Rick Lynch Quotations

We believe we are experiencing great success against the most crucial element of the insurgency, which is the terrorists and the foreign fighters,

None of those service members were coached as to what to say.

What we've got to do is look at the individual that was indeed detained and what was he doing, regardless of what his profession is, ... That's a 'no'.

He was in a situation where we believed he was conducting suspicious activities. His response to the initial investigation was suspicious in itself. He was detained ... but he was released three days later,

It happened again today and it can happen again tomorrow, ... We are convinced that we are going to fight our way to the elections.

Last year, as we worked through the problem set, that (militias) wasn't a problem set we focused on.

That's what happened in Baghdad today and that's what happened in Amman yesterday.

We have a very deliberate process on how we work with those detainees,

We're not seeing civil war ignited in Iraq. We're seeing a competent, capable Iraqi government using their security forces to calm the storm.

The policy doesn't need to change. The policy that's in effect is the one that will stay in effect.

The rats know we are closing in on them,

We will continue to work away so we have covered every inch ... of Tal Afar, until we've killed all the terrorists and foreign fighters there,

We're studying very hard where this technology is coming from and what we can do to combat that technology,

Those pictures were pictures of criminal acts that took place many years ago, rogue soldiers doing activity that wasn't supported by their chain of command.

This was part of our normal procedures and not as a result of demands from terrorists or criminals. We do not negotiate with terrorists or criminals.

What our soldiers saw as a result of being on the scene was a car coming forward at a high rate of speed, ... That particular car looked like cars that we have seen in the past be used as suicide bombs...and there were two local nationals inside the car.

What our soldiers on the scene saw was a car coming forward at a highway speed ... (It) looked like cars that we have seen in the past used in suicide bombs, (and) with two nationals inside,

What was he doing that caused us to believe he was involved in suspicious activities? And then we will continue to work through our process to determine whether he should remain in detention, be released or transferred into the court system.

The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes,

The terrorists and foreign fighters that he recruits, trains and equips carry out more than 90 percent of the insidious suicide attacks against the men, women and children of Iraq -- attacks that have killed or injured thousands of Iraqis in the last year alone.

approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious. There were individuals hanging outside with what looked to be a weapon. It stopped and immediately put itself in reverse. Again suspicious activity. Our soldiers on the scene used established rules of engagement and all the training received ... (and they) decided that it was appropriate to engage that particular car. And as a result of that the driver was indeed killed and the passenger was hurt by shards of glass.

They're not going to be leaving early as a result of the hurricane,

There seems to be this basic idea that we attack a city, the insurgents run away and go somewhere else, and I've got to tell you, that's not happening,

They were bound, they were together, there were no kidnappers in the area.

The insurgents are still there, ... They still want to derail the democratic process. They still want to discredit the Iraqi government, so operations continue.

In Tal Afar, coalition forces and members of the Iraqi security forces are preparing a possible military operation to rid that city of insurgents,

The difference is that the Iraqi police mechanized brigade actively patrols Route Irish, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ... It transformed it from the highway of death to one of the most safe and secure routes in all of Iraq, again a tribute to the capabilities of these trained and ready police forces.

You will see, over the next several weeks -- we're not specifying any time -- specific military operations to target the insurgency in Tal Afar,