Oil-for-Food, and not from frozen assets.

The Oil-for-Food revenues are in a UN trust fund. I think there are two or three of them, and they are controlled by the United Nations. And the only way to access this money is through a Security Council resolution because the UN controls the fund.

AMB. ROSS: Way back here.

QUESTION: Emad Mekay, with Inter Press Service. Just to follow up again on the previous two questions. As far as I know, sir, do you know if any Israeli companies have actually applied for that subcontract and which?

MR. NATSIOS: I have no idea. Because, you see, we have just chosen the prime contractor, so it would be a little early for them to bid.

QUESTION: Right, but one of the reasons you mentioned before in your, perhaps, last briefing here, why the contracts were restricted to U.S. companies is that you cited security reasons. Will the security reasons still apply for the subcontract --

MR. NATSIOS: No.

QUESTION: -- in which case?

MR. NATSIOS: You do not have to have a security clearance to bid on a subcontract, number one. Number two, much of the information that was classified in January has been declassified. It was classified in January because the President had made a decision as to what was going to happen, so it was very sensitive information. And when we asked them to prepare their bids, their bids to our advertised RFP, a lot of this information was classified.

For example, the actual plan for reconstruction of Iraq, which is now public information, it's on the website, it's a public document, anybody can read it, that was classified in January. It's been declassified once the war started, so subcontractors do not have to have security clearances.

AMB. ROSS: Sir, here.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

MR. NATSIOS: No, no, the federal law says that we are not actually allowed to tell prime contractors, except consistent with federal laws. If a country's subcontractor comes from a terrorist of one of those six countries, then the law is fairly clear; but, otherwise, is supposed to be based on the highest quality product for the lowest price. That's the standard we use. So people are going to have to bid. I mean, just because a country supported us in the coalition, does not mean they are automatically going to get any contract.

QUESTION: My name is Ben Bangoura. I would like to follow up on the previous questions on the money issue -- $2 billion. I mean --

MR. NATSIOS: $2.5 billion.

QUESTION: $2.5 billion. Why would you spend the U.S. taxpayers' money for Iraqi people. Is this a form of lend the money to be reimbursed in the future --

MR. NATSIOS: No, not it's not a loan.

QUESTION: -- or is some form of a giveaway?

MR. NATSIOS: It's a gift.

QUESTION: If so, why would you do so, while there are still some people leftover in the United States who need money, and who basically need some?

MR. NATSIOS: So you are making the argument against us doing it?

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. NATSIOS: But, no, I understand. There are people who might say that. But I think the great bulk of the American people know that if a war takes place to remove a reprehensible regime, a brutal regime, and you don't show some hope for the future after the war is over, you could have a return to the regime later on. The Iraqi people have to see in the next year or two an improvement in their standard of living.

We don't think that that's going to be that difficult to do actually because the infrastructure is already there. The pipes are already in the ground. The water treatment plants have already been built, it's that they have not been repaired in 15 years or 20 years because all of the money has been going for military purposes or to build those palaces that Saddam has.

So if we can spend the money we have carefully -- 6,000 schools will be rehabilitated, that's one of our goals; 100 hospitals, the main hospitals in the country will be rehabilitated. It's not that we have to build them from scratch, we have to reconstruct or rehabilitate what has not been properly maintained for 15 years now.

A lot of the equipment from in the water treatment plants, there is no repair parts for them. I understand there is actually a warehouse that's been full of repair parts for three years now. They have not used any of the equipment because we are told that they did not want the water to improve in certain areas of the country because they wanted the child mortality rates to be high, which is a disgusting thing to take out their political hatred of certain parts of Iraqi society on the children.

But that's our first priority is to protect children's lives, and 100,000 Iraqi children died last year needlessly. The child mortality rate in Iraq is higher than India's. It's just completely outrageous that this has been allowed to exist this long.

AMB. ROSS: Fourth row here.

QUESTION: Reha Atasagan from TRT Turkish Public Television. Just correct me if I am wrong, it will be up to the prime contractors to pick up the subcontractor?

