Department of Defense Media Support Plan

1:00 P.M. EST

COL. MACHAMER: Okay, if I could have your attention, please. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Foreign Press Center. And we're pleased to have with us Mr. Bryan Whitman, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Pentagon. And he's here to talk to us today about DOD's plans for media support should something happen in the future. And that's what he's here to talk about. What he's not here to talk about is the situation in Iraq or elsewhere; simply the plan for how the Pentagon will support media should anything come about.

I'm going to transcribe, or make a transcription, of this briefing simply for the fact that there are people that aren't here that may have questions, and we'll be able to provide them information, the same information that you'll get today, and also for people overseas that might need to know things about this.

Before I turn it over to Mr. Whitman, just let me clarify some of the terms that have been thrown around so that you'll understand. Any future activity that happens, there will be many ways in which reporters will be able to cover that activity. Obviously, one is from here, from the Pentagon with the news briefings and the Press Office that's there at the Pentagon, which has people there that can answer any questions you have. There is obviously the Foreign Press Center, where there will also be briefings and all that. There will be press information centers that will be located in theater, which will be available for reporters. They'll have a press facility there to include filing, being able to file, and press officers there that can also answer questions, and briefings.

And then another method that you've heard a lot about and a lot of attention has been paid to is what we call embed. And it's e-m, not imbed, although the meaning is fairly close. And what that means is the reporter will be assigned to a unit, to a ship, to an air wing, and will eat, live, sleep and file with that unit for however long the reporter wants to stay with that organization.

So that's what the embed means. That is not the only way to be able to cover war; it's just one of the ways that will be available.

And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Whitman and let him discuss the plan. Bryan, thank you for coming.

MR. WHITMAN: Well, thanks for being here today. Obviously, by the number of people in this room, there is some interest in this topic, as well as some speculation, I suppose, that we may be getting to the point where the President may decide that military action has become necessary in the case of Iraq.

Rick is absolutely correct. There will be many ways, if there is a conflict, to be able to cover this. Your own capitals will probably be having briefings from time to time. Of course, you'll be here, but there will be briefings that take place in various capitals around the world, I'm sure, just like there have been in any other conflicts.

Many are you are from nations and countries that are very closely aligned and may be coalition partners in any military action that might be required, so there will be briefings that would take place throughout the world also.

There's also, in addition to embedding, which I think where we're going to probably spend a lot of our time, there may also be some pool coverage that's available from various locations within the theater.

As you know, there's probably going to be a couple of different places -- centers of gravity, as I call them -- within the theater where there will be briefings. The United States Central Command will be conducting briefings in the region on a regular basis and I'm sure that many of your news organizations, particularly the larger ones, will have a presence there also.

But there may be opportunities for you to be able to participate in pools that may go for a very short period of time to a given location where there may have been some military action, and then return back to those media centers in theater.

There may be opportunities where you're somewhere where you're able to go out and report unilaterally for your organization because we have the transportation assets to bring you to a location, allow you to cover something, and bring you back.

But one of the principal means of coverage that the United States Government is pursuing for any potential conflict with Iraq is this embedded nature, of having journalists that are alongside our forces in the field and on ships, at departure airfields, and for extended periods of time so they can develop the relationships, so that they can provide the very deep and rich coverage that you get by being with a unit.

The press pay for that, of course, because it is very deep, rich coverage, but it's not very broad. Okay? So if you're with a rifle company, you may get some very good reporting of what the unit is doing, but you may not have good situational awareness of what's happening to your right, to your left, behind you -- that type of thing.

So I think there's a need for all the types of coverage that are going to be available out there. But as I said, we are going to try to use embeds to the maximum extent possible. We're doing it because that's what news organizations tell us they want to do. Okay? They want their reporters to be able to cover any potential conflicts on the front line.

So we are going to try to accommodate that. We think that there are a lot of benefits to getting reporters out there with our units. Besides facilitating the type of access that they want to, we know that anytime a reporter can spend an extended period of time with a particular unit, he or she gets to understand what that unit's mission is about; they can report more accurately on their activities. We also know that given our potential adversary and his propensity to use disinformation, this will allow for objective reporting from the field on what the actual situation is.

So there's a lot of good reason to embed. It's a challenge to the Defense Department. It is somewhat of a cultural (inaudible). It's developing not only confidence in reporters, okay, and their abilities to go out there and spend with the unit on the ground for extended period of times, but also instilling in commanders the confidence that reporters are going to be able to be out there and not compromise the operations that they're involved in or jeopardize the personnel that are conducting those operations.

