Transcripts For CSPAN 20170329

We acknowledge our responsible to operate at a hire standard. It is my responsibility as a Combatant Commander to make sure we operate in accordance with those goals and standards. We take every allegation seriously and were executing a we have and are executing a well developed process to assess and if necessary investigate each of these allegations. How we do things is as important as the things we actually do. And were doing everything humanly possible to prevent these types of events and incidents from occurring as a result of our operations. I do agree with Lieutenant Generals comments yesterday. He is our commander on the ground in iraq when he said that there is a fair chance that our ns operations may have contributed that our operations may have contributed to civilian casualties. I would highlight to each of you that this Investigation Continues and there is still much to learn from this. We have a general officer assigned as the investigating officer to help us address and understand and discover the facts of this case. We were able to visit the actual site yesterday and gathered both additional evidence and perspective on this situation. In addition, were reviewing over 700 Weapons Systems videos over a 10day period to that followed this alleged incident to ensure that we understand the effects of the munitions we dropped in this have a sinity. This should be an vicinity. This should be an indicator how intense a combat situation this is. The investigation will look at command and control. Well look at the munitions we employed in the fusing for those munitions t will look at intelligence. Importantly it will look at the behavior of the enemy. And it will look at how our actions may have played the role in any civilian casualties. The investigation will confirm or deny our initial impressions and highlight the lessons learned. And while we consider and establish accountability over our actions in this incident, i think it is also important to clearly recognize that the enemy does use human shields. Has little regard for human life, and does attempt to use civilian casualty allegations as a tool to end our operations. So they bear responsibility for this as well. The nature of this fight has evolved over the course of the operation on this 2 1 2year campaign. Our approach as evolved as well. One example of how we have evolved has been our effort to enable and entrust our leaders at the tactical edge with the authorities they need to help our partners win. We have not relaxed the rules of engagement. I have authorized Lieutenant General towson to delegate the employment of rules of engagement to the appropriate level due to the tough urban fight that we knew was coming in mosul. To be clear, there were no changes in the rules of engagement that allows us to engage. Were aware of all of the reporting, especially by organizations like amnesty inlnasht, air wars, the center for civilians in conflict, and the syrian observatory for human rights. And we have developed relations with a number of these organizations and we look forward to working with them as we complete this investigation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. A live now to the floor of the u. S. House. Will be offered by reverend robert dillingham, arina United Methodist church, farina, illinois. Reverend dillingham creator of yesterday, today and tomorrow, we come to you as broken vessels, called to your holy task of governance, be with the families of these gathered, buildup, equip, protect and empower all to the task before them this