Grinder
12 August 2003, 14:42
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2003 -- American forces have found Russian fighter jets
buried in the Iraqi desert, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an Aug. 5
press briefing.
"We'd heard a great many things had been buried, but we had not known where
they were, and we'd been operating in that immediate vicinity for weeks and
weeks and weeks . 12, 13 weeks, and didn't know they were (there)," Rumsfeld
said.
The secretary said he wasn't sure how many such aircraft had been found, but
noted, "It wasn't one or two."
He said it's a "classic example" of the challenges the Iraqi Survey Group is
facing in finding weapons of mass destruction in the country.
"Something as big as an airplane that's within . a stone's throw of where
you're functioning, and you don't know it's there because you don't run around
digging into everything on a discovery process," Rumsfeld explained. "So until
you find somebody who tells you where to look, or until nature clears some sand
away and exposes something over time, we're simply not going to know.
"But, as we all know," he added, "the absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence."
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2003/200308063b.jpg
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2003 -- American forces have found Russian fighter jets
buried in the Iraqi desert, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an Aug. 5
press briefing.
"We'd heard a great many things had been buried, but we had not known where
they were, and we'd been operating in that immediate vicinity for weeks and
weeks and weeks . 12, 13 weeks, and didn't know they were (there)," Rumsfeld
said.
The secretary said he wasn't sure how many such aircraft had been found, but
noted, "It wasn't one or two."
He said it's a "classic example" of the challenges the Iraqi Survey Group is
facing in finding weapons of mass destruction in the country.
"Something as big as an airplane that's within . a stone's throw of where
you're functioning, and you don't know it's there because you don't run around
digging into everything on a discovery process," Rumsfeld explained. "So until
you find somebody who tells you where to look, or until nature clears some sand
away and exposes something over time, we're simply not going to know.
"But, as we all know," he added, "the absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence."
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2003/200308063b.jpg