Many of you here may have a desire to embed, which might be the reason why you're here, so let me just talk about the selection process a little bit. The way in which we looked at how we would decide on who will get opportunities to embed is, we looked at both domestic as well as international news organizations saying, "Look, we want to make sure that we have both that have opportunities out there." We looked at all forms of media. We looked at television, radio, print, news wires, still photography, and we said it would be to our benefit, to the value of the American people and our international audience out there, if we had all forms of medium. So we looked at that.

And then we made a key decision that we were going to deal with news organizations and not individual reporters. Okay? And we're doing that for a couple of reasons. One is that we believe that there is nobody that's in a better position to determine how they want to cover any potential conflict and what the strengths and weaknesses of that is or are of their individual reporters than the bureau chiefs that assign reporters to their assignment. We made that decision that we were going to allocate embed opportunities to news organizations, and that news organizations be partners with us in determining, then, who would go on that type of embed.

When we talk about embedding, sometimes, as Rick said, there is some confusion about it. We would -- we view an embed as an opportunity to stay with a unit for an extended period of time. So we're not talking about a couple-day jaunt out to the field and returning back to a media center somewhere. We're talking about a long-term commitment on the part of the news organization as well as the reporter to be able to go out with the unit and stay with it for weeks, months, however long it might be out there.

Now, the reporter is not going to be held hostage. If a reporter wants to leave a unit after a certain amount of time, they are certainly going to be welcome to do that. And to the extent that we can get them back to a place where they can obtain civilian commercial transportation out of the theater, we will do that.

But we're asking news organizations to try to -- to make this commitment, to make this longer term commitment to send us your reporters that are up to this daunting challenge. Okay? And many of you know that over the past several months we've been actually conducting some training for reporters that their news organizations feel that they want to embed. In fact, I would suspect there's probably someone in here that's gone to training. Is there? See, we've got a couple hands. One, two, three.

So we thought. Now let's talk about the training for a second -- that it was important that if we're going to ask news organizations to make this commitment and reporters to go out in the field with us and to put themselves in dangerous situations, we ought to also give them some of the basic training that will help them survive on the battlefield. And we've been doing that. We haven't been able to fulfill all the requests that we've had for training. We have another training session that starts next week at Quantico. But it's basic skills training. It's designed to make sure that a reporter that's out there with a unit knows how to don basic nuclear-biological-chemical protective gear, that they know how to be able to respond to any -- to given situations, that they know how to respond to indirect or direct fire, that they know basic survival land navigation, that they know a certain amount of first aid, that they know how to get on and get off a helicopter in a safe manner, since that is a common means of moving around the battlefield.

So we did -- we've done a certain amount of training, not -- for a couple reasons. One is we want to give reporters confidence that they can operate alongside our forces for those extended periods of time. We want to give our commanders confidence that these reporters are coming to them having received some training that will assist in them not compromising their operations or jeopardizing their personnel. And we wanted it to also act as some self-selection criteria for those people that go to do some self-assessment of themselves. Am I up to this? Am I the right person to be going out with an infantry unit for two months or three months or whatever it might be? So that's why we did it.

And then we made another decision in that as we work with news organizations, particularly news organizations like yours, some of yours in here, okay, that we were going to work with a single point of contact for that news organization. And we were hoping, and I think to a great extent have achieved, that the Washington bureau chiefs for most news organizations have agreed to be their central point of contact for any embedding issues.

So as reporters call us with interests, we've been able to direct them back to their news organization's point of contact because we find that it's very difficult -- I don't know, I'm sure we have -- I'll just pick one. I'm not picking on anybody in particular. The BBC. The BBC is in here, right? Somebody from the BBC? I mean, the BBC is all over the world. You have to ask what BBC you're talking to when they call you because their presence is everywhere. And we needed the BBC's assistance to have a central point of contact so that when we're dealing with the reporters and with embed opportunities for them we allow management to have some influence over how they want to position reporters for any potential conflict.

What does embedding mean in terms of how -- what it is we provide and what it is we expect reporters to show up to their unit with? Embedding means that we provide basic chemical, biological protection equipment. We want, if you're alongside our forces, we want you to have the same capabilities that our military members out there have. We think that's important.

We're going to provide rations. So we're going to provide all the food -- the wonderful, lovely food that you eat in the field when you're with a U.S. unit. And I'm sure many of you have been out there. Some days it's better than others. Most of the time it comes out of plastic bags.

