Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150306

Nine years. A lot of friendships developed outside of Law Enforcement than prosecution, defense, of lot of friends that way. But i felt it was my job to do what i could as the victim. Just thought i would put that out there. [laughter] but if my role the was approached to go out and solve mysteries on americas most wanted. There is a certain amount of risk brethren that somebody comes back at you but that is the way things worked in metabolizes street troupers of that is how i grew up so i appreciated what it offered me so when you are in the middle of that it is my job to get up to say you have a voice. I came away from the experience with a couple of thoughts. The think terry would agree that you have to constantly reexamine your assumptions. There were so many false leads in this case and instances we thought we had him on the line has to be the guy or with the acquisitions that cannot be explained away. His neighbor explained away. So i hold that with me with investigations after that i would continue to reexamine the assumptions the other has to do more with the state. There for several instances in bangladesh instances that could result in the death of more individuals. The victim from bonn numbers 16 about five blocks from this building the package was delivered in a meal tub to the business and the bomb was on top. So all the employees were congregating to get their real. Very wise called out to receive his package but there was addressed to the prior president it was very tightly wrapped with brown paper. It was designed to elude detonate when the tension was released so releasing the tape was enough the fbi still dont know how that is possible but there are about eight people standing around the counter when marie tries to open the package is having difficulty so he asks for a pair of scissors. As this goes on people were filtering the way. Another person gets a phone call, another calls a coworker a side to the hallway other people get the mail to go back as the reception his chances scissors and she gets a phone call and the caller wants to know the number of another person it is doggerel the tax rolodex. She was filling in was a caller on a whole to go to her office to retrieve the information and is 10 ceps steps and he is the only one killed because he is the only one left 30 seconds earlier maybe half a dozen. The same story repeats itself with number 15 that the wife and daughter come into the kitchen just as he starts to open the package but then the daughter needs a diaper change the wife leaves in the bomb explodes and he is killed instantly. There are other examples but i hold onto the fought but for the grace of god we could have a lot more fatalities. I take away a great admiration for david. He and his mom or estranged content because of his illness but were very supportive of him. When they started to say could did be ted . And he was torn between this is my brotherhood will they do to him that if fido will more people be killed . He went through that horrible backandforth but it would have been a while and david was given a record he dedicated to helping other victims. And they think they have become friends with gary and they have gone together to talk to victims groups and he has continued in the Death Penalty and a fellow that was a defendant and as the brothers turned him in the state executed him so to talk about a victims and responsibilities. I think gary is wonderful and has been much more giving or whatever words than i ever would have been. This concludes the presentation we will invite all of you choose the reception in the Kennedy Learning Center downstairs there will be refreshments and the panel will be available to answer any other questions you might have. There are exhibits of photographs of evidence that was used at the trial had it gone forward. Thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] people flock to the beach the wind drew them unwatched as all these factors with all at that time we had wooden bats houses over the gulf of mexico and a huge pavilion but as the storm increased with intensity the structures were literally turned into matchsticks. The 1900 storm struck galveston saturdays september 8, 1900. The storm increased with intensity than finally tapered off around midnight that evening. It was instill is the deadliest reported National Event in the history of the United States. At this time we talk about the studentcam documentary competition the goal is to challenge middle and High School Students to woo talk about issues that affect them it was a three branches asking them to tell a story that demonstrated how policy or a lot more action has affected them or their community. In addition to tell through video we ask them to use cs bin programming to explore alternative points of view. One of the grand Prize Winners we will watch a portion of the video in here is some more background on the competition. Thought of the injuries we receive for education, health, economy, the quality and integration of the received more than 2200 entries from 45 states and the District Of Columbia and students could injure as a team up to three or individually with four categories they could enter broken down by regents at the highschool level, central and highschool western middle schools competed separately. To 150 students were awarded mondays totaling 100,000. The team of eighth graders were deemed the grand Prize Winners in 2015 for their video and minimumwage title the artificial wage their provider is time warner cable. Heres a clip from the winning team. A single mother with a four yearold child has to make tough choices every week to make ends meet on a minimumwage job the 725 7 to 0. 2 per year. Is hard because sometimes i have to decide if sun needs under rare i will be late on of bill or ask people to borrow money. It is hard. She is not alone. According to the bureau of labor statistics 3. 