MR. NATSIOS: Correct, within certain federal law. I mean, you have to comply with federal laws.

QUESTION: So it's not up to the other neighbor countries who are willing to help?

MR. NATSIOS: If they are willing to help, they will use their own contractors with their own money. This is just for the U.S. Government contribution. We are not the only ones reconstructing Iraq. We are hoping Turkey will contribute, or Saudi Arabia, or the Gulf States, or Egypt, or the European countries. As I mentioned earlier, many of them have already made pledges toward reconstruction. We have $1.3 billion in pledges already just on the humanitarian relief side from other countries.

QUESTION: So anything left for the other countries to help? I mean, you decided to reconstruct Iraq, building up schools and everything, do you have any other options for other countries?

MR. NATSIOS: Oh, of course, because there are more than 6,000 schools, 6,000 of schools in the worst condition. But there are many other schools that need to be rebuilt, the universities need to be rebuilt.

The amount of money we have is not going to clean up all the sewer systems. Most of the sewer treatment plants don't work and they pump all that untreated sewerage into the Tigris and Euphrates River. And that's where people get their drinking water.

So there are many other countries will have to also contribute.

QUESTION: I don't get the picture. Can we have what the U.S. will be doing as of reconstructing?

MR. NATSIOS: We can give that to you.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: Anybody want to read our website -- everyday it changes. You have the SITREP -- the humanitarian risks -- right there I think you have it. No?

There's a website -- SITREP -- do you have it in the book there? Maybe not. No, that's not it. And it changes everyday and at the back of it, it has a list of all of the countries that have contributed money toward the effort. It lists that, and then it says specifically which organizations we have given the U.S. money to. Remember, I had mentioned almost $600 million? Every day that changes, it updates it. So you can get a lot of information just off the existing AID website. And all the contracts that we've let out, the actual texts of the contracts are on the website. They are public information, you can read them.

AMB. ROSS: And is it absolutely clear to them that the monies from other countries --

MR. NATSIOS: Monies from other countries do not come to the United States.

AMB. ROSS: They decide.

MR. NATSIOS: They decide how they spend their money.

QUESTION: They don't have to get permission?

MR. NATSIOS: No, no.

QUESTION: I mean, you're the occupying power, now.

MR. NATSIOS: Well, that doesn't make any difference. It doesn't make any difference.

QUESTION: They have to speak to someone.

MR. NATSIOS: Oh, they talk to -- no, no, no, no -- they go to the UN OCHA, the Humanitarian Aid Agency -- I mean, the UN Coordination Agency in Larnaca, they will be the coordinating unit for all UN agencies. See, there's been a lot of debate in the newspapers. But UN OCHA, which has been in existence for many years, we are a major donor to them, and they are coordinating the humanitarian relief response for all countries in the world, and all UN agencies, and all NGOs.

Now, when I say coordinate, they don't order people what to do, but they will put down, you know, "The British are doing this water system in this city, so the United States doesn't need to do it," or the Saudi Government is or the Kuwaiti Government -- the Kuwaiti Government is doing a lot of work in the southern part of the country right now. That is all put up on the relief web by the UN agency, and that's how we coordinate this.

AMB. ROSS: Fifth row, over here.

QUESTION: Lukman Ahmed, Al-Arabia [Middle East Broadcast Centre]. Do you expect Iraq, as a country, to pay a portion of this reconstruction, sir?

MR. NATSIOS: The $2.5 billion, no, no.

QUESTION: In the future, I mean. And the second question is how do you think the UN sanction affecting your humanitarian effort in Iraq?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, the humanitarian effort in Iraq is not affected by the UN sanctions because they are exempt from it. If you read the text of the UN sanctions, they exempt humanitarian relief efforts from the provisions of the rule of the sanctions.

What was the other question?

QUESTION: The Iraqis, they have to pay?

MR. NATSIOS: Iraqis will have income of between $18-20 billion a year in oil revenues. This is not immediately, but in the future years. When there is a new, democratically elected Iraqi Government, they are going to spend that oil revenue, I hope, transparently for the good of the public for reconstruction of the country over the longer term.

