Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Briefing

DoD News Briefing

Thursday, November 09, 2000 - 1:30 p.m. EST

Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA


Q: Ken, can you update us - it's been four weeks since the bombing of
the Cole. Are U.S. ships all still deployed in the Gulf? Has anybody
been allowed yet to pull into a port for refueling or any other
reason? And how long do we think it will be before that happens?

Bacon: Well, first of all, I'm not aware that any ships have - any
combatants have gone into port for refueling. They are still being
refueled at sea, in the Gulf area. The oilers obviously have to go in
to refuel from time to time, so they can fill up their tanks and go
back out to fuel the combatants at sea.

I don't know how much longer this will last. That will be determined
in part by Admiral Moore, who's the commander of our naval forces in
the area, the 5th Fleet, and of course by his boss, General Franks,
who's the commander of the Central Command.

Q: Thank you.

Q: Please, I have one more question.

Bacon: Sure.

Q: You said that last week - I mean last briefing - that Bahrain has
moved down to (threat condition) Charlie.

Bacon: Right.

Q: Now why exactly would that happen? I mean, I know you can't specify
specifically why, but I mean, what would cause that change, and what
did cause that change?

Bacon: Well, I'm not going to explain what caused the change, but I
can tell you the types of things that might cause the change. Troops
-- the threat conditions reflect information we have at the time about
threats faced by our troops. And if the information is highly specific
and highly credible, then it could lead to the highest threat
condition, which would be Delta.

If for some reason, based on all the information available to us, we
believe that the circumstances that led to that threat being specific
and credible have changed - it could be - the arrest of somebody
would be one example - then the - and I'm not saying that's why it
changed, but that could be an example of why it might change - then
the threat conditions would change, and the commander would make a
decision about whether to lower the threat condition.

So it's that type of - it's just - we monitor the situation very,
very closely. We work in close contact with local law enforcement
agencies, and we look at information from every conceivable source.
And if that information changes, then we adjust the threat condition
accordingly.

Q: Thank you.