MR. DENIG:Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Welcome, also, to journalists assembled in our New York and Los Angeles Foreign Press Centers.

We're delighted to have this briefing this afternoon dealing with Iraq, and more specifically, the Coalition's Post-War Reconstruction and Stabilization Efforts. And we're particularly honored to have as the briefer this afternoon Ambassador Paul Bremer, who was appointed on May 6th by President Bush as the Presidential Envoy to Iraq. As the senior official managing the coalition provisional authority, Ambassador Bremer oversees the coalition reconstruction efforts and the process by which the Iraqi people build the institutions and governing structures that will guide their future.

Ambassador Bremer will have an opening statement to make, then we'll take two initial questions from New York and then we'll come back to Washington.

Mr. Ambassador.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Thank you. Good afternoon. This has been a really good two weeks for the Iraqi people in economics, in politics and in security. In the last two weeks in the economy we have introduced a unified currency in Iraq for the first time in 12 years. Since we made the announcement, the Iraqi currency has been stable.

In the last two weeks we have announced the independence, for the first time in history, of the Central Bank of Iraq, giving some assurance of independent monetary policy for future Iraqi Governments. And in the last two weeks, we announced an emergency budget for the year 2003, a budget which will provide very substantial funds to look after the immediate interests and needs of the Iraqi people.

Also in the last two weeks, we saw the establishment of a Baghdad City Council for the first time, a council of 37 men and women, who represent the various districts and neighborhoods of the capital. This means that every large city in Iraq now has its own city council. In fact, all across the country 85 percent of the towns have got town or city councils.

And of course, a mere 10 days ago, we had the establishment of the Iraqi Governing Council. The Iraqi Governing Council is the first of three steps on the road to a fully sovereign Iraqi Government, democratic government.

The next step will be the convening of a constitutional conference to write a new Iraqi constitution. And that will lead to the third step, which is elections for a sovereign Iraqi Government, which will be the point at which the coalition's sovereignty is handed over to Iraqis.

And, finally, of course, in the area of the security, we have the very dramatic events of yesterday when Saddam's two sons, who were his murderers, his henchmen, were killed in a brilliant military operation by our forces in the northern city of Mosul.

We are working on all three of theses areas -- security, economy and political developments -- and we have a strategy for all three. Over the next 60, 90, 120 days and the next year, we will continue to make progress on security, on the economy, and on the political developments. We have an action plan and we mean to execute to it.

And as we move forward, we will welcome the continued involvement of the international community. Already today, 19 countries have their troops on the ground beside us in Iraq, and more than a dozen others are considering and talking to us about putting their forces on the ground.

More than two-dozen countries have already made pledges to or given money to the reconstruction of Iraq. Therefore, both on the military side and on the economic side, we have a substantial internationalization of the efforts to rebuild Iraq, something which we welcome and we look forward to expanding in the months ahead.

We are on track to meet the President's vision of an Iraqi Government which is stable politically, democratic and representative, an Iraq which is at peace with its neighbors and poses no threats to its neighbors, an Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction and terrorists.

This is the vision the President and the Prime Minister of Britain have laid out, and it is the vision towards which all of our efforts are now directed.

I'd be happy to take your questions.

MR. DENIG: All right, we'll start with New York. New York, do you want to be first?

QUESTION: Yes, sir. From New York, Kahraman Haliscelik from Show TV and SkyTurk of Turkey. First, on behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank you for giving us that information, valuable information.

My first question is about the killing of Saddam Hussein's two sons. There is already criticism about they being killed. Do you think if they were captured alive, would that help you more about finding Saddam Hussein, himself, and maybe weapons of mass destruction?

And my second question is about PKK terrorist organization, which is based in Northern Iraq. What's your administration's policy toward PKK, and do you plan to hand over about 5,000 members of that terrorist organization members to Turkey?

Thank you.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: I believe that, as I said earlier, I think the operation against Saddam's sons was very well conducted. I think that we will find in the days ahead that it was a very good example of something we have noticed before in the last few weeks, which is that Iraqi citizens are now starting to come forward and talking to the Iraqi police who are back on duty. There are 32,000 Iraqi police on duty in the country now. Citizens are coming forward to the Iraqi police. They're coming forward to our military units, as was the case here, and giving information about where the renegades are. And in this case, it was the two sons. The two sons were holed up in a house and defending themselves, shooting, and I might add, wounding four coalition soldiers. So I am perfectly content with the outcome. I think it brings the day when we will find Saddam Hussein a day closer.

