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Cheney Assails Terrorism at Rumsfeld Award Presentation

Tuesday, May 13, 2003
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

During the same question-answer session, Rumsfeld debunked claims in the press that retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner was being sent out of Iraq for poor performance.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
The only way to deal with terrorism is to destroy the terrorist networks, Vice President Richard Cheney said today.

Cheney was speaking at the Mayflower Hotel here at an award presentation for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The Hudson Institute, a think tank that studies changes in public policy, presented Rumsfeld with the organization's James H. Doolittle Award for outstanding contributions to national security issues.

"No treaty can solve this problem (of terrorism). There's no peace agreement, no policy of containment or deterrence that works to deal with this threat. We have to go find the terrorists," Cheney said in a question-and-answer session.

"And we do everything we can here at home and around the world to create hard targets so we're difficult to get at," he added. "But in the final analysis, the only sure way to security and stability and protection of our people and those of our friends and allies is to go eliminate the terrorists before they can launch any more attacks."

He noted the May 12 terrorist attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were directed at more than just American targets.

"I think the message to be taken from all this is that this is a worldwide problem, a global problem that's aimed primarily at the West," he said. "But these al Qaeda terrorists have killed a large number of Muslims as well."
(More: DefenseLINK.mil)
2003 © U.S. Department of Defense.

Dan