DAVID SHUSTER, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Ambassador Bremer, first of all, thank you for joining us from Baghdad. <br /><br />PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Good to be with you. <br /><br />SHUSTER: Ambassador Bremer, the last couple of days, eight U.S. soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack in Fallujah, three people killed when a man fired at a bus carrying employees of a U.S. funded radio and television station, seven people killed in that bombing in the Mount Lebanon Hotel. <br /><br />Whats going on here? <br /><br />BREMER: Well, were seeing the continuation of the efforts by the people who are against the new democratic Iraq to kill people. <br /><br />They want to kill coalition forces, and they want to kill innocent Iraqis. They have it in their mind that by doing this theyre going to stop the progress towards the democratic freedoms here and theyre wrong. Its not going to...<br /><br />SHUSTER: But do you describe them as terrorists or just Iraqis that are humiliated by the fact that their country is being occupied? <br /><br />BREMER: No. These are trained killers from the old Saddam regime, <br /><br />the Fedayeen Saddam, the members of the intelligence services, some of the <br /><br />· perhaps some of the people from the Army. <br /><br />We also have a very serious problem here. The attack on the hotel you mentioned was a suicide attack, almost certainly not by an Iraqi, almost certainly by a trained terrorist from outside the country. And thats our second threat. And thatsthat is a serious threat. <br /><br />SHUSTER: I do want to ask you, though, about the description of some of these attacks on U.S. soldiers. On your coalition provisional authority web site and press releases and briefings, your staff consistently refers to these things as engagements. In other words, one web site describes 21 such engagements on Tuesday. Why not just describe these as attacks? <br /><br />BREMER: No, because in at least half of the timesI dont know what the percentage was on Tuesday. But overall, in at least half or more of the occasions, we actually initiate the engagements. We go after somebody, where weve got intelligence or some suspicions, and we go after them. Theyre not attacks on us. <br /><br />SHUSTER: But the other half, though, are attacks on U.S. soldiers, arent they? <br /><br />BREMER: Well, you know, youd have to sit and look at the 20 engagements youre talking about to do a careful analysis of them. We do have people attacking our soldiers, yes. Thats pretty obvious. <br /><br />SHUSTER: OK. This week you talked about the problem with the borders, and you said that foreign terrorists are present in Iraq and in order to try to cut down on this you said that youre going to double equipment and staff on 20 major border crossing points. <br /><br />But isnt it true, ambassador, that there are actually hundreds of minor border crossing points into Iraq? <br /><br />BREMER: Well, sure there are. And is that a reason not to do anything at the major border crossing points? <br /><br />SHUSTER: Well, I mean, I guess the question is if you can somehow shut down people from going through or have better security at these major border crossing points, I mean, is there nothing that can be done, then, about these minor border crossing points? In other words, is this just window dressing? <br /><br />BREMER: Oh, no, its not window dressing, no. It will have an effect. But heres something to keep in mind. The combined borders of Iraq are about as long as the border between the United States and Mexico, and topographically much more complicated, especially in the north, where its very heavy mountains. <br /><br />We know how difficult it has been to close off our border with Mexico. There is no magic solution to this. You just have to start. You start by working with the major border crossings. You put sensors and other kinds of intelligence-gathering equipment between the borders, and you try to do the best you can. <br /><br />But just as weve had trouble sealing off our 5,000-kilometer border in the United States, its going to be difficult here. <br /><br />SHUSTER: And you may have trouble with folks like Ahmed Chalabi, right? Because after June 30, this isnt even your decision. Hes been quoted as saying that hes inclined to roll back your border changes and reopen the major border crossings after June 30. <br /><br />BREMER: Well, after June 30 well have an interim government here. It will be a different government than what is there now, because by the terms of the interim constitution that was signed 10 days ago, the governing council on which Mr. Chalabi serves will be dissolved. <br /><br />So there will be a different government here. They will be sovereign. They will, however, be cooperating, I think, very strongly with the coalition forces that are still here about security. I dont think their attention to security is likely to drop at all after June 30. <br /><br />SHUSTER: Speaking of June 30, you were quoted in The New York Times as warning Iraqi leaders that they risk isolating themselves if they snubbed the United Nations. <br /><br />Are we now to believe that you personally believe it was wrong for the United States to snub the United Nations and go into Iraq alone? <br /><br />BREMER: No. Theres no comparable ability whatsoever, and we didnt snub the United Nations. On the contrary, it was Saddam Hussein who snubbed the United Nations. <br /><br />SHUSTER: But we snubbed the United Nations by going in...<br /><br />BREMER: Excuse me, excuse me. Excuse me. Let me finish my answer. <br /><br />Saddam Hussein snubbed the United Nations by ignoring 17 consecutive Security Council resolutions. President Bush went to the United Nations. He didnt snub them. <br /><br />He gave a speech on September 12 where he said, Im willing to go back to the United Nations and seek a resolution. He got a unanimous resolution, a unanimous resolution, 1441. All 15 members of the Security Council approved it. We did not snub the United Nations. <br /><br />SHUSTER: Would the United States support an Islamic state, if that is in fact what the Iraqis decide they want? <br /><br />BREMER: I think its a very hypothetical question and extremely unlikely. Ive been looking at polls now since September, when we first started polling, and were polling very frequently now, more than everymore than twice a month. <br /><br />And Ive seen no poll, no reliable poll that puts the support for an Islamic theocracy at higher than 10 percent. I think its very unlikely to happen. <br /><br />SHUSTER: So its your expectation, then, that it will be a democracy of some fashion? <br /><br />BREMER: The Iraqi people, who are delighted that we freed them, are now thirsting for democracy. We see it all over this country every day. <br /><br />We have held literally hundreds of town hall meetings in the last 60 days. Weve had focus group meetings. Weve had meetings of lawyers associations, womens associations all across the country. And the one thing that they all agree on is they want democracy. <br /><br />(END VIDEOTAPE)<br /><br />MATTHEWS: That was David Shuster interviewing Paul Bremer. Former Clinton secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, chaired the group that worked on that poll. Were going to talk about that poll in a moment.<br /><br />Thank you for joining us, Madam Secretary. <br /><br />Did you learn anything from thatthats kind of a feisty interview between David Shuster and Paul Bremer. He doesnt seem to like tough questioning that much. <br /><br />
<br /><br />Keep a zero bubble JB.
