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23/10/2003
Officials play down Rumsfeld's candid 'war on terror' memo
The US defense department has moved to play down a leaked internal memo written by Donald Rumsfeld which states that the US is having "mixed results against Al Qaida".
The memo, published in the USA Today, is addressed to senior Pentagon and army officials. In the memo, Mr Rumsfeld wrote that the Department of Defense – which had been geared "to fight big armies, navies and air forces" – had not changed "fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror".
He added: "We are having mixed results with Al Qaida, although we have put considerable pressure on them — nonetheless, a great many remain at large."
The defense secretary's memo added that the US had made "reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis", but had made "somewhat slower progress tracking down the Taliban — Omar, Hekmatyar, etc. With respect to the Ansar Al-Islam, we are just getting started".
He questions whether the changes that the government made were "too modest and incremental".
"My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?" he wrote.
However, the Defense Department said today that "far from being a glum assessment", the memo was asking the "big questions that any government agency should be asking itself".
Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said: "What he's [Donald Rumsfeld] doing is elevating the perspective of the leadership of this department and asking: 'I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're on my mind, and I want them on your mind, too'."
The Pentagon spokesman said that Mr Rumsfeld wanted leaders "to examine what the department should look like".
(gmcg)
The memo, published in the USA Today, is addressed to senior Pentagon and army officials. In the memo, Mr Rumsfeld wrote that the Department of Defense – which had been geared "to fight big armies, navies and air forces" – had not changed "fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror".
He added: "We are having mixed results with Al Qaida, although we have put considerable pressure on them — nonetheless, a great many remain at large."
The defense secretary's memo added that the US had made "reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis", but had made "somewhat slower progress tracking down the Taliban — Omar, Hekmatyar, etc. With respect to the Ansar Al-Islam, we are just getting started".
He questions whether the changes that the government made were "too modest and incremental".
"My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?" he wrote.
However, the Defense Department said today that "far from being a glum assessment", the memo was asking the "big questions that any government agency should be asking itself".
Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said: "What he's [Donald Rumsfeld] doing is elevating the perspective of the leadership of this department and asking: 'I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're on my mind, and I want them on your mind, too'."
The Pentagon spokesman said that Mr Rumsfeld wanted leaders "to examine what the department should look like".
(gmcg)
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