And then we're going to provide you transportation because we don't think it's in your interest or our interest for you to be out there driving around the battlefield in whatever kind of vehicle you might be able to procure. So we're going to provide you your transportation if you're embedded.

What do we expect you to show up with? We expect you to show up with whatever other protective, personal protective equipment that you or your news organization feels is appropriate for you. That's everything from protective vests to headgear, helmets if they want you in helmets, if you want to be in a helmet. And the only thing that we require is that, of course, it be conducive to the tactical environment. Bright orange vests with "press" on it probably aren't good for us and probably aren't good for you either. It just makes you a more visible target if somebody was looking for something to shoot at.

So there is some concern that if we provide you with all of that equipment, when you're suited up you don't look any different than an American fighting soldier or Marine on the ground, and that's a concern, maybe not for some of you, but to some of your news organizations, some of your management, that is. So we want you to be camouflaged to the extent that you're not going to stick out, that you're not going to compromise your unit. We want you to be attentive to light and noise discipline.

But at the same time, we expect you to come with that personal protection equipment and that personal gear to be able to survive. And we are continuing to provide advice and suggestions and help for those people that might be less experienced in the ways of the world. And let's just put it that way.

Professional equipment. We expect you to bring everything that you need to file. You don't want to be reliant upon us. We want you to have the means to produce and transmit your stories or your photographs.

We also want you, though, to bring only what you can carry because we're not going to be your pack mules, either. So you need to make sure that you're making the right kind of investments in the equipment that you take to the field. And what may have been okay for an urban environment, you might want to look at more state-of-the-art equipment that is capable of operating under more arduous conditions, as well as being more man- or woman-portable. Okay?

Inoculations for those of you that are going to the region, I can give you some information on what the Center for Disease Control recommends for that region for inoculations. I have a list of those I can give you. I can give you some information on that after this, if you'd like. Or you can get it through the Press Office at the Pentagon.

And in addition, if you are identified as an embed candidate, we will be making provisions for you to receive an anthrax inoculation as well as a smallpox inoculation should you so desire. That is something that will have to come at the cost of your individual news organization. It's not an expense that we feel the United States taxpayer should bear, but we do believe that we ought to afford you, again, the same kinds of protections that we're providing our own forces in the field, therefore giving you the opportunity to go along with them.

So let me maybe stop there and open it up for some questions, concerns, discussion, and see where it takes us.

COL. MACHAMER: Again, before we get into the questions, please, we are doing a transcription so if you could wait for the microphone. And let me just clarify -- or not clarify, but just add on to this centralization and how DOD will deal with one point of contact.

What we're looking at as far as the foreign news organization is that point of contact is going to be your main office back in wherever it's located, the capital or whatever. And that's what I've been working through our posts for those of you that have asked, or anybody that's asked here, to identify a single point of contact. So that's why it's important that we have this meeting so that your main office knows that that's -- they're going to be the ones to make that decision on what reporters, should they get an embed opportunity, who they will be. So we need your help in making sure that your folks back in Germany or wherever understand that and provide that if they do wish to embed, provide that information, and I'll give you an e-mail address to where you can send that to with the point of contact's name, phone number and e-mail address. Okay, just so everybody's straight on that.

MR. WHITMAN: Let me add on that real quick. You know, your greatest advocate is Rick Machamer here. He is working with our lists daily. He's making sure that your interests have been identified. And so he is a great resource to you here and he's very tied into what we're doing. So continue to use him, please.

Oh, I guess we're using the microphones.

QUESTION: I have the microphone. I guess I get to ask a question. (Laughter.)

Okay. Regarding the gas masks, all of us who wear glasses cannot wear the glasses with the gas masks. So you said you'll provide gas masks. Are you going to get our prescriptions and build the inserts in?

MR. WHITMAN: No. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: How will we deal with that?

MR. WHITMAN: Your glasses look fairly strong, too. (Laughter.) I mean, it's not something that we're going to be able to provide to you. We're not going to do individual prescriptions. You know, there are ways to mitigate that. I mean, you can wear contacts.

QUESTION: We were actually told not to.

MR. WHITMAN: It's not advisable because if you're in a -- if you get -- obviously, contact lenses are also a source of irritant too, okay, and it can provide a problem in that regard. But the fact of the matter is you're just not going to be able to see as well because we are not -- we're not going to be going to the extent of making prescription inserts for members of the media.