On the question of PKK, or KADEK, we do consider it to be a terrorist organization. I understand discussions are ongoing within Turkey about how that group should be treated in Turkey, and I wouldn't make any further comment on it.

MR. DENIG: Okay. Second question from New York.

QUESTION: Good afternoon. Name is Gabriel Plesea. I am a reporter and correspondent for Romania Libera of Bucharest. I would like to mention that Romania is among the nations that helped and backed the administration, the American administration's, you know, effort to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein's regime.

With regards to this regime, as you may know, Romania was under the dictatorship of Ceausescu, very similar to Saddam Hussein, and my question relates to what is your authority, your civil administration, doing to help change the mentality of the Iraqi people from one dictated by fear to one governed by free will, freedom of expression and, you know, the like? That's one part of the question.

The other one relates. Is there regulation or law that would prevent former officials and higher-ups in the first and second echelon in the former Saddam regimes being part of the new authority or new government or political, economic effort to reconstruct Iraq?

Thank you very much.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Thank you for that. We are grateful for the support Romania has given us. One of my top advisors in the coalition authority is a Romanian who is helping us with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we are very grateful to have him.

You are quite correct to focus on the problem of changing of people's mentality. It wasn't just that the Saddam dictatorship destroyed the economic infrastructure of the country. It wasn't just that he politicized virtually every institution throughout the country right down to the sports federations. It was also that he really worked hard to destroy the psychological infrastructure. He created fear throughout.

And building back to a point where people are not ruled by fear is going to take time, as it did in Romania. I believe this is a process that the Iraqi people themselves will have to determine. We certainly are encouraging it. We certainly are working with the Iraqis. But in the end it's going to be the Iraqi people who will have to find their way forward from a climate of fear to a climate of freedom.

On the question of former officials who were in the high ranks of the Baath Party, they are not allowed to become participants in this government. Whether at some later date a new Iraqi sovereign government wants to make a different ruling -- that will be up to them. But for the time being, high-level officials of the Baath Party are not allowed in the government.

MR. DENIG: Okay, let me remind you to use the microphone, identify yourselves and your news organization.

QUESTION: Lambros Papantoniou, Eleftheros Typos, Greek daily, Athens.

Ambassador Bremer, it was reported yesterday that somehow the U.S. Government asked from Ankara to deploy 10,000 Turkish troops in Central Iraq in order to replace some U.S. forces to return back home here. And I was wondering if you are aware about that and if you would comment?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: I'm not going to comment on any particular country's discussions about troops to the coalition. We, of course, as I said in my opening statement, would welcome additional countries making troop contributions or financial contributions. We already have almost two-dozen countries on the ground. We would welcome others, including Turkey. But I'm not going to get into any of the discussions about that particular issue.

MR. DENIG: Let me ask you, also, to keep your questions short if you would. The gentleman on the far left.

QUESTION: Mr. Bremer, my name is Adnan Al-Katib with the Qatar News Agency. Three quick questions. What makes you sure -- (laughter)?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Is that fair? (Laughter.) We'll negotiate. One and a half.

QUESTION: I'll do it quick. Mr. Bremer, what makes you so sure and confident that all these attacks that the U.S. forces were subjected to necessarily and completely came from all Saddam loyalists?

Second question is, as you well know, the Bush administration is facing mounting credibility crisis. How is this impacting or affecting your own administration in Iraq?

And the third question is what are some of the problems in Iraq that have far exceeded your expectations?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: We're certain that the attacks that we have seen are coming from renegades from the former administration -- professional killers from the Fedayeen Saddam Baathists, members of the former intelligence services and the Republican Guard for three reasons: First, it's what they tell us when we capture them; secondly, when we kill them, it's the evidence that we find when we look into their backgrounds; and, thirdly, it's consistently what we hear from our intelligence. So there is not any question. We do not face a wide-scale, widespread problem here. It's not a strategic threat to our troops. We will dominate it.

The credibility, I don't agree that there is a crisis of credibility. So I don't accept your second question. I don't even, then, have to answer it, do I?

Basically, the political debate here in Washington has not been a problem in terms of my carrying out my duties out there. I have to simply keep at it. I have had a number of conversations with several hundred Congressmen while I have been back this week, and I will see more people while I'm here. I believe that as people get a better sense of our strategy, we'll find that people have a better understanding of what we're trying to accomplish and we'll just move forward.

The most important and most difficult problem I think that we have is the second one I mentioned, which is reconstructing a devastated economy. It is virtually impossible to overstate the devastation that Saddam Hussein did to the Iraqi economy in 35 years: spectacular misallocation of capital, misinvestment, outright theft, waste on the military -- probably one-third of GDP for 35 years went to the military, buying enormous amounts of arms and ammunition, which we find around Iraq, and outright theft, waste on palaces and theft.