3 million americans make minimum wage or below that is 2. 6 percent of all u. S. Workers. Most minimumwage workers are employed in foodservice comer retail sales or personal care such as day care. Making minimum wage as the custodian. Please have to pay our bills and housing the we cannot do that on minimumwage. We just cant so they have all these programs like food stamps why you need that . Because you have to eat. You dont make enough to feed yourself. The push is on to raise the federal minimum wage from 7. 25 up at 10. 10 to provide a little over 21,000 per year if the individual works 40 hours per week progress has been six years since it was raised. Son in congress say now was the time to raise it again. But things are Getting Better but the problem is theyre only Getting Better for some. With no corporate profits have continued to break records, americans are working harder and getting paid less. But some see raising it will cost jobs citing a nonpartisan study from the cbo spinnaker stiffly mandate a higher minimum wage reproduced 500,000 through 1 million jobs immediately. That is the last thing we want we dont want to create more unemployment. The representative says more education and better worker trading are the keys to improve the lives of minimumwage workers not the artificial wage. Now it is time to reach one of the students on the winning team and is joining us from lexington kentucky. Congratulations to your team. Thank you so much. Where were you when you heard the news you want the grand prize. I was in the Principals Office with great team and a few teachers and we got the call and for the first time in my life i didnt have anything to say. Were you surprised . Did you feel it was a winner . My team and i when the first made its path we just wanted to get the word out and let people know. We had no idea there is always somebody better we did not know this was a possibility. How did you choose the topic . We were looking through the clips that you had available were all passionate about humanrights minimum wage. For the people give them more money and help them out and write there we said what we will do that. Is interesting when people watch your video i hope they will watching on the web site you have a decided pointed you that you speak through. Was that your opinion when you started out . No. Our opinion changed. Refer started we saw the top player if you give people more money they will be happier to buy more things. But then restarted to dig a little deeper with the cost of inflation in people can send work elsewhere so we decided it is not best for the workers and the community. How did you find those to interview . My father had said job connection and found them through a job fair and were able to coordinate those interviews were program called a jubilee jobs and they said we have three people they are happy to tell you their story. We surprised theyre willing to share . Absolutely one of the gentleman said no. I dont think this is a good idea. That shocked us. It was very interesting absolutely. Is a sure first project . This is my first time. We definitely have help with the technical aspect. How did you put the Team Together . It was originally katie and i that we have been friends since fourth grade than i thought the move will help us to put this into a news story maybe michael. , help us out. So we all worked well together were all friends in on speech teams. How to use celebrate your win and what we do with the prize money . Starting off we did not even think this would have been so i havent made any plans. Invested in the stock market reduce something worthwhile. How will your school celebrate . They will watch this on tv. Can we will have an assembly and fun stuff. I am sure the other students will be happy to cheer you on. Congratulations from cspan were very proud. Thank you so much. In addition there were first Prize Winners in each category and here they are. Congratulations iseult list until reuters in all church you conceal winning entries honda website at student kiam. Org good afternoon. It is the pleasure but i hope paul von berg process from cornell the announcement was made back gingrich but has your thinking bent their vital since that announcement of those products jet objectives . Not really a. I am enthusiastic and very excited to work at the intersection of culture in science. I have spent my life with science and medicine but i think the humanistic disciplines are unbelievably important as to live in the stem oriented age that is the work for this institution but really i do not have specific ideas. Im still going through the learning curve that is pretty steep civic something that you did say that gave us pause that to be asked by one of my colleagues about the admission fees to the smithsonian that it is too early to be pinned down on specific question. But it sounds like the door might be open and is it the idea . Not as far as i am concerned. But i think one of the assets the fed does aspect is everybody can get in there the dont even have to come to rue washington as part of hasbeens digitized to make it more extensible but in washington one of the duties is a very populist idea but to different thoughts were completed is that Business Models from government funding have to be more and more creative in the think were all dealing with that sample of blood dash Publicprivate Partnerships are springing up everywhere because of that but i have no intention to make those institutions less accessible. Maybe they would make it more difficult to say cornell is number six with the alumni who are billionaires the smithsonian doesnt have billionaire alumni. But under the lawrence small there was the debate where the line should be drawn in entering into Public Private relationships with that