unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/19/89)
have not gotten those little bulletproof vests and are
threatening to strike as a resul Any comment on that?
A: I have no information here on that. I know our stuff got
there. Now precisely what its status is in Colombia, I don't
know.
Q: Do you happen to know if those bullet proof vests are the
type you ca wear underneath a regular shirt? Or are they the
kind...
A: I've never seen a description of them. However, in the
spirit of helping you, out we will take that question and see
what we can do for you.
Q: Colombia seems to be (inaudible) communication jamming
equipment, and they fear their communications are (inaudible)
drug traffickers. Do you plan to deliver this kind of equipment
in the future?
A: I don't know the specific answer to the question about
jamming. As a general matter...
Q: ...scramblers.
A: My understanding was that that stuff was to be secure. So
we'll get that information for you. We'll check on that.
Q: Is there a breakdown of the $65 million, how much of it is
logistics and how much of it is actual stuff that's going to be
handed over to the Colombians?
A: I don't know that we know that in advance, what the total
shipping costs will be and what part of that will be equipment
and what will be shipping. No, I don't know that we have an
answer to that yet.
Q: Can I come back to the Trident? Has the Department received
any requests from the UK Government for explanations of the
delays or explanations of the problems?
A: That's beyond the detail that I know of. You're going to
have to ask the Navy about that. I'm sorry I don't have the
answer.
Q: Also on the Trident, does the Secretary have any reaction to
the Senate Appropriations subcommittee dramatically cutting
funds for the Trident?
A: We think that's a big mistake. I think he said this morning
that now the Congress seems to have affected every leg of the
triad -- now that they've hit the Trident they've hit all
three. He did talk about this yesterday in his speech at the
Hudson Institute, but obviously he thinks it's a big mistake.
Q: I have one more question on the IOWA. After Tuesday's
briefing there were some reports that Cheney was distancing
himself from the Navy's findings and failed to endorse it. Would
you say that's an accurate portrayal of how he felt? Or do you
feel like his comments were misconstrued?
A: Let me just dodge the second part of your question because I
don't want to get up here in the business of sort of reviewing
my column up here of press criticism. But I would say that that
is not an accurate characterization.
A couple of things have to be said about the statement that I
read from the Secretary on Tuesday. First of all, that
statement was one that we prepared for any possible questions
that might come up. It was his statement and he said those
words into my notebook on Thursday, the day the IOWA report came
out. As Colonel Monteverde, the Director of Defense Information,
can tell you, I made that statement available to DDI in the
event that we got any questions about the Secretary's
statement. So that's when those words were spoken. They were
not spoken several days later. So that's an important point to
remember about the Seretary's statement.
Q: Why is that important?
A: It's important because if you assume, Otto, that he made the
statemen on Tuesday, then all sorts of things could have come
into play that may have influenced his statement.
Q: ...the day the report came out, but it still doesn't negate
the fact that he was somewhat less than enthusiastic in
endorsing the findings. He supported the investigation but did
not support the findings.
A: He's not called upon to endorse the findings. The final
endorser of the findings is the Chief of Naval Operations.
That's the endorsement chain of command.
Q: But he can endorse it, is that right?
A: He's not called upon to endorse it. I suppose there are lots
of things Secretaries of Defense could do in their spare time,
but...
Q: don't want to, then they don't have to.
A: But it's not a matter of that.
Q: Just a question that came to my mind, wouldn't you take much
less flack from the press, amongst others, if you, instead of
sending people over there to train the Latin Americans, you just
get Latin American soldiers up here to train them and then send
them back?
A: As to whether we might get less criticism, I suppose that's
possible. But our goal in the use of military training teams,
is to meet their requests for training. If they feel that their
training is best done in their own country, it's certainly less
expensive for them and it may be more effective as well.
Q: Are we going to get advance text on these speeches next
week?
A: He makes three speeches next week, is my recollection. I
don't know that we'll get advance texts. I'm doubtful. But
what we will try to do, was it useful yesterday to hear the
speech here?
Q: Yes.
A: We will make an effort as we go along the road to employ the
cutting edge 1940's technology that we have here in the press
room and try to get the audio to you as he makes the speeches. I
can't guarantee that we'll do that, but we'll make our best
effort to do it.
Q: Can you say now, just for guidance, where he's going to be
speaking?
A: Yes. He'll be speaking in Colorado Springs to Chamber of
Commerce and other civic clubs and Petroleum Marketers
Association. He speaks to the Commonwealth Club in San
Francisco.
Q: Day time?
A: I think they're all day time speeches. We'll try to get you
a list of that.
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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