This has left Iraq with an economy which is, essentially, based on 1950s and 1960s infrastructure and technology, which is going to cost tens and tens of billions of dollars to fix.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, Umit Enginsoy with Turkish NTV Television. You just said you would welcome Turkish troop contribution in principle. The Turkish Foreign Minister is in town. Will you be seeing him?

And on a separate matter, you recently had problems with Turkish security forces in Northern Iraq. Do you consider Turkish forces in Northern Iraq as a destabilizing factor in the area? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: I do anticipate meeting with the Foreign Minister tomorrow when he comes to the Pentagon. I think I will leave to my military colleagues the discussion of the presence of Turkish forces in Northern Iraq. This is a matter which the Turkish military and American military have had discussions on, and I don't think it's appropriate for me to intrude into their area.

QUESTION: Khaled Abdel Kareem with Middle East News Agency of Egypt. My question is about the Governing Council. One of the aspects of criticism has been that the Council is structured along sectarian lines. I want a comment on that. And to what extent do you envisage -- you see a future for Iraq divided or based on a Governing Council, a government along religious and sectarian lines rather than any other form of government?

Thank you.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Well, I don't view it as a sectarian Governing Council. You could as well say it's a gender-based Governing Council because it has men and women on it. What I consider it to be is a representative group of Iraqis.

We certainly believe that the ultimate government there should not be sectarian, that it should be representative of all of the Iraqi people. It's a complicated country. It's a very complicated society, a proud society, and the challenge for the Governing Council now is to work together and take the responsibility, some very substantial responsibilities, which we have agreed that they will take.

They are now responsible for appointing ministers to each of the Iraqi ministries. They are responsible for preparing a budget for 2004. And most importantly, they are responsible for calling into being a constitutional process, a process by which a new constitution can be created. None of these things are things which should be considered on a sectarian basis.

QUESTION: My name is Tammam Al-Barazi, Alwatan Alarabi Magazine. Sir, about the Council, you know, you were not received well in the United Nations. Apparently, they did not give it any legitimacy, what you expected.

How can you give this Council any legitimacy under your occupation, continued occupation? Most of the people consider them stooges of the United States.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Who are most of those people?

QUESTION: I mean, most people in the Arab world, you know, the Arab Governments, let's say.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Those are the same Arab Governments who also supported Saddam Hussein's regime, many of those same ones. In fact, I also don't agree with your hypothesis they [members of the Iraqi Governing Council] were not received at the United Nations.

If you read Kofi Annan's report and what Sergio De Mello said yesterday, you'll see that the United Nations, in fact, did accept that they represent what was called for in [UN Security Council Resolution] 1483, which is an interim Iraqi administration; and that they were received at the Security Council and spoke to the Security Council yesterday. That, to me, is an indication that, in fact, the international community does accept it -- whatever the people you're talking about may say.

QUESTION: Ans Bouwmans, Radio Netherlands. Mr. Bremer,

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Good afternoon (in Dutch).

QUESTION: Good afternoon (in Dutch). (Laughter.) In history, big powers have not done very well fighting guerrilla warfare, as a matter of conflicts. We know the French in Algeria, the Americans in Vietnam, the Russians in Afghanistan, the Dutch in Indonesia.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: The Dutch in Indonesia, yeah.

QUESTION: Why is this different?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Well, first of all, we're not faced with anything like what you were faced with in Indonesia with the British in Malaysia. Actually, the British did win their war in Malaysia, just for the record.

What we are faced with is a group, a small group of bitter-enders, who are trying to roll back the tide of history, people who do not accept the fact that Iraqis are now free. And this is a group which is made up, as I said in answer to an earlier question, of a small group of Baathists, Fedayeen Saddam, who are professional killers, some members of the Republican Guard, members of some of the intelligence agencies that were set up by Saddam.

They do not have support in the country. Indeed, if you were watching television last night and saw the reaction to the news of the death of the two brothers in Baghdad with the firing, the celebratory firing of rifles all over the city, you will know that the Iraqi people understand that Saddam is finished.

So the war for the liberation of Iraq has been won. It was won on April 9th. We are now going to finish up the process by dealing with these small remnants that are around in a small area of Iraq.

QUESTION: Mohamed Alami, Abu Dhabi Television. Two media-related questions, Mr. Ambassador. Defense Deputy Secretary Mr. Paul Wolfowitz this morning criticized some Arab (inaudible) stations. (Inaudible) of them. Do you share that sentiment? And if you do, what part of the (inaudible) you don't like?