The $2.5 billion is not going to reconstruct the whole country, because a lot of work needs to get done. This is for the next year or two -- it's sort of a bridge between now and the time that an Iraqi Government can take authority legitimately from the Iraqi people's vote.

QUESTION: So I think you must get it out of Iraqi money. When the --

MR. NATSIOS: The money we're spending now is not using Iraqi money. If the Oil-for-Food program is extended beyond the 45 days, then UN agencies will be able to use some of that money. But so far there has been no agreement to go past the 45 days -- and the Oil-for-Food program that has currently been extended for 45 days is only for old contracts that had been approved before the war started. That's the Security Council resolution that exists now.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: What happens after 45 days?

AMB. ROSS: It's your colleague's turn in front here.

MR. NATSIOS: It's stopped.

QUESTION: [Ahmed] Elbashir from Sudan. I see that there are some similarities and dissimilarities between Operation Lifeline Sudan, especially in the aspect of the United Nations being an umbrella for everybody. Can you compare the two? That's one thing. But the other question is: Now Sudan going through a very critical period, do you think this might take your attention and efforts away from that? Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: No, it will not take our efforts away from it. I remain an Africanist and as soon as things have stabilized in Iraq, I'm going to go back to work in Africa -- not just Sudan, but other countries in Africa, as well.

We have announced a large reconstruction program in the South for 250 schools in Southern Sudan and are beginning agricultural development. And if there is a peace settlement between the North and the South at the talks in Kenya, there will be a much larger reconstruction program that the United States Government will pledge its support for out of U.S. taxpayers' money for the reconstruction of all of Sudan. But there has to be a peace settlement to do that, so part of what happens in Sudan is in Sudanese hands right now.

If you sign a peace agreement, then we will help with reconstruction countrywide.

QUESTION: But using the umbrella model? What do you mean by that?

MR. NATSIOS: The umbrella model is always used. We use this everywhere. I don't know why there is a big debate about this. The UN, OLS is a little bit more robust than we use in most countries and it has also existed since 1989; it started in 1989. OLS, we hope that we won't need the UN to do this in Iraq for 13 years. We hope this will last a couple of years, and then the Iraqi people will be in charge of their own destiny. They won't need the United Nations and they won't need us, but we'll see. We'll see how long it takes.

AMB. ROSS: Second row, here.

QUESTION: Muhtab Farid from Radio Farda. Could you, sir, tell us the role of the neighboring countries in the reconstruction efforts?

What kind of help are you receiving from the neighboring countries, or could you tell us what are the major obstacle from the neighboring countries?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, I know that relief shipments now have come through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, this weekend, and Turkey, so four of the neighboring countries have been very helpful in facilitating the movement of food, medical supplies and equipment that are needed for reconstruction. The Kuwait Government and the Kuwait Red Crescent Society have been particularly generous in providing relief supplies to Basra and to Nasariya and to Umm Qasr.

In addition, the Kuwaiti Government has also allowed us to build a pipeline through, I think, UNICEF, with the Royal Engineers, the British Military, from a desalinization plant, water treatment plant in Kuwait City, all the way up to Umm Qasr; and then water is being trucked from Umm Qasr into al Basra. That is a gift again, once again, the water, itself; the pipeline is built with international support, including money from the United States. But the water itself is being desalinated at a Kuwaiti plant at their expense, so countries have help in the neighborhood.

QUESTION: Any major obstacles?

MR. NATSIOS: Not right now. I think we're doing pretty well. A U.S. ship is about to dock in Akaba, a food ship, for shipments through Jordan into Western Iraq.

AMB. ROSS: Again, third row, here.

QUESTION: Thank you very much. Many Iraqis tell -- despite your efforts on humanitarian ground -- many Iraqis see you as occupying power. Is there any way to alleviate the fiasco (inaudible) country Sumeria?

Do you think you will be able to alleviate that fiasco, turning the population against your effort there? Is there any specific plan?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, there are two, specific plans: One is the reconstruction plan. If the Iraqi people see that the presence of the United States means an improvement in their standard of living, and an improvement in public services, and an improvement in their individual freedom, they will want us to remain for a while until there is an elected government.

