Colonel Bridges: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a senior defense official who will brief you on the Secretary's planned trip to Germany, the Middle East and Russia commencing tomorrow.

Let me give you the mechanics which I am going to look at on the schedule to make sure I get them right for you. As you know, it's Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Russia.

The precise order in the Gulf I think is still being worked. He'll be in Germany starting Friday morning, essentially flying... We leave Thursday night, arrive Friday morning. The Secretary would go from Germany to the Gulf area, starting on Sunday. I myself am not certain, this is just an ordinary trip, no policy issue here, just where we'll go and how we'll work out all these countries just given the time involved. Then Russia, if I remember right, we arrive on the 11th and then the Secretary would leave on Thursday the 12th.

Q: You get in Wednesday night, coming back Friday about noon.

A: That shows you how much I know.

Obviously in Germany he's going to the Werkunde Conference, which I think all of you know is and has been one of the major European security conferences for many, many years. Baron von Kleist who has run this conference is holding it for the last time. The Secretary in his prior life as a senator had gone for a number of years, I think for the last 10, but approximately the last 10. He will give a speech at the Werkunde which will be, I think, a major speech on security with the particular focus of Europe.

He will then go, as I said, to the Gulf countries. This will be a follow-on of the consultations that Secretary Albright recently completed with respect to her trip.

He will then go on to Russia. As you know he has met in the past with Minister Sergeyev, both in Mastricht the beginning of October and in Brussels at the recent NATO Ministerials. This was a trip that has been long scheduled, prior to any of the current situation.

Those are, if you will, the technical parameters of the trip. Then I'm happy to talk to you about any questions you've got.

Q: Does he arrive in Saudi Arabia on Sunday?

A: I'm not sure whether he'll end up... just because of times, I think he will probably but this really is probably, go to Kuwait first and then to Saudi on Monday, but that's an open issue right now.

Q: The next place will be Qatar after Saudi Arabia?

A: You mean the order?

Q: Does the order matter?

A: I don't think the order matters, but if it does matter to you, I will get you the absolute latest up to date...

Q: What his...

A: The last place is likely to be Oman.

Q: What's his theme in this...

A: You're talking about the Gulf part of it?

Q: Yes, following on so closely to Mrs. Albright's visit.

A: I think he wants to meet with his counterparts. He's the Secretary of Defense, and obviously as the President has said, we all prefer a diplomatic solution, but there's the possibility of some other approach and he has things to talk about with our friends in the region.

Q: Will he be asking for the right to launch offensive attacks if the diplomatic string runs out?

A: I think, as you know, what Secretary Albright indicated was that she had a rather productive set of meetings in the region. We expected there would be broad international support for whatever steps are necessary to resolve the crisis. I'm not going to get into any of the operational issues here, so if that's what's important to you then this will not be a helpful conference. But he will obviously have the same kind of discussions that she had.

Q: I can see why you don't want to get into broad operational issues, but do you anticipate that in Saudi Arabia and in Kuwait and these other two, the Secretary can outline the operational thinking of the U.S.

A: I think the Secretary will set forth what are the important considerations for the U.S., both in policy terms to deal with the situation in Iraq, and how we can work closely with these countries, yes.

Q: Does that mean that he will, to answer the specific point, does that mean he will be taking to those countries the thinking of the Administration on what strikes might be...

A: I'm simply not going to get into precisely what he's going to talk about in terms of operational issues.

Q: You talked about his talking to his counterparts. Do you anticipate that he's only going to meet with Defense Minister Sultan in Saudi Arabia? Or do you anticipate he's going to meet with the King or...

A: I did say counterparts. He will meet with his counterparts, but I expect he will also meet with the heads of state in each of these countries.

Q: Is he going to just inform the Russian officials about American measures that they're going to take against Iraq? Or he's going to persuade Russian officials about the necessity of military actions against Iraq? Just informing or persuading?

A: I think a better way to... I'm not sure that's the way the world divides up. There have been, as I think you are aware, an enormous amount of consultations amongst all the members of the Security Council. I think everyone has the consensus that it is very important for Saddam to comply with the Security Council resolutions, and I'm sure the Secretary will talk about this with his Russian counterpart.

Q: How does the Secretary feel about the statements from Russia about the facility for world war? I don't think it's a laughing matter, to be honest.

A: Both the President and the Secretary of State have talked directly to President Yeltsin and to Foreign Minister Primakov in recent days. If Saddam Hussein complies with the UN Resolutions, there will be no need for military force. Obviously if the use of force were to become necessary it would be intended to reduce the chance that weapons of mass destruction could be used in the region. I think we have come to some better understanding with the Russians.

Q: But Mr. Yeltsin has declared that you need the approval of the Security Council before you go down this road, and that he will deny you this.

A: As I said, I think we have had many consultations with the Russians. I'm not going to speculate on what would happen with respect to a situation on a security resolution, but I think that we have had productive conversations with them, and we have complete agreement on the objectives, and we're hoping to have agreement on the approach.

Q: Is the Secretary anticipating taking the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs or any other senior military officer with him?

A: Not the Chairman. I expect that General Zinni will be there.

Q: If he won't discuss any requests for potential offensive strikes, will the Secretary, though, be talking with local leaders about the possibility of adding to or changing the type of U.S. forces that are in the region?

A: At this point I really am not in a position to really just talk about the particular operational issues. Sorry.

Q: With regard to the use of nuclear weapons against Iraq, do you have such plans or not?

A: Let me say this. The press reports that we have, that the U.S. is planning to use nuclear weapons to destroy chemical and biological facilities in Iraq, have no basis in fact. The U.S. has no plans or intention of using nuclear weapons. If any country were foolish enough to attack us or our allies or our forces with chemical or biological weapons, our response would be swift, it would be devastating, and it would be overwhelming. We do have non-nuclear responses and we've worked hard to give those to the threat or the use of WMD and we're able to give both the military commanders and the President a range of responses from which to choose. We're able, and I think Secretary Perry said this in 1996, to mount a devastating response without using nuclear weapons. We do not rule out in advance any capability available to us, but I want to stress that the policies have to do with the situation in which the U.S., our allies, and our forces would have been attacked with chemical or biological weapons.

Q: If Saddam Hussein would use civilian population operations to protect his country's territory, would it stop the United States from striking... If he uses women and children?

A: Let me see if I have guidance here. Otherwise I'm not going to comment.

(Pause)

A: I think what I have to leave you with at this point is I simply have no comment on any operational issues.

Q: You used the word reduce the use of weapons of mass destruction. What does it mean reduce? In one of your previous answers, you used the word reducing the plans of the use of weapons of mass destruction. What does that mean?

A: I'm sorry, I'm happy to answer your question. I'm really not quite understanding what you're saying.

Q: ...consultations in Moscow. The idea was, if I got it right, that Secretary Cohen will speak to Minister Sergeyev about the possibility about reducing the plans of use of weapons of mass destruction. That's what you said, if I got it right.

A: I don't think that's what I said, so I have a hard time answering.

Q: If the use of force were to become necessary, would it reduce the potential of using weapons of mass destruction in the region.

A: Now I understand what you're saying. Yes. What we would want to do is to make sure that Saddam Hussein could not be in a position to use weapons of mass destruction and he could not be in a position to threaten his neighbors and we'd want to reduce those possibilities as much as we could.

Q: Do you know of any plans to send a senior official, either civilian or military, to Israel to consult?

A: We've had lots of conversations, but in terms of what you mean, I personally am not aware of that. But we certainly have conversations with the Israelis.

Press: Thank you.