Mark Kimmitt
Brig. Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt, US Army, is currently deputy director of plans for U.S. Central Command [1].
Mark Kimmitt first became known to the public as the spokesman for the US military in Iraq. At press conferences, he was often partnered by the civilian CPA spokesman Dan Senor. He was 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.
In the aftermath of the mutilation of the contractors, Brigadier General Kimmitt was quoted thus: "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... 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." [2]
"Their deaths will not go unpunished," CNN reported. [3]
Mark Kimmitt's father is Joseph Stanley Kimmitt (Stan), a former Col. in Army and now partner in the Washington, DC, public relations, or lobbyist, firm Kimmitt, Senter, Coates, & Weinferter [4].
See also
External links
- Colonel Mark T. Kimmitt, "Greetings to the 48th", Korean War Project, May 12, 2001.
- "U.S. Army: 'We will respond' to contractor killings, CNN, Thursday, April 1, 2004.
- Adapted from Al Swalley, "Who is Gen Mark Kimmitt?", San Francisco Indymedia, April 13, 2004.
- "Fallujah cleric condemns mutilations: U.S. promises to hunt down those responsible", MSNBC, (Updated) May 18, 2004.
- Robert Burns, "Nov. Ranks 2nd in U.S. Deaths in Iraq", Associated Press, 16 November, 2004. Mentions Kimmitt's job at US Central Command.