What they ask for the most now is security, and security is still a problem in some areas, in Baghdad, for example. And if the Americans withdraw, who will provide the security, if there is no government? So that's important.

But I just want to say one thing. The Shia have not been able to worship in their very important religious festival this past week. Until now, for 30 years they have been suppressed from having that great celebration. It is a very ancient ceremony that goes back to the early days of Islam, and they have been able to do that. They did it very peacefully, I might add. People were predicting a lot of violence, it did not take place. Okay?

And the fact that they were able to do that is a sign of celebration in many of the Shia communities and the Shia mosques. So I think if you talked to the average Iraqi in the streets and -- this is not for the TV cameras -- the people that go to the TV cameras, sometimes they are old Baathist party people who have taken their uniforms off and they are saying, "Oh, we want the Americans to leave." Of course, they want us to leave. The average people in the villages say, "No, no, no. We like things, stay. Stay around for a little while here."

QUESTION: Thank you. Again, I am Said Arikat from AL QUDS. Sir, there were two million members of the Baath Party. And there was an article today in The Guardian saying that more and more, these people are assuming some responsibilities: policing Baghdad, maybe having to go and work in the park stations, and so on. Do you find yourself obligated to rely more and more on former Baathist bureaucracy?

And second, sir, what is your comment on the first newspaper to be published, Tariq al- Shab (ph), which is the communist party newspaper? Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: Well, it shows a sign of freedom if the communist party is publishing a newspaper in Iraq. Saddam brutally suppressed the communists, of course, along with any other competing group. I haven't read the paper. I am not sure I would agree with it, but they have the right to publish what they wish to. It's a free country in terms of people's civil liberties.

Your first question was?

QUESTION: My first question was, do you find yourself obligated to more and more on --

MR. NATSIOS: Yes, that's a legitimate, very good question. We want to make a distinction between those members of the Baathist party who are talented technocrats, let's say, a medical doctor. You couldn't be a director of a hospital if you were a medical doctor unless you were a member of the Baathist party. You couldn't be the principal of a school.

Now, I refuse to believe -- and Americans don't have any evidence -- that just because you are a member of the Baathist party and you were principal of the school, that you have committed war crimes and atrocities. So we are making a distinction between those people who have committed atrocities against their own people over a sustained period of time by torturing people, by executing them, by sending them to the prisons where they never come out of; and those people who are technocrats who are simply good technology people. We understand many of the engineers who run the electric or utility -- the plants that produce electricity, I mean, I don't know what kind of crimes they've committed just by making the generators run.

So one of the major jobs right now in civil administration for the U.S. is to distinguish between the people who have committed war crimes against their own people versus competent technocrats who, because they wanted to get ahead, had to join the Baathist party, but who have committed no crimes.

AMB. ROSS: Sixth row, back here.

MR. NATSIOS: And by the way, people know who they are. In Umm Qasr, they told us, "These people were the people who killed our relatives. Arrest them when they come back. These other people ran one of the power plants or one of the water pumping stations, they are okay, they never caused trouble and they didn't do any bad things."

They, actually, the villagers can tell you who is in which category.

QUESTION: My name is Deniz Enginsoy. I'm with Turkey's Anatolia News Agency. What kind of contribution do you expect from Turkey in terms of reconstruction? Could you give us more details?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, I'm not expecting anything. I am hoping the Turkish Government -- you have a lot of very able administrators and business people in Turkey in facilitating trade, for example. I have to say one thing, the Baathist party maintained control over the economy. And they had very limited markets in the food area because the government ran the whole food distribution system.

We are hoping that the borders will open up on both sides to allow food deliveries in commercially so that people can build the markets up. The Iraqis are very good business people if they are allowed to run their own businesses, and one thing we want to do is develop the business sector. And the Turkish business sector is very robust and very strong and we are hoping, perhaps, that they can help us with that. But there are also Turkish companies that may bid as subcontractors, too.

AMB. ROSS: Same row, sixth row, back here.

