Senior Pentagon officials acknowleged Friday they do not know whether a former Iraqi general can be trusted to lead an Iraqi security force in Fallujah but said it was worth trying to break a month-old impasse. "The situation needs resolution," said Larry DiRita, the Pentagon's chief spokesman and a close aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "It can't remain indefinitely unresolved cause you've got a political transition that is taking place."
"People are making bets, they're taking a look and saying, 'Well, Jeez, if people can hold and attack the US military for weeks and weeks and weeks, then, shoot, I'm staying on the fence,'" he told reporters here.
. . .
DiRita said marine commanders had "a lot of authority to make decisions, and they're doing that, and they've developed this force." That may explain why senior Pentagon officials appeared to have been in the dark about the agreement on Thursday when it was first announced in Fallujah by marine officers.
General John Abizaid, the head of the US Central Command, told reporters earlier Friday he did not know the Iraqi general who was leading the force. Pentagon officials likewise had little information about Saleh other than reports that he was a respected officer with a popular following.
. . .
"Those people who share our objectives in a new Iraq have been helping identify who can be helpful in Fallujah," he said. He said they included a group of former Iraqi generals. "They are known to others we have been working with in the country, They have spent time with the US commanders," he said. But DiRita admitted that it was a "far from perfect process."
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040430233725.fvc3if6s.html
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