The second question, the "Journalistes sans Frontieres," the French-based media organization, criticized some decision you made on the Iraqi media. You are restricting the Iraqi media. The question is how can you build true democracy without free, independent media?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Well, I don't know what Mr. Wolfowitz said, so I have no way to comment on what he said. I'm sorry.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) Arab media such as Al-Jazeera would be not helpful in the Iraqi issue.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Yeah. Well, I would say that I don't know. Again, I don't know what he said, so I can't speak for him. I think it is the case that in many cases, some of the Arab television has not been very helpful. It has not pointed out the great successes that we have had in Iraq. It has tended to, in some cases, not report the good news, or, perhaps, report in a distorted way the bad news.

This isn't my view. This is the view of the Governing Council. When this question came up at the first meeting of the Governing Council 10 days ago, it wasn't me, it was members of the Governing Council, who, one after another, strongly criticized the coverage by Arab media of the situation in Iraq, and pointed out quite rightly that during the Saddam years these same outlets were supporting Saddam Hussein. It's not my conclusion. It's their conclusion.

On the case of -- I don't know exactly what the "Journalistes sans Frontieres" were talking about in terms of restrictions on Iraqi media. In fact, there are 150 new newspapers since we arrived there. If anything, the environment is more open than it is in Washington. At least in Washington, you have to register a newspaper to publish it. We don't even have any – yet -- any registration procedures.

We will have registration procedures because we think that an organized approach to media registration and licensing is what most countries have. So I don't know what the "Journalistes sans Frontieres" are talking about.

QUESTION: There was a newspaper called (inaudible). You close it down.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Yes, we did yesterday. That's correct. Well, they are right, we did close it down. So what's the question? That's correct.

QUESTION: That's what they said.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: We did close it down. That's correct. What's the question?

QUESTION: Why? Why?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: We closed it down because they violated a decree which outlawed political incitement, incitement to political violence. This they did by publishing and threatening to publish the names of people who should be killed. And they were closed down for that reason. Perfectly legal.

QUESTION: Sir, Khaled Dawoud from Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper. I have two quick questions, sir.

This morning, the President Bush mentioned something about deadlines that in your plan that you have a plan with specific deadlines in order how to progress in Iraq. So I wonder if you can give us some information about this, particularly in terms of your imagination when the Iraqis will be able to form their own government.

And second question, sir. Mr. Annan, yesterday, criticized the treatment of Iraqi prisoners and even his representative to the UN, to Iraq, Mr. De Mello, said the same thing. So I wonder whether you can guarantee more access by International Cross and other organizations to the prisoners in making sure that they are receiving good treatment or fair, whatever is legal.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: On the question of the timetable for an Iraqi government, as I mentioned earlier, there are three steps. The first step was establishing the Governing Council. The second step will be establishing a constitutional process by which a constitution is written by the Iraqis and then approved by the Iraqi people. That leads to the third step, which is elections for a sovereign government.

The question about the timetable in that process is really in the hands of the Iraqi people. It depends, once the constitutional process is established, how long it takes the Iraqi people to write their constitution. Once they have written their constitution, we will have elections and there will be an Iraqi sovereign government. I don't know how long it will take them to write the constitution. We have --

QUESTION: Usually people, like, in your position would have an estimated -- just an estimate.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Well, I have said that I would like to see elections next year, and it seems to me that should be possible. But, again, I want to emphasize that the timing is in the hands of the Iraqi people. Now that the Governing Council is established and has the responsibility for finding the constitutional process, it is in their hands.

On the question of the treatment of detainees, we are in full compliance with our obligations under the Geneva Conventions in our detainees. The ICRC, the UNHCR, they all have full access and have visited our detainees. Our detainees now have access to lawyers. We have arranged family visits for all but a few of the detainees. We are in the process of rebuilding prisons.

One has to remember what the situation was when we arrived. We arrived in a country where something like 120,000 hardened criminals had been released by Saddam Hussein, a country without the rule of law, a country in which the police force and the judiciary was corrupt and in some cases, cruel, a country in which detention facilities, prisons, were substandard, even subhuman.

I visited last week a new detention center we are building and was shown -- it was a detention center that had been used as a prison by the former regime -- and visited a room in which we will have eight prisoners in the room. It is a room in which, under Saddam Hussein, there were 50 to 75 people -- so many people in the room that they could literally not sit down. That was the situation we found when we got to Iraq and, by any measure, the rights of detainees and of prisoners are better today in Iraq than they have ever been in the past.

