Rumsfeld blames Clinton administration for loss of Vieques

By Jamie McIntyre
CNN Military Affairs Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an interview with CNN on Friday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blamed the Clinton administration for the loss of the U.S. Navy bombing range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques and promised to find a replacement.

Donald Rumsfeld said the decision on Vieques was essentially made when President Clinton agreed to submit the issue to referendum

"I can assure you that we are going to find ways, one way or another, to see that the men and women who go to the Gulf have the same kind of training that we are giving the men and women who go out in the Pacific for their deployments -- we simply must do that," Rumsfeld told CNN.

Rumsfeld said the decision to give up use of the bombing range in May of 2003 was essentially made when President Clinton agreed to submit the issue to referendum.

"The prior administration made an agreement with the government of Puerto Rico that there would be a referendum, and that they would leave the Vieques training range in 2003 if they lost the referendum. That's the arrangement that was made, and we have to live with that."

Bush administration officials have cited several polls that indicate sentiment among the more than 6,000 registered voters on Vieques running strongly against allowing the Navy to stay.

But the Navy argues that with a good public relations campaign they have chance of winning and preserving the right to conduct live-fire exercises on the island's uninhabited east end.

Rumsfeld acknowledged that unless Congress changes the current law, the referendum would go forward. He said conservative Republicans had legitimate concerns about giving up the training facility, which has been used by the U.S. Navy for more than 50 years.

But Rumsfeld said he supports the decision to leave Vieques, even though he wasn't directly involved in making it.

"Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and the Secretary of the Navy have made a decision. And I think that there's no question but that they have balanced this properly, and that we'll have to find ways over the coming period of two, three, four years to find ways that we can see that we get the training that's needed in other ways. And we're aggressively looking for ways to do that," Rumsfeld said.