QUESTION: The reason I was asking is because during our training at Fort Dix, someone actually talked about that, and they said we're going to ask Col. Franks about how to deal with that thing. And that's why I was asking.

MR. WHITMAN: You know, there may be something we can do with that. Let me make a note of it and I'll get back to Rick. Okay? But obviously, I mean, you can understand that this is an expense that kind of goes beyond the basic protection. But let me take a look. Okay?

QUESTION: Okay.

QUESTION: Brian, a couple of questions. Imad Moussa* from Al-Jazeera Television.

First of all, we've learned recently that the correspondents who even had a hard pass to the Pentagon but are foreign nationals cannot enter the Pentagon after 6:00 p.m., and that will be a big problem in the future, assuming a 24-hour kind of cycle. And the person that we've invested so much time in and sent them to all these training and different trips happens to be not an American citizen. So we're wondering if you're going to look into that.

Second of all --

MR. WHITMAN: Let me address one at a time because I forget. I'm sorry.

A building pass is not really related to embedding, but it is part of covering, being able to cover from various places. The fact of the matter is the building passes are allocated -- there are a couple of requirements, and many of you in here probably know what the requirements are. First, you have to work in the Washington, D.C., area. Two, you have to actually demonstrate that you publish, okay, that you are a working journalist, okay. Three, you have to be willing to submit to a basic background investigation. I'm going to forget some of these.

COL. MACHAMER: Habitually cover the Pentagon.

MR. WHITMAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, you have to be covering for the Pentagon on a regular basis, have Defense as a large part of your portfolio that requires you to have frequent access to the building. And some of you have difficulty with that because you tend to be one person bureaus sometimes and you have to be spread across a lot of aspects of the United States Government, so that's difficult.

And you get a building pass, the hours in which you are permitted to be in the building are restricted if you are not a U.S. citizens. It's the fact of the matter. There are a lot of things that is based on, and I don't need to go into all the details. Some of it is reciprocity in your own countries and your defense ministries. But there's a lot of reasons that you may not be able to get what we call a 24-hour access. But it is tied to citizenship, and if you're not a U.S. citizen you can qualify if you meet all those other things for a pass that allows you to be in there, in the building, on basically a duty -- what we call a duty-day basis, but it's during normal duty hours.

I would tell you that I don't anticipate that it's going to be much of a problem because you can be in there if you are -- if you have escort beyond those hours. And if we are engaged in military conflict, the Press Office is going to be a 24-hour operation also. So I understand your concerns. If it was just up to me -- I don't have that flexibility. It's a security requirement, not a public affairs issue. And like I say, I can go into a lot more of the details of how they calculate that, but I think your concern will be mitigated in that if you have a reason to be there, we're going to have a reason to be there, too.

So why don't you do one more, and then we'll let somebody ask another question.

QUESTION: I was going to ask if you all --

MR. WHITMAN: And your reporter has been in training, right?

QUESTION: Yes, she's been --

MR. WHITMAN: She's at the Pentagon regularly.

QUESTION: She has her office in the Pentagon, too. But she couldn't get the issuance. (Laughter.)

MR. WHITMAN: She's there most of the time. I see her a lot.

QUESTION: Yeah. During the day, yes.

And will you all be helping us embed with coalition forces as well, assuming there are some?

MR. WHITMAN: Well, I have been -- first of all, there will be. Let there be no doubt. This talk of unilateralism is just rubbish. And the coalition of the willing, if that's what it becomes, will be large.

But let me address that. I have been talking to my counterparts. I have been making provisions in U.S. military units for international journalists and I am requesting that my colleagues do the same for U.S. reporters. But I would also encourage you to do that on an independent basis with them.

A lot of the people that I've been dealing with are taking on the same challenge we are in that we are going to put a lot of reporters out in the field. And so I think there are a lot of good opportunities to embed with other nations' forces. And I think that we have probably assisted in that by the very aggressive program that we have embarked on.

So just as I am bringing in international journalists in to cover U.S. units, I am pressing my counterparts to do the same with their forces.

QUESTION: I'm Tia Rosenbaum, ARD German Television. I have a logistical and technical question. I went over the transcript of the briefing you did for the National Press. What I'm not clear at is what are you doing for television filing-wise in the field. For example, I mean, we don't -- it's not really enough to have just a satellite phone because that's good for live stand-ups. What do you do with your tapes?