arrangement with the showtime that would have given them first rights of refusal over archival material. Lot of people complained about that to take up a public resource to privatize. Any sense flooded is like for the smithsonian for those arrangements in the future . Talking about fundraising the way it works and most organizations such is the structure where many people give amounts they are comfortable with few words give more and fewer give more and sometimes you get the enormous breathtaking skiffs with those that have the capacity to do that and i think that a gift period it is true for every nonprofit and i am hugely impressed, hugely impressed there 40 raised 1 billion to a campaign but i think the brand of the smithsonian is fabulous. It is sent to me. [laughter] but i think fundraising will be different but doable and people are supportive but despite the fundraising and despite the very generous money coming from the was government, there will be a push to find other Enterprise Funding and every nonprofit thinks about a broad range of Revenue Streams i cannot comment on the showtime contractor i did not look at it. But to define where that line is legally and ethically and in terms of what fits the institution is unbelievably important as that is part of my job. Rather be open and hope that people will comment where the line should be drawn. But i do think it is important to think about enterprise functions with Publicprivate Partnership that has to be done that everybody feels good. If either controversial issue is there wasnt exhibition at the National Portrait gallery the but the secretary in hot water of gay and lesbian themes and portraits one was deemed offensive by a small number of people but a fairly of protest and the secretary decided to pull it. I know you dont want to secondguess your predecessor but it in that context you were strong about the freespeech aspect over the civility question will those issues transfer . Can you run it with that same emphasis as cornell . Yes. It is important to do so and i think the smithsonian does do that. I will not secondguess what i am sure was a hard decision space not secondguess on any decision but as we talked about i think creative activity tends to foster controversy. Recently there was a bold statement on Climate Change based on data looks as if the warning that you cannot argue is in part to human activity and not too long ago was statement would have been widely controversial and still may be but whether science or art or humanities and it could foster controversies so we need to embrace that controversy to be a part of the cultural world in science world in a way that makes sense that is done carefully and thoughtfully but not to back away from controversy but i cannot comment. Which is very understandable in a recession. Even though some parts of the economy have bounced back a lot, lot we all know the economy has not totally bounced back and it is important we dont lose track of these disciplines. I hope to work with and learn from the other leaders who know many times more than i do about the washington scene and what flies and what works. The bully pulpit platform, if you will, the sec. Should be used to. Out the broader needs of the country in a way that is reasonable. It is something i have some familiarity with. As i have said again and again, you will hear me talking about things in washington i am not directly involved in a know nothing about, but the country should not turn its back on social sciences. I am i am proud to have been one of the authors of the heart of the matter that was released a couple years ago. That argues the broad range of disciplines need to be pursued the matter what we are talking were talking about, whether its economic competitiveness, placement for students at whatever level we must think broadly and not just about the stem disciplines. In several interviews since you announced you have set your greatest regret has been about the cost and affordability of tuition. You have been a remarkable fundraiser 732 million of which only 32 million has been earmarked. Affects the right balance. [laughter] in any case, in any case i we will tell you that the broad broad lets see how to put this exactly the last little phrase. 30 million is about but what you are really asking is the disconnect between the rhetoric in the amount. Can we solve the problems . Let me think about it from two different aspects. It is true that my biggest single regret from two university presidencies at the university of iowa and cornell as is that i was unable to change the balance more effectively between access and affordability. At cornell which is an unusual place about 100 of the 4,000 colleges have a substantial endowment. They are able to offer half the families of america, go to cornell and have no contribution cannot borrow any money from Student Loans there are peoples whose salaries or assets permit them to pay cash for very expensive educations the between those aspects of the social economic spectrum for people who make too much to be considered median i did not do a good enough job of organizing them. It takes serious change in the cost matrix of the university. During the beginning of the session took my salary down and did other things to reduce cost but that was not enough. The other end was to reduce revenue. The other half of what you are asking. If it costs roughly 50,000 tuition and fees to go to institution like cornell if a person wants to organize a scholarship that would last forever and in perpetuity allow a a student one at a time to have a free ride to cornell, a 1 million contribution that will yield a now earning of 50,000 per year million dollars, huge amount of money. If another contributor wishes to contribute to a capitol project construction project enough to get a 50 or hundred million or 200 million gift that greatly outweighs