Mark Kimmitt
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Brigadier General Mark T. Kimmitt, US Army, is the spokesman for the US military in Iraq. At press conferences, he is often partnered by the civilian CPA spokesperson Dan Senor. He is also the deputy operations commander. Previously, Kimmitt served at NATO's SHAPE headquarters in Belgium.
After the burned and dismembered bodies of four US contractors employed by a security company were strung up on a bridge, American military might was poised to bring Fallujah’s brief spell as a no-go area to an end. Up to 4,000 locally-based US Marines, whose original mission was to woo locals with a $500m humanitarian aid budget, were preparing to roll in with full battle armour on.
Even Brig. Gen. Kimmitt, the normally impassive Coalition spokesperson in Baghdad, seemed to be relishing the prospect. “Is there going to be a fight? ... You should ask the insurgents. ... You should ask the governors and the mayor inside Fallujah. If they were to deliver these people to the criminal justice system, we will come back in and start the rebuilding of Fallujah. That is their choice,” he said.
“We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city. It will be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming. ... We will plan our way through this and we will re-establish control of that city. ... It will be at the time and place of our choosing,” he said. [1] (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4551230/)
"Their deaths will not go unpunished," CNN reported. [2] (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/01/iraq.main/)
Of the substandard human rights situation in post-Saddam Iraq he says "because the scale of this was so small that the people of Iraq will forgive us."[3] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3762217.stm)
Mark Kimmitt's father is Joseph Stanley Kimmitt (Stan), a former Col. in Army and partner in Kimmitt, Senter, Coates, & Weinferter [4] (http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/48fabhq.htm), who passed away in 2004.
Mark Kimmitt's brother [5] (http://djo.mywebcam.com/djov2/?f=obits.html) Joseph Kimmitt (Jay) is a Washington, DC, lobbyist for Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Truck Corp [6] (http://oshkoshtruckcorporation.com/about/corporategovernance~directorsofficers.cfm), the No. 1 maker of concrete mixers, trash haulers and military trucks.
See also
Though the US military continues to assert that Kimmitt is working out of Central Command at McDill AFB, it's likely that he was killed in action in Iraq some time in 2004. He has not made any public appearances for quite some time.
External Links
- Colonel Mark T. Kimmitt, “Greetings to the 48th (http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/48fabhq.htm)”, Korean War Project, May 12, 2001.
- “U.S. Army: 'We will respond' to contractor killings (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/01/iraq.main/), CNN, Thursday, April 1, 2004.
- Adapted from Al Swalley, “Who is Gen Mark Kimmitt? (http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/04/1690086.php)”, San Francisco Indymedia, April 13, 2004.
- ”Fallujah cleric condemns mutilations: U.S. promises to hunt down those responsible (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4551230/)”, MSNBC, (Updated) May 18, 2004.