If there is a filing facility, let's say, on a carrier, if you're lucky enough to get on a carrier, do they -- what kind -- we will know in advance what kind of system they have? Because a lot of people, you have different systems. You know, everybody works with different systems, FX Power and GSC, etc., and beta.

MR. WHITMAN: Right.

QUESTION: Then the other thing, I'll be in -- there's a power limit in the field, power supply limit. How can we solve that, because obviously you need to charge your batteries every night? And are we expected to carry our own generator?

MR. WHITMAN: Sure. (Laughter.) No, those are good questions and I think I have answers for just about all of them. I might miss one or two here, though, so keep me honest if I forget something at the end of it.

I had all the U.S. domestic television networks outside in the cold yesterday over at the Pentagon doing -- addressing exactly what you're talking about, the power issue. They are concerned about being able to generate power, to have power over an extended period of time. Batteries only last so long, and we're asking them to go out there for weeks, maybe months. Who knows? Okay?

And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to get them together and put them in what I thought would be, you know, the lowest common denominator, the most difficult situation to operate in. And even in the most difficult situation out there, there will always be some tactical vehicles out there and there will always be Humvees somewhere on the battlefield.

So we took the Humvee as being the basic vehicle in which we wanted to conduct some tests in their ability to slave off of the Humvee. We also had a military truck out there. We also tested their equipment, their lights, their cameras, their computers, using the 3K-watt generator, which is the most common generator that you'll find in a tactical unit out there with. And we used an inverter system. I'll get some of these specs to Col. Machamer for all you television folks.

I'm not trying to sell any particular piece of equipment, but you need to have an ability to go from a D/C to an A/C. You need to be able to slave off of 24-volt parallel batteries, two 12-volt parallels, giving you 24-volt. I'm not an electrician. I'm also not a mechanic. But being able to use the batteries that are on that vehicle, okay, to be able to generate power.

We're able to do the lights. We're able to do the camera. We're able to do electronic equipment. We ran into no problems. And I would tell you that each one of those five organizations left a whole lot more confident in their ability to operate out in the field.

You need to think light. Okay? And videophones may be the only way you can do some coverage if you want to really go deep and really embed deep. So you need to think also -- the television people have it most difficult -- but I would be looking at tailorable, if that's a word, scalable packages, because if you're on a ship you're going to be able to have more equipment and a few more means of a transmitting and a more robust means of transmitting perhaps than if you're with an infantry company out there. Okay? And so you need to be thinking in terms of tailorable packages that you can scale down because electronic media embeds are two-person embeds. Remember what I said earlier: We expect you to carry what you bring. And so you need to be thinking about what it is that you have to take for those worst case situations. And it only gets better as you go up, okay. If you're at a departure airfield, you know, we have forces going, typically have electricity and generators and things like that. If you're out at corps headquarters, you know, we've got computers and we've got equipment that requires power generation in the field. But I want you to be ready because I don't want you to miss an opportunity if it's presented to you to be at the very pointy end of the spear, and you need to have equipment that will allow you to do that.

Additionally, when it comes to transporting products, we're going to -- our military commanders are going to know that they are authorized and encouraged to assist in transmission of products. If your equipment goes down and they have the capability to get something out, they're going to get it out for you. They're not going to jeopardize their own communications to be able to do that, but if they can assist you, they're going to be authorized and encouraged to do that.

Same way with tapes, with flying tapes back out. But again, you want to be as self-sufficient as possible and you want to use us only as a backup or in emergency situations or in special circumstances.

QUESTION: Can I just follow up with that?

MR. WHITMAN: Let me just make sure I got all of yours. Did I? I think I hit them. Did I?

QUESTION: Yes. But what you are saying is most likely you would not really feed tape from a point, but you try and fly them out.

MR. WHITMAN: I don't think that tape -- I don't think that, you know, given the bandwidth and what you need to feed tape, I think that that's a fairly unique requirement to broadcast television that you need to be prepared to be able to do. I mean, even if you look at INMARSAT, we have INMARSAT out in the field, but when you go to feed tape, it usually requires two INMARSATs set up in parallel, or series, or whatever it is, okay, to be able to do that.

So I leave that to the experts, but I tell you, as a general rule, you should plan on being self-sufficient. But power we think we can help you with, but power we can only help you with if you come with the right adapters, if you come with the right converters and things like that. And I will work with Rick and provide some information from the little test that we had the other day.

