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By Vernon Loeb and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
washingtonpost.com
Friday, May 16, 2003; Page A20

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Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called security his "number one priority" in Iraq yesterday and said 15,000 troops from the 1st Armored Division and hundreds of military police would soon be arriving in Baghdad.

Responding to rising congressional concern that the United States had won the war but was losing the peace in Iraq as continued looting and violence have hampered physical and political reconstruction efforts, Rumsfeld said the U.S. military force in the country was being expanded, particularly in Baghdad.

"The intention on the part of the commanders there is to provide security in that country as best as is possible and create . . . a physical presence in places so . . . that the environment becomes permissive for the people of Iraq," Rumsfeld said.

Many members of Congress have expressed irritation at what they view as a lack of accountability and responsiveness by the Bush administration to questions about Iraq, both before and after the war. In hearings yesterday and on Wednesday, lawmakers repeatedly pressed administration officials on what they were doing to resolve the security problems.

Although Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials agreed that additional steps needed to be taken, they seemed to have differing assessments of the extent of the problem and how much progress is being made in addressing it.

At a news conference at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said that "a few areas have challenges." Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith, testifying before Congress, said that "over half of Iraq's provinces, including Baghdad, have been declared 'permissive,' " and that major advances were being made in bringing local police back on the job and recruiting international police assistance.

L. Paul Bremer III, the newly installed director of the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, painted a somewhat darker picture during his first news conference in Baghdad, citing "a serious law-and-order problem" in the Iraqi capital.

Feith and other administration officials testifying before the House International Relations Committee yesterday gave a fairly rosy picture of progress being made in Iraq. But while members of the committee generally congratulated the administration on its military victory and said they would be patient in awaiting postwar results, several raised questions on both security problems and reconstruction delays since the government of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein collapsed April 9.

"There is clearly a public order problem in Iraq," said Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), the committee chairman. "In many places, it is unclear who is in charge. People are grabbing authority -- and property -- for themselves.

"How long will it take for the lights to go back on and for the water to flow freely again, and what are your plans to accomplish that?" Hyde continued. "What will happen when people's hoarded food . . . begins to run out?"

Hyde told Feith and Undersecretary of State Alan Larson that he was asking the General Accounting Office to begin "monitoring the reconstruction effort in detail," and expected full administration cooperation. Rep. Tom Lantos (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, introduced a "sense of Congress" bill calling for NATO to send a peacekeeping force to Iraq.

In response to Hyde's call for GAO monitoring, Feith said the administration had had a similar thought, and had invited the GAO "to send people to the theater." But Hyde noted that only "one person of the GAO got permission to go for three to four weeks after he takes a biochemical training course, which is three weeks. We hope for more robust cooperation."

Asked by Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.) for the "current estimates of the cost of reconstruction to the American taxpayers," Feith said there was no estimate. Asked for a range of costs, Feith said, "I am not aware that anybody has pulled together all of the threads."

Testifying on Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, Rumsfeld promised senators that U.S. forces would be mounting "a full court press" to improve security in Iraq and "using muscle to see that the people who are trying to disrupt what's taking place in that city are stopped and either captured or killed."

In his comments to reporters yesterday, Rumsfeld declined to elaborate on these new tactics, but he denied media reports that U.S. forces had been given the authority to shoot looters on sight.

Rumsfeld said decisions on force levels in Iraq would be made in Washington based on recommendations from Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the overall commander of U.S. and allied forces in Iraq.

Before Bremer's arrival this week, the Pentagon's chief civilian reconstruction official in Iraq, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, reported to Rumsfeld through Franks under a single chain of command. But Bremer now has control of all reconstruction, humanitarian and government issues, and he reports directly to Rumsfeld.

Under the new structure, Franks will remain in charge of security matters, and report to Rumsfeld. His commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, will work to secure the country and provide direct support to Bremer's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs.

Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate subcommittee on Wednesday that there were 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including 49,000 in the greater Baghdad area.

With 15,000 troops from the 1st Armored Division in Kuwait preparing to leave for Baghdad and 2,000 more military police due in the capital by the end of the month, overall troop levels could soon reach 159,000.

Army Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, whose 20,000 troops from the 3rd Infantry Division represent the main occupying force in Baghdad, acknowledged yesterday that it had taken some time for his troops to be augmented by the arrival of military police.

Two weeks ago in Baghdad, Blount told reporters that he hoped some of his units would soon be departing Iraq. But with lootings, robberies, carjackings and gun battles contributing to a general sense of lawlessness in the capital, Blount said yesterday that the 3rd Infantry Division had been given no date for its departure.

"We're here to complete our mission," he told reporters in Baghdad and at the Pentagon through a video teleconference link. "And we are prepared to stay here as long as we're required to."

Blount said his troops initiated a new program called Task Force Neighborhood in which soldiers pick up garbage, provide medical assistance, collect whatever unexploded ordnance may be in the area and provide whatever other municipal services are needed.

He also said he had assigned 300 soldiers to guard oil refineries and escort tanker trucks to gas stations in an effort to ensure that they have adequate supplies before gas lines begin forming in the mornings.

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Direct Link:
--http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62034-2003May15.html

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