the balance. The bottom line is i am guilty as charged. We we should have found a better way and still need to find a way to bring more revenue when so we need to keep pushing. People who want to contribute and dont have a specific idea, my top priority but i did not do enough. Before we leave done so on stage with billy joel. Said did not have stage fright. The problem commences we are bragging about me, which i like, i also said both apparently have lost my cell phone number and when i saw him recently i said as people my age do, you dont write, you dont call, i dont hear from you anymore. I i was going to be a studio musician in illinois. I still do it as an application. Taking a video course which is instructive and played a little tiny bit. I we will make it hard for you. It is on youtube. [applause] [applause] more now from the atlantic and Aspen Institute annual washington ideas forum. This is 15 minutes. [applause] thank you. Thank you for joining us. We we will move briskly. Let me put it to you directly. You created great controversy with your claim that the rate of innovation is slowing down. How do you substantiate that . It is extremely hard to measure how much Technological Progress we have is a society. Computers, internet, mobile internet, that whole ensemble. Much less progress and everything else. A lot of things people called technology in the 50s and 60s, supersonic aviation no space travel, underwater cities, desalination plants the green revolution agriculture, medicine biotech where there has been some but not as much progress, a lot of these things are no longer even consider technology today. A narrow cone of progress and it is i think reflected in a general sense of stagnation in our society where median wages have not gone up that much in the last 40 years. Even though people in the Tech Industry the science and Tech Industry are always super bullish come always pumping their companies inventions, research them a venture capitalists are guilty of this. You have to always discount little of ask you. In your book 021 and your investing life you are worried you are very disdainful of incremental progress. You urge people seek big changes. In the area of transportation, for example uc technologies that are conceptually identical to those you would have seen a hundred years ago train plane, truck motorcar. They are the same. Except when you look at the cost, the cost of moving goods has dropped by over 90 percent in the past hundred years. The safety with which we move people the chances of being killed in a car accident are one 17th of what they were in the 1920s. And humble technologies may have contributed more to globalization than all the Amazing Things you do in silicon valley. At a certain. Changes and in cant changes in quantity become changes in quality. Can you explain why you think those are less important than the visionary things you talked about a minute ago . Certainly there are many of these that have a cumulative effect of being valuable. They we will Start Companies if you want to start a a Successful Company you want to do something we have a monopoly and where there is a significant difference a significant difference between what you are doing and what everybody else is doing. I think software has been characterized by these fairly large breakthroughs which is why people in software have made so much money. The micro economics of software are very monopoly brown and lucrative. The disturbing history of innovation is that most of the inventors and scientists technologists never made any money. The Wright Brothers did not make money. Even if we go back to the 1st Industrial Revolution which represented tremendous progress even in 1850 most was still held by the aristocracy. And so i think if you want to start a successful business that makes a big difference, that is the thing to do. Manufacturing better than anyone elses but would be superseded. Over the course of the decade it is dramatically better. All the difference in the world. You talk from the. Of view of the investor not the business or consumer. I i think it is all of the above. If we build more Breakthrough Technology it will be valuable to society. That is one modality. You. You can make a lot of progress through incremental innovation. When you talk about the slowdown what you are lamenting is the fading of what might be called big engineering, superhighways this project someone developed to turn San Francisco bay into freshwater. I was startled that that was your. Of view. What drove the heyday a big engineering was the heyday of power. The application of state power on a massive scale. What brought an end to the era is the set of ideas i would hope that you endorsed jane jacobs overcoming robert moses and saying your big engineering project only exists because you have overridden Property Rights and have not done Cost Accounting properly you talk from the point of if you had to pay every urban resident whose house you demolished in the name of the urban renewal and had to pay the farmers and fishermen whose like kids have been taken away you would see that it made no sense except from the. Of view of the central governing state entity. I i am somewhat partial to robert moses and think that ever since he won that battle in the 60s nothing new has been built in new york city. We can distinguish three modes of innovation. Things which require complex coordination and that is a form a form of progress we used to do that we do not anymore. Government. But it had more of a private sector feel. The 19th Century America, early 20th Century America was dominated by these engineer, schemer type people who had some complex plan to build a Transcontinental Railroad or canal through panama or all sorts of things like this, the ford motor company, vertically integrated, complex monopoly. There are Interesting Companies like that that