QUESTION: Hi, my name is Andre Sitovan with the Russian News Agency Itar-Tass. For those of us on tighter budgets, cost may be a factor, so I'd like you to go into this for a little while what you will be charging the journalists and the media organizations, or what will come free. And if you could give us a ballpark figure of what kind of expense we're looking at, that's also helpful.

MR. WHITMAN: You'll need to get yourself to wherever we tell you your unit is, so you're responsible for your transportation to the theater of operation, if that's where your unit is. It's quite possible that you could get an embed opportunity with a unit that hasn't departed from the continental United States or hasn't departed from Europe, okay, in which case you could embed with them there and start with them there, and we provide you with transportation in at that time.

If you end up where you're in a location where you're being housed in a commercial facility for which there's a charge, a billeting charge of some sort, you'd be expected to bear that cost. We wouldn't do that. But we don't charge for ground space out in the field. (Laughter.) Hotel accommodations are free out there. (Laughter.)

We're going to provide for your rations. You can't, as an individual, or as a team if you're electronic media, that you can't be expected to carry your rations for 30 days or 45 days or 60 days. So we're going to provide that and we're going to provide that at no cost. You might not like what you're eating, but we'll provide it. (Laughter.)

And we're going to provide your transportation, like I said. So I'm trying to think of what other costs you're going to have. Your personal equipment and your professional equipment. Your basic clothing that you're going to need.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) inoculations?

MR. WHITMAN: Inoculations. Those are -- those are expenses that your news organizations will have to bear. But now I -- I don't see a whole lot of associated costs there.

QUESTION: Thank you. Gulf War Part One, I understand that embedding wasn't used. Everyone from around the foreign press from their separate countries would send crews to locations and would be in direct contact. Is that going to be used this time as well, or is it just the embedding?

MR. WHITMAN: No. That's a good question. You're right. In 1989, the primary means of coverage was the pool system. And the pool system took a group of reporters to various different locations on the battlefield, and then as they filed their stories they became property of everybody. Okay? That's not going to be the preferred method for the way that we handle coverage in the field. The primary method is going to be embedding and is going to be unilateral coverage.

There will be those opportunities, I think though, where there will be reporters that are in a location somewhere in the theater in a more static location in which opportunities will present themselves to take trips of a certain duration to some place of interest on the battlefield.

And then, depending on how many reporters are there, if I can take a C-130 in and I've got, you know, 40 reporters that want to go in, then they'll go in and they'll do unilateral coverage. But if I have a Blackhawk helicopter and I can take in 12 and there's 40 reporters, well, then I'm probably going to ask you to put together a pool, okay, and then you will amongst yourselves decide exactly how you want to compose that pool.

QUESTION: But would the central contact still be through the Washington bureau? In other words, would the main offices contact us to contact you to go out to the field to a separate unit, or would -- if they want to send troops, would they contact someone else?

MR. WHITMAN: Those opportunities will occur from within theater, okay, so those will be at the various locations in theater, at media centers, you know, in Kuwait, in Qatar, wherever that happens to be. And those will be opportunities that will present themselves and reporters that are there will be offered that opportunity in theater, and there will be no specific involvement by my office back here in Washington.

QUESTION: How do they get there?

MR. WHITMAN: How do they get where?

QUESTION: To the -- in theater.

MR. WHITMAN: Well, it's only going to -- I mean, it's going to be presented, so those are going to be opportunities that pop up. If you're not there, okay, you're not going to be able to take advantage of that opportunity. It's going to be for reporters that are in theater somewhere that have not -- that do not have an embed opportunity. So they're not out there with a particular unit but they're in theater.

I'll just use an example. They're in Qatar. Okay? But an opportunity comes along and Jim Wilkinson* or Ray Shepherd* are going to be in Qatar, have an opportunity to take a group of journalists out there. They're going to draw that from the people that are right there, the journalists that are right there. So there's not going to be a call back here and say, "Hey, we got this thing coming up in two days." It's going to be more like, "Hey, in two hours we have an opportunity to go here. Anybody interested?" People raise their hands. We go from there.

QUESTION: Just a couple of quick questions about the selection process. Is preference going to be given to reporters who have actually done the Pentagon training sessions, as opposed to other similar sessions? And how much, if any -- is there a relationship between which countries' reporters get selected and the support of that country for military action?

(Laughter.)

MR. WHITMAN: Favorites. This is all about favorites, this question. (Laughter.) Well, one, that's why we're dealing with news organizations and not individual reporters. It takes me out of having to worry about whether I like Joe better than I like Jane, right?