QUESTION: Emad Mekay with Inter Press Service, again. Sir, I am interested in your reaction to some news reports that American missionary NGOs have decided to start their aid work from Jordan and Northern Iraq -- given the (inaudible) in the area to this kind work. And also, I am interested in whether USAID is funding any of these NGOs, and what, exactly, is your relationship with them?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, I don't know which NGOs you mean, so I can't say.

AMB. ROSS: Same question.

MR. NATSIOS: That's the same question. I answered that earlier. There are faith-based NGOs that do not proselytize that we give grants to all over the world. We gave them in Afghanistan. I have to say, I think Samaritans First and these other groups may well be in Afghanistan. I'm not sure they've had any converts, however.

AMB. ROSS: Fourth row, here.

MR. NATSIOS: So I'm not sure people should worry too much.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

MR. NATSIOS: Well, it depends on the groups. If they are technically competent but they don't cause disruption, we fund them -- depends on the groups.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

MR. NATSIOS: Yes, we do not allow any U.S. Government funds to be used for proselytizing or converting people or distinguishing people. When you get a grant from the U.S. Government, you give based on need, not based on religion or ethnic group or racial group.

People will be fed whether they are Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, Assyrians, whatever they are, Turkoman. You get fed based on need. And if any NGO violates that rule, we take their money away from them.

QUESTION: Yeah. Sorry, again, you know, let's forget about the governments. Let's say a big Turkish company, construction company, with international experience would like to build something, you know, roads or anything, to help reconstruction in Iraq. Where this company should go? Where should this company apply?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, it depends on whether they want to do it with their own money, or Turkish Government money, European money or American money. If they wanted to use British money, the British are about to start letting out bids, so are the Japanese. You could go there if you want. The Saudis may do the same thing or they can come to us, it depends on what they would like to do.

QUESTION: What does it concern you, I mean, which money? I mean, they could get some help from the government or help from other companies?

MR. NATSIOS: It doesn't concern me, but if you want to --

QUESTION: But where should they go, I mean, if they want to?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, --

QUESTION: It's not clear to me.

MR. NATSIOS: Well, that's the way these reconstruction efforts work. It's not a centralized system where one country controls everything. It's decentralized and each donor government -- the British Aid Agency is called DIPPIT (ph). Clair Schwartz is the head of it. I am sure -- she is very famous -- you all know who Clair Schwartz is. She is my counterpart in Great Britain. They are bidding their own contracts out now. Okay?

If the Turks would like to know, Turkish business people, who to apply for, they should go to the website of each of the donor aid agencies that have pledged publicly that they will participate in the reconstruction.

The Economic Cooperation Council of Japan, which is part of the Foreign Ministry, is doing the Japanese part of this. So I would just go into the Ankara embassies for all major aid agencies for donor governments. Everybody knows which ones they are: Canada, Japan, the U.S., Britain, Germany is going to help, the Dutch is going to help, the Danes, the Norwegians, the Swedes, the Italians, now the Spaniards have announced some.

And look in the embassy on the website and see what their aid agency is about to do, and then you can do that. You can register on our website and it will say, "Which are the prime contractors?" "If you're interested in being a subcontractor, contact them at this telephone number."

QUESTION: But cannot be a prime contractor?

MR. NATSIOS: They cannot be prime contractors.

AMB. ROSS: One last question here, one last question. You haven't had a chance.

QUESTION: We didn't get any back here.

AMB. ROSS: You just now raised your hand, sorry. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello. Khaled Abdelkareem with Middle East News Agency again. I hope it's a new point. I am not sure if you have a timeline for your mission. In a matter of one year, two years, you are hoping that you will achieve half of the mission, all of the mission? And judging from your knowledge of the needs of Iraq, humanitarian needs of Iraq, do you have in mind an approximate figure of the overall needs, how much it will cost to finish the job? Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: In terms of the timeline -- and this is a distinction here -- in Afghanistan, we expect to be there 10 or 20 years. In Iraq, we expect to be there 1-2 years for our part of it. This is not the State Department or the military. You have to talk to them, but our intention is to have a mission there for -- this is not an underdeveloped country. This is not even a poor country. It's a rich country that had a predatory and tyrannical leadership that was basically looting the national treasury for its own purposes.