are being done that are notable for their rarity. What did tesla do that is knew . The electric car company. It was not that they invented any single the thing but combined a a bunch of Different Things together in just the right way to create a dramatically better car. This is what steve jobs did. The original iphone i pad ipod it was not a. Breakthrough the complex coordination it it is a modality of progress that is underexplored. I am politically more libertarian and so i am skeptical of government being able to do these things but not in an absolute sense. The government was able to do them in the 30s 40s, and 50s in a way it is not able to today. Today a today. Today a letter from einstein to the white house would get lost in the mail room. [laughter] in a sense we could not do apollo. Whatever you think of the Affordable Care act, the internet website is demonstrably inferior and simpler and easier technology than building a rocket to send someone to the moon. There has been a strange decline. You are acutely conscious that the pattern of growth in the recent American Economy has left Many Americans behind. 45 percent of americans say their personal finances have not recovered to where they were before the financial crisis. This is something that preoccupies you. Can you suggest can you suggest and maybe i am putting you too much on the spot one policy change that might make a difference for the 70, 80, 90 percent of americans who are not experiencing the benefits of Economic Growth . Three separate debates on this front. Is it happening and is it increasing . The answer to that is broadly yes. A 2nd question is why is this happening. A very different question. All questions that start with the word why are hard to answer but the answer to that is very over determinative. There are number of factors that need to be sorted through carefully. And there is a question what do you do about it. If i had to answer why, we tend to put too much blame on technology that displaces workers and not enough on the challenges through globalization. The competition from places like china and asia has been a much bigger pressure on the middle class and replacement by computers. People in china and india are natural substitutes or computers are complementary. We tend to scapegoat technology and downplay some of the challenges. I think that is where a lot of the challenges come from. In terms of what to do about it from a policy perspective that is quite challenging. Am not asking you to solve the whole problem. Just suggest one thing. The thing that people experience is the stagnation of not getting ahead in places like new york or silicon valley. One of one of the main manifestations is the incredibly high cost of housing. If we could turn Affordable Housing back into something that was a real thing rather than just this weird racket that people use to give zoning permits if we turn Affordable Housing back and do a good thing it would be good. Wyatt shifts from something seen as a consumption good. Something seen as an investment. We should shift our perspective on housing see it as a consumption good something to be produced much more cheaply, much less restrictive on zoning laws. One thing for which you are very intense is your negative feelings on Higher Education. You are the holder of a distinguished University Legal degree. I want to get to the bottom to make sure i understand the nature of your critique. Is critique. Is your complaint that students are studying the wrong thing or that they are getting too little value for money . And if the former because you are also skeptical of the value of humanities degrees is there a risk we will be blinded by paying too much attention to elites . Single biggest area of degree 65000 of the 1. 7 million are in business for commerce. My focus is mainly on universities because i think that is what sets the tone and template for so much that happens in society. There is there is a problem where people are incredibly attracted to these places and then townspeople go to the same list of schools in the up in the same short list of careers. One of my friends wrote in my yearbook i know youll make it to stanford and four years. Four years later i was in stanford law school, ended up at a big law firm in new york. After i left after seven months and three days one of the people down the hall said i did i did not know it was possible to escape from alcatraz. All you had to do was go out the front door and not come back. People could not bring themselves to do that because they were so wrapped up in the competitions they had one. What has happened with Higher Education is it is not about learning. It is about a tournament. If you wanted to get fired the next day and get a model of students, alumni and faculty to run after you with pitchforks the one thing you should proposes to double enrollment. Why shouldnt harvard double enrollment . Their model is not to educate but to be a studio 54 with a large velvet rope and a long line of people and a tiny number who it in. I dont think that is the right way to think about our future. It should not be guilty your to jail or you go to jail. [applause] i only have a minute and a half but i i dont want you to go past that so quickly. For Many Americans it remains true that a University Degree is a pathway to the middle class. One thing they can do completing that fouryear degree that makes a huge difference. Are you telling them dont . I i dont want to talk i dont want to talk about those people because if they fall through the cracks they are in trouble. That is why i am focused on students at elite colleges because it is less risky for them to try other things. Why is it there is no safety net and you have to get these degrees to get ahead . And i think you have all these questions very tricky questions about how much is it correlated . Is the degree what gives