Department of Defense News Briefing
January 3, 2002

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld

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Q: Last week you announced that the Nuclear Posture Review would be released this week. Could you give us an update on that?

Rumsfeld: You know, I probably shouldn't have used the word. It's correct, we're releasing it to the Congress, and it is classified. And when I got -- went upstairs after I said that last week, and I thought the implication would be "release" meaning "to the public." And I apologize for that.

I have asked our folks to see if we can take that classified version and declassify it, find a way to do whatever we have to do to it so that it's available, because I think it's an important document. It is a significant change in U.S. offensive nuclear weapon approach, and it is a different strategy, as well as the deep reductions that are proposed in it. And because of its importance and because of the new direction it takes, I think it belongs in the public in some form. So we're working on that.

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