If that money from the oil can be put into the national treasury for public services, there is no need for an aid agency to be there for very long. We just have to start the process up, and then the Iraqi people can use their oil revenues to rebuild the rest of their country because they are a potentially very rich country. This should be a middle-class, functioning country. It's not a third world country. It has extensive infrastructure. It used to have very low child mortality rates, used to have very high literacy rates, all of that is deteriorated. That could be built up fairly easily.

There used to be a large middle-class in Iraq. It's gone away now. It can be rebuilt quickly.

QUESTION: But the figures?

MR. NATSIOS: We will not know the total figures until there is an assessment. We have asked the World Bank, the other donors -- because this is typically how this works -- usually, we have the World Bank do an assessment of each sector: education, health, water, sewage, roads and bridges, et cetera; and then we choose which areas of the assessed need we will do as donors.

That's how we did Afghanistan, how we did Kosovo, how we did Bosnia, how we did Mozambique, Eritrea, Ethiopia. That's the typical way in which the international community -- and this past, not this past weekend, but nine days ago, the World Bank met. And while there was initial opposition by the bank to do this assessment because there has been no Security Council resolution, they said that they will agree, and despite the absence of a Security Council resolution, to do an early assessment.

That will tell us how much it's going to cost to rebuild the whole country; and until that -- because we haven't been in the country to do these assessments until now.

QUESTION: And when are they going to --

AMB. ROSS: Oh, sorry. One last, last question and then we're turning the --

MR. NATSIOS: I would guess in the next one.

QUESTION: Thanks. Jim Wolf, Reuters. Can you talk a little bit about that subcontracting process? In other words, what kind of transparency will there be? Will those subcontracts all be announced? Will they also be recorded on your web pages? And does USAID typically exercise any sort of controls on who is picked as subcontractors, in other words, to make sure that the people can meet the U.S. Government contracting rules and such?

MR. NATSIOS: We don't want to slow down the process, okay. However, there is a provision to Federal Contracting Law, the Federal Acquisitions called FARS that says if we are dissatisfied as we monitor -- we are going to have the Corps of Engineers monitor the construction effort, which is a U.S. Government agency. And if they become concerned about the way in which subcontractors are being chosen, we, then, can impose an individual approval on each subcontract. Normally, we would not do that, but if we find there are problems we can do it.

So the prime contractor knows that. They know that they are subject to U.S. Government regulations, federal law, and AID procedure. And if they don't conform to it, then we will begin to exercise much more intrusive control over who they choose.

QUESTION: But will the actual subcontracts be made public as a matter of policy all the time?

MR. NATSIOS: Yes. Not all the time because they may have a little -- let's say they have a little contract to buy water for one of their teams for $1,000 dollars. They are not going to bid that out. They are just going to go out and buy the water.

QUESTION: And you made the point that just because a country supported the United States doesn't mean that its companies will be eligible or get better -- what about conversely? Will a country like France, which opposed, be less likely to get contracts for any reason?

MR. NATSIOS: We are going to base -- we have told the contractors -- you base the prime contractors on Federal Acquisition Law, and Federal Acquisition Law says the lowest price for the highest quality product. People have bid. Particularly, for anything, I think it's over $10 million you have to bid, and people will bid.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

MR. NATSIOS: That's very important. That's what I'm worried about.

QUESTION: Sir, when you say we, --

MR. NATSIOS: U.S. Government. Sorry.

AMB. ROSS: Let's wrap it up, please.

MR. NATSIOS: I am the Administrator of USAID.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) would you accept (inaudible).

MR. NATSIOS: I have certain requirements under federal law -- not under international law -- federal law, as to how I respond. I report to the Secretary of State, he reports to the President. I report to the U.S. Congress and the American taxpayers, who give us our money.

AMB. ROSS: Thank you very much, Andrew.

MR. NATSIOS: Thank you.

[End]