you the advantage . If you are able to get into a fouryear college, completed that signals the people that you are disciplined enough to plow through. Does not necessarily mean that you learn something. The amount being spent on it is disproportionate. About 40 percent of the people who start fouryear colleges do not finish them still end up with debt. And and you are probably worse off than if you never started. Very different. I talked to people in their 50s and 60s, and they think im crazy because they went to college at a time when it gave you a tremendous a tremendous advantage, you did not leave with a lot of debt. When you talk when you talk to people in the 20s they still feel like they have to go to college. There are serious downsides with the debt you start with. You start your career with a hundred thousand dollars in debt. You cannot get out of college debt. Garnish her Social Security check to pay it off. In debt. Over time. Debt. Over time. Thank you all for joining us. [applause] coming up on cspan2 and assessment of Us Operations in afghanistan and a discussion a discussion with the lead prosecutor and investigators of the unabomber case you would see what we used to call a spitball set. Washington he was a large man 6foot very robust a terrific natural athlete. Madison was a skinny little guy. This sunday on q a on founding father James Madison in the partnerships he made that aided our fledgling nation. s ability to form remarkable partnerships with the great people of his era. It also alludes to his gift his talents and what he was able to do to help create the 1st selfsustaining constitutional republic. Sunday night at 8 00 oclock eastern and pacific on cspan q a. [inaudible conversations] general John Campbell testified before the House Armed Services committee to provide an update on the military strategy in afghanistan. Topics topics included the troop drawdown strategy Counterterrorism Operations against the taliban and and isis and Training Afghan Security Forces. This is two hours and ten minutes. Committee will come to order. Today the House Armed Services Committee Meets to discuss the ongoing conflict in afghanistanful we have been engaged military information afghanistan for 14 years. The predictions this would be a long conflict have proven accurate. While there have been setbacks in recent years, theres also cause for cautious optimism. United states and its allies especially the Afghan Forces, have made some meaningful gains. A counterinsurgency is one of the toughest types of war a academicracy can fight. Its been difficult but not impossible and both our future security and the future of the Afghanistan Afghan people depends on our success. People in afghanistan have niksch my opinion the best opportunity for a stable relatively peaceful country. Together with the cooperation of our allies and the kabul government we bail 352,000 strong Afghan National Security Force. Building a capable Security Force takes time. The nsf is growing in ability and capabilities. Now is a critical moment. We must not repeat the mistakes of iraq,y an early was based on political rather than strategic calculations contributedded to the rise of isil, where an enemy once devastate reconstituted itself to pose an even bigger motion deadly threat. Although the operational outlook is very different, than iraq afghanistan could also become unstable should in the United States end the mission before the Afghan Forces are cavable of providing their own security. We should not have in my view timebased withdrawal from afghanistan and i hope the president reconsiders his the approach he has previously announced and listens to the request of president ghani. I hope to hear about what objectives must be met to secure gains, the key challenges facing the ansf, and is our presence and allied presence in afghanistan adequate to meet the challenges. Finally, as Congress Considers the president s counterisilaumf request, some questions are, what implications that would have on ongoing and future operations against isil al qaeda and other terrorist groups in afghanistan. We are fortune to have general campbell with us to answer these and many other questions today. But before turning to them i yield to the distinguished Ranking Member, mr. Smith. Thank you mr. Chairman. I appreciate you holding this hearing. I want to thank general campbell for being here and his service. He is the absolute right man for the job in afghanistan. He has had a number of different roles during our conflict in afghanistan, and i think there has been progress. Just since general campbell took over. And ill give you all the credit for this. Finally arrived at powersharing arrangement within within in the Afghan Government, and laid the foundation to build off that solid government and build a partnership, unlike in iraq where we had very very strong difficulty getting any sort of bilateral Security Agreement that would allow us to stay. We achieved that. The president ghani wants to us be there and hopefully we can make that relationship work to maintain security. Ultimately that is the big challenge. Afghanistan has again to be responsible for itself. Theyve got to be able to provide for their own security and they have made Great Strides in doing that. Theyd theyve taken over the primary security role throughout the country and have done okay. Not going to sugar coat that. Its still a very tough fight but have managed to keep the country relatively stable and we need to build on that. Ultimately in afghanistan and iraq western military forces cannot impose security on another country. Theres a fine line between helping them and appearing like a foreign occupying force. In this case as we draw down think we have done it about right, giving them that responsibility, but going forward, though will continue to be many many challenges. The government still