Rumsfeld on troop deployment for border security

(17 May 2006)
1. Wide of committee hearing room
2. Various of US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence:
"The Department of Homeland Security is in the lead role but guard units may provide assistance such as mobile communications, transportation, logistics training and construction. Military forces will not be involved in apprehension or detention of illegal immigrants. The up to 6,000 guardsmen and women proposed for this effort represent less than 2 percent of the total National Guard force of some 400 plus thousand and for the most part they will be deployed during their two to three week active duty for training, period. As such, this will not only not adversely affect America's ability to conduct the war on terror or respond to other domestic emergencies, it will also provide real life training."
4. Wide of committee hearing room
5. Close up of Rumsfeld and Pace
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lieutenant General Steven Blum, Chief of National Guard Bureau:
"We have sufficient soldiers to do the overseas war fight, prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, still have the forces that we need to respond for terrorism in this country or a WMD event. And, as the Secretary said at the high end limit of 6,000, that only represents a little less than 2 percent of our available force and I think we can manage that and any state that has a particular issue or problem and cannot send their forces, we have many, many other choices we can made, sir."
7. Wide of Senators during hearing
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence:
"And also best assure peace in the decades ahead. Thank you Mr. Chairman."
9. UPSOUND: (English) Voxpop:
"Liar"
10. UPSOUND: (English) Senator Ted Stevens, Chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee:
"Whoever that is, will security please remove them."
11. Woman being removed from committee hearing
12. Wide of hearing
STORYLINE:
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured members of Congress on Wednesday that using thousands of National Guard troops to help secure the US border with Mexico will not detract from the their ability to perform other missions at home and abroad.
Rumsfeld was testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill about the 2007 Defence Department budget and supplemental funds to fight the war in Iraq.
"The up to 6,000 Guardsmen and women proposed for this effort represent less than 2 percent of the total National Guard force of some 400,000, and for the most part they will be deployed during their two- or three-week active duty training period," he told the Senate Appropriations defence
subcommittee.
"As such this will not only not adversely affect America's ability to conduct the war on terror or respond to other domestic emergencies, it will
actually provide useful real-life training for the members of the National Guard," he added.
In mostly amicable exchanges with Democratic panel members on the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld was pressed to discuss the prospects for bringing U.S. troops home.
He said, as he has often in recent months, that it depends largely on political progress in Baghdad and continued progress in training and equipping Iraqi security forces.
Rumsfeld said the White House budget office was still considering whether the beefed-up border operation would require an immediate congressional appropriation of extra funds.
Analysts have also questioned how much impact the Guard would have along the 2,000 mile-long Mexican border.

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