But let's go to the first part, which is the training. Now, the training, we have said from day one, is not a prerequisite and it does not give anybody an advantage over anybody else, because different news organizations have approached the training from different perspectives. We have some very seasoned combat journalists out there that are working for news organizations whose management has said, "Oh, wait a second, I got, you know, two opportunities to send somebody to train. I am not going to send this reporter. I'm going to send these other two that don't have the experience."

So does that mean that I'm going to all of a sudden count out, you know, that reporter because -- or not give the same amount of opportunity to that reporter because he hasn't been to training? No, absolutely not.

Also, I've had three times, four times as many people, reporters in news organizations, ask for training than I've been able to provide, so it's not fair for me to use that as a criteria for trying to embed. In fact, one of the criteria that I used for organizations in the selection process for organizations that will get embed opportunities is I took every news organization that raised their hand and said, "I want to go to training." Whether or not I got them to training or not, I have put them on the list of wanting to embed because they wouldn't have raised heir hand to go to training if they didn't have some interest or desire to embed with a unit. Okay? So just by raising their hand, I put them on the list of wanting to or having some interest to embed with a unit. That's the first part.

The second part. Organization. Oh, are going to -- country of origin. Does country of origin matter?

QUESTION: Are Canadians allowed to go? (Laughter.)

MR. WHITMAN: Sure. (Laughter.) I was just reading today, the Canadians seem like they're on the fence today. Well, well. So tell me where you're going to end up and I'll tell you -- (laughter).

QUESTION: We can talk after. (Laughter.)

MR. WHITMAN: No, not at all. Let's look at the realities, though, of the news business. I have to look at news organizations that have reach and impact. Okay? I have to look at news organizations, though, that span the globe also. I have to -- I think it's also in my interest not only to look, when I'm looking internal, domestically, I don't want to look just at national type news organizations. I think that there is important regional news organizations that ought to have an opportunity, too.

So I tried to take a look across the entire breadth of how we want journalists positioned so that not only here in the United States, but also across the world, people can be informed as to what's going on.

Let me think about this a second. How can I answer this question? So, clearly, it's in my interest, the Department's interest, this country's interest, to make sure that we have access to our forces from reporters that represent the world community out there. And so I don't have a list of they're with us so they get a slot, they're not with us, they don't get a slot. I mean, all you have to do is look at the training opportunities. Okay? I mean, some of you -- some of you already spoke in here. I mean, Al-Jazeera has been out, trained with us, and Al-Jazeera is going to go out and embed with us. They have an embed opportunity that's been identified for them. There are a number of European organizations, Asian organizations, Middle Eastern news organizations, as well as organizations in the United States.

So I've tried to take a very realistic approach to this. The country of origin doesn't matter. Yeah, it matters only because I want to reach the world's populations out there through all the reporters doing their work, but not from the standpoint of whether or not they're part of a coalition or not.

COL. MACHAMER: Anybody from Los Angeles got anything? Go ahead.

QUESTION: Yes, one question from Los Angeles. This is Jake from Tokyo Broadcasting System. I just wanted to make sure that if we have requests over here on this side of -- especially in California, as long as we make sure that our D.C. office is aware of our requests, we go ahead and contact people on this side of the world by ourselves. Is that correct?

MR. WHITMAN: What's important -- who needs to know this is not the bureau in Los Angeles or in Washington, D.C., or Tokyo Broadcasting back in Tokyo. That's who the Pentagon will contact if there's an embed opportunity for Tokyo Broadcast System. They need that one point of contact from there, and then your office will then designate who they want to be embedded. And it could very well be somebody in Washington or somebody in Los Angeles, but that's their decision. And that's how that will work.

I kind of confused the situation, I'm afraid. When I'm talking about the Washington bureau chiefs, I was really kind of talking about our domestic news organizations and using the Washington bureau chiefs here. And so I probably confused some people out there.

Rick has been working with you and working with your news organizations' headquarters, and so erase what I said. Let the transcript show I was messed up there.

QUESTION: I think that clarified it. Thank you.

MR. WHITMAN: Way in the back.

COL. MACHAMER: Because she didn't get a seat, I guess she --

QUESTION: Yes, Marin Shi* with TV (inaudible) Channel Taiwan. Regarding the embedding process, then, and the possible filing equipment that we might be able to bring with us, either fly away or videophone, there is a possibility that some mechanical breakdowns will occur. So I was wondering if any units, any organizations were assigned as an electronic media, is it possible for us to have the knowledge in advance that which other electronic media, if there is any, that will be embedded to the same unit so we can work with each other in advance and talking about equipment sharing and helping each other out.

