I am also including his opening remarks in which he sounds like Mister Rogers. Petraeus has been a willing megaphone for the White House for years.
Petraeus' past role in feeding disinformation to the public is important in assessing his current credibility, or lack thereof.
Presenter: Army Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus
May 13, 2003 10:00 AM EDT
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101st Airborne Division Commander Live Briefing from Iraq(Briefing from Mosul, Iraq, on the involvement of the 101st Airborne Division in the conflict and in post-war stabilization efforts. Participating were Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs (media operations), and Army Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commanding general, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).)
Whitman: Very good, General. If you could say a few words and make sure we can hear you.
Petraeus: Okay. Good morning from Mosul. Life is great here in northern Iraq.
Whitman: Thank you, sir. I will dispense with the introduction that I gave while you were watching me but not hearing it, and let you get into the remarks that you wanted to make, and then we'll go right into the questions and answers.
Petraeus: Okay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Pentagon press corps. I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk with you today. It's a beautiful spring day here in Mosul. The temperature is about 90 degrees, the skies are blue and the warm, sunny weather mirrors the mood of most here in the city right now. And I look forward to telling you a little about what our soldiers have helped the people of this region achieve since we first arrived here 22 days ago.
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Q: General, this is Matt Kelley with the Associated Press. I'm wondering if you can tell us some more about the discoveries of the -- at least two possible biological weapons mobile laboratories that were discovered up there.
Petraeus: I can, Matt. Let me read, because I want to get -- be right on this and actually talked to an expert from a special mission unit this morning about the one that we found.
The suspected mobile biological agent production lab found on 9 May in our area was found by one of our infantry units during operations at the Al-Kindi Rocket and Missile Research and Development Center. Our own chemical section looked at the trailer and confirmed it as a trailer that was very close to identical to the first trailer that was found by Special Forces southeast of here last week.
The expert I talked to this morning said that he had a reasonable degree of certainty that this is in fact a mobile biological agent production trailer. The layout is nearly identical to the first trailer that was found. It contains a 5,000 PSI compressor, 2,000- liter reactor vessel, small feed tank, 3,000-liter water tank and a water chiller.
We do not believe that the lab trailer that we found here was completed. Several welds were not finished, and shipping plugs were still in place. And in addition, a water pump, forward air compressor, canvas cover and some of the piping were looted.
The data plate work order number is identical to the work order number found on the first trailer. The trailer plate from the first trailer had a manufacture date of 2002 and a serial number of 1. The trailer we found at Al-Kindi had a manufacture date of 2003 and a serial number of 2.
The trailer we found is now secured and will be moved to Baghdad International for further exploitation by a team coming from the United States. And that team, I believe, will be quite a few civilian experts as well.
And that's about what I've got on that.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=2601