QUESTION: Mohamed Elsetouhi, Nile news channel, Egyptian Television.

Back to the question of Uday and Qusay. Was there any decision made on any level to go for the attack and not to try to capture them?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: To what the attack?

QUESTION: To go for the attack and not to try to capture them. Was there any decision made on any level to do that?

And the other question. You talk now about evidence on Iraqi weapons programs. Did you lose any hope to find actual weapons in Iraq?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Did I -- did we lose --

QUESTION: Hopes to find actual weapons?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Oh. Since I am not in the military chain of command, I am not able to answer the question about what the tactical decisions were made by the commander on the ground. From what I read in the newspapers, it's quite obvious to me that the only choice was to go in there and use force to get these guys out, that they were defending themselves with very heavy caliber machine-gun fire, and it looked to me like the only option they had was to go in and get them.

On the question of weapons of mass destruction, no, on the contrary: We had the arrival a couple of weeks ago of David Kay with some 1,300 officials, experts who are looking into the WMD. I am confident that they will find evidence of chemical and biological programs there.

QUESTION: But that was not my question, sir. Actual weapons, not just --

AMBASSADOR BREMER: I answered the question. I am confident that they will find evidence of chemical and biological programs in Iraq.

QUESTION: Not weapons?

QUESTION: T.V. Parasuram, Press Trust of India. From the -- or from President Bush down, many members of the administration have requested other countries to deploy troops, but these countries have said that they want the blue helmet of the United Nations.

I was wondering what the problem is in making it a UN operation and not a -- not a U.S. operation?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: At the present time, I do not see any indication that we are inclined to seek a UN force. I know some countries have said, including yours, that it would be easier for them to provide troops if there were some kind of UN request for those troops. That's a different matter. The Secretary of State mentioned over the weekend that the administration was willing to consider the question of whether there should be a UN resolution inviting countries to provide troops.

But I think it is quite clear from transition economies, countries in political transition over the last 20 years, that it's important to have unity of command in the military side. And for the time being and for the foreseeable future, the command will be in the coalition, not in the UN.

QUESTION: Hello, Ambassador. I'm Mahtal Farid from VOA TV.

I'd like to ask about the question of women's issues in Iraq. It seems like nobody talks about it. There has been numerous violation of women's rights. What is United States doing to help that, and are we going to see more women's role in the government?

And my second question is on a completely different topic. In recent interviews, you mention how Iran has been an obstacle and they've been meddling in Iraqi affairs. What role do you see for Iran?

AMBASSADOR BREMER: When you say no one is talking about women's issues, you obviously haven't talked to very many Iraqi women, because they talk about it a lot -- and that's good. We have actually taken quite an aggressive position in trying to help Iraqi women organize themselves. One of the features of the totalitarian system under which they have lived was the complete politicization of all organizations, whether they were sports organizations, lawyers' organizations or women's organizations.

Recognizing that, we took the initiative to call a meeting of some 50 women at the end of June in Baghdad, women from all over the country, who came together and formed a steering group to work with us on how we can promote women's issues in Iraq.

One of the first things they decided was that they would like us to sponsor a full day women's conference, which took place July 1st or 2nd -- don't hold me to the date, but, anyway, sometime in the last couple of weeks -- the first free women's conference that's ever been held in Iraq. They were divided into workshops. There were 80 women involved. I met with them before and after the conference. They came up with a number of proposals, working groups in health, in women's role in the law, women's roles in politics.

So we are very actively promoting a fresh look at -- it's really the way Iraqi women were in the '50s. In the 1950s, Iraq was at the forefront of women's rights throughout the Muslim world, and there's no reason why that couldn't happen again. We certainly are active in promoting it.

In the case of Iran, what I would like to see from Iraq's neighbors, all of Iraq's neighbors, is that they don't interfere in Iraqi affairs. The Iraqi people have a substantial job ahead of them trying to rebuild a country that's shattered by 35 years of dictatorship. This job is not made easier if Iraq's neighbors take it upon themselves to interfere in Iraqi affairs, which is that the Iranians have been doing.

So when you say what role should they play, it's they should butt out.

QUESTION: That won't translate in Arabic. (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Well, you better not use the literal term. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: My name is Said Arikat from the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper.

On the Governing Council, sir, there seems to be a lot of bickering and lack of cohesiveness yesterday on who represents Iraq, and I wanted to ask you if there have been any promises by any of the Arab governments that they will recognize the Governing Council as the representative Iraqi government. That's one.