Thank you.

MR. WHITMAN: That's a good question. I think that's particularly an important thing to look at for those of you that have maritime embeds and Air Force embeds because you're going to be at more fixed locations. Aboard ships there's going to be a limit to, for example, how much broadcast equipment that you're going to want or need to bring aboard. And once you get embed assignments, for example with the maritime ones, Fifth Fleet will be working out the details of the various carrier battle groups that you'll be going to, and from there, the carrier battle groups to what ships you might actually be on.

And so I suspect that once we do that, we will want to share with you who else is traveling with you. Now, I would tell you that for the ground embeds it doesn't really matter if there are other news organizations that are with the division. I would tell you that if we execute this properly that I don't want you with a whole bunch of other journalists. I want your stories to be unique and exclusive. And so that is the most difficult situation for a reporter that's embedded in a ground unit far forward, and I -- all I can do is to assure that our commanders are just as interested in your product getting out as you are and are going to try to assist you in any way that they can.

I do think that you ought to be looking at opportunities to share equipment. You know, like somebody identified earlier, there are compatibility issues, particularly when it comes to videotape and things like that. And I think it will become apparent soon once we -- once it looks like it's time to start embedding who else you may be able to share some resource with, particularly. Again, if I'm talking more maritime/air, sure there's an opportunity to ground embed, but I hope that you're miles apart from your nearest colleague.

QUESTION: -- with German Public Radio. How many reporters are you going to embed overall? And maybe you can split it up domestic and international?

And also, are the stories that people are going to file while embedded going to be subject to censorship?

MR. WHITMAN: Let me take the second one first. We practice what we call security at the source, and that means that our commanders in the field are going to try not to expose you to classified information or sensitive information that would compromise the mission. There may be times when, because of where you're at, you may be privileged to sensitive information, at which time the commander, we hope, will enter into a discussion with you as to what is appropriate to be able to report, what's not appropriate to be able to report, or when something can be reported. Okay? Because usually on those issues, it's not a matter of you can't report this; it's just that if you report it at this time it could compromise what you're doing.

And, you know, I don't get hung up about that because I really believe that the embedding process will take care of that because, first of all, I don't know of any journalist that's interested in compromising a mission or putting anybody's life in danger. Furthermore, I don't know of any journalists that have a suicide wish that want to compromise the mission that they happen to be on. Okay? So I really think that it's a bit of a red herring. It's something that good, and we talk about it. It's very -- you know, we can talk about it in the sterile environments of capitals and stuff like that. But on the ground, when that reporter is with that unit, it's my experience that that reporter is not going to do anything that was foolishly going to endanger the people that he's with or endanger him or herself in the process of trying to report.

Numbers? The President hasn't made any decision with respect to military action in Iraq, and I think it's premature for me to talk about total numbers yet. I would tell you that it is aggressive, it is extensive, it is embedding at -- it is designed to embed reporters at every level of -- every military unit level. And I'm just trying to think if there's a way I could characterize it for you beyond that. It's a lot. It's a lot.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

MR. WHITMAN: Absolutely, absolutely. And I think that you will be surprised when the assignments come out, or the opportunities come out and you get assignments from --

COL. MACHAMER: We have time for one more.

MR. WHITMAN: Sure.

COL. MACHAMER: Right here in the front.

QUESTION: Yeah. I'm Hirido with the Kyodo News, Japan.

MR. WHITMAN: That's one of those small news organizations, right?

QUESTION: (Laughter.) It is. Very. But could you just tell me, tell us about your scheme about the briefings, daily briefings -- on the ground, in theater. Where would be the main, you know, the venue for the daily briefings on the ground there and how many times are you going to have a briefing, say, and who's going to do that? What's your plan?

MR. WHITMAN: Well, there will be, there will be regular briefings that occur both in theater as well as back here in Washington. I guess what I would offer you is that I would not count on any sort of predictability in terms of a briefing schedule other than that they will be regular, frequent, they will be with commanders, they will be with coalition partners that are represented in the coalition. But I don't think that you can start to design or set up your programming based on how or where briefings might occur. It's going to be dependent on the tactical situation, it's going to depend on the operation as it develops and where we are at any given point, and so I'm being ambiguous because there is no set schedule.

And so I can't give you that predictability that you might be looking for right now.