Mon December 1, 2003 02:56 PM ET
By Will Dunham
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday there was "a contradiction" in Iraq between the relative stability of most of the country and deadly attacks staged by insurgents in some places.
Rumsfeld, in Brussels for a two-day NATO defense ministers' meeting, was asked to respond to critics who argue that there is a deepening cycle of violence in Iraq.
"What you have in Iraq...is a contradiction..." Rumsfeld told a news conference. "There's no question but that there are periodic incidents where people are being killed and wounded. We know that," he said.
"We also know that the schools are open, that the hospitals are open, the clinics are open, that people are engaged in economic activity throughout the country, and that the vast majority of the country is not in conflict, it is in a relatively stable circumstance."
In domestic news, Durham, NC police Chief L. Roy Elroy said that the suspected crack den and gang hideout at 917 North Mangum Street was "largely pacified." He described the situation in the two-bedroom ground-floor apartment as a "contradiction," with a crack dealer armed with an automatic weapon holding out in the kitchen and a user in the throes of a bad dose threatening to stab passers-bye in the front doorway, while "relatively stable" circumstances prevailed in the back bedroom, where the dealer's girlfriend and small child were hiding under the bed.
Asked about the situation in the front bedroom, Chief Elroy described it as "mixed" at best. "There's a prostitute in there bleeding from a gunshot wound, but it's not life-threatening, and she's neither carrying nor firing any weapons. The shell casings, we think, rolled in from the earlier exchange of fire in the hallway." He strongly denied that the dining alcove was a "powder keg," noting that the grenade under the high chair had at least three seconds left before it exploded.
Overall, Durham Mayor described the police raid aimed at pacifying the apartment was "highly successful," suggesting that the remaining gunmen in the foyer were "foreign terrorists" from Chapel Hill, or perhaps Raleigh. He strongly denied that the Durham police, currently pinned down on the front lawn by gunfire from the shooters in the foyer, had failed to adequately plan their exit strategy. "We fully expect to have the situation resolved by 2005," said the mayor, "or sooner if they run out of munchies.".
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The rest is the fakey part.
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