has corruption problems. The taliban are still very active. The border issues of pakistan have not been resolved, and we definitely have a security . That region. As ive said many times before in this committee i wish we didnt. Its very very difficult place to teal with, but we do. The tall taliban al qaeda, part of the larger group that threatens souse we need a strong presence there that can help contain that but hopefully one that builds towards selfsufficiency and the Afghan People being able to stand on their own. I look forward to hearing from the general today how were progressing on our goals and where we request from here. I yield back. Just on an administrative note, all members offices were notified yesterday that for the purposes of this hearing, we are going to go in reverse order, for those who were here at the gavel. Part of my thinking is we have had a number of members, newer members who have sat through a long time on other hearings before you got to answer questions, and in addition, those of us who have been here a while have had the opportunity to ask a number of questions about afghanistan, some and so this is a Good Opportunity for newer members. So after we hear from general Campbell Well start go in reverse order, for everyone who was here at the time of the gavel, and then as we always do, recognize members in their order of appearance of coming into the committee room. General campbell, thank you for making time to be with us. Your full written statement will be me a part of the record, and the floor is yours. Chairman, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Im honored to lead and represent the service men and women of the United States forces in afghanistan and i would like to thank the committee for your steadfast support of our soldiers, airmen sailors, marines and civilians and theyre the best trained best equipped force our nation has ever deployed and their outstanding performance areas testimony to your backing and the backing of the American People. I want to pay tribute to our military families exunsung heroes. Our frequent absences from home are harder on them than on us and without their love and support and strength we could not succeed. So i thank the military families. Identity at liming to recognize the over 2200 service men and women oh have been killed in action in afghanistan and the over thousands plus who have been wounded. Each day we strive to bring meaning to their sacrifices and honor their memories by continuing to build a security and stable afghanistan. And by perfecting our own homeland. Over 13 years have passed since the 9 11 attacks and we havent forgotten why we first came to afghanistan and why we remain there. Since 2001 the efforts and courage of our forces have ensured another terrorist attack originating from afghanistan and direct against the u. S. Homeland has not occurred. Over six months have passed since i assumed command and much has changed since. The afghanistan, the region the enemy, our coalition have undergone many tremendous transitions, and most of these have been very positive. Id like to emphasize a few of these today in order to place our Current Campaign in context, and really reaffirm the conditions that exist for us to achieve,en enduring peace and potential win for afghanistan. In september afghanistan completed the first peaceful democratic transition in its history. After a prolonged campaign and this transition was a monumental achieve and represents the afghanistan commitment to a democratic and open society the difference between a National Unity government and its predecessors is night and day. Approximated ghan and i chief executive abdullah have embraced the International Community our congresses, and the National Security forces. Our partnership is strong. We now have a ratifiedded bilateral Security Agreement and a lot of people worked very hard for that, and the nato status of forces agreement which grants us Necessary Authority to continue our mission. Dynamics in the region continue to evolve. President ghani has made regional engagement a top priority to scare economic interest. Nowhere is this more evident than in pakistan and afghan relations. The Pakistani Taliban attacks in 16 december may prove to be their 9 11 and a gamechanger for the region. Most senior pakistani officials recognize they can no longer separate good terrorists from back terrorists, and in the last few months ive witnessed first hand substantive improvement in interaction between afghan and pakistani militaries. Theyre not talking. General rue ruhel remarked the enemies of afghanistan are the enemies of pakistan, and this is a constructive admission, and were doing everything we took promote closer cooperation. And i remain optimistic that both countries are working towards a more productive relationship. The enemy remains in state of flux too. The taliban failed to achieve any stated goals in 2014. They failed to disrupt the elections. They failed to undermine the political transcivics, and they failed to prevet the Afghan Government from signing a longterm security a agreement with nato and the ute. On the battlefield they achieved no endure can gains. Omar has not been seen in years. The taliban Senior Leadership is in disarray. Constantly pressured by the ansaf, suffering from dissension in their ranks and lacking Popular Support they turned to high profile terrorist attacks, particularly against soft targeted inside of kabul in a desperate attempt to remain relevant theyre failing to win over the afghan population. Theyre primarily killing their fellow afghans and muslims and murdering innocent civilians, and its time for them to lay down their arms and heed the call to rebuild the afghan nation. The possible rise of isil is a new development. We believe the diepresence in afghanistan represents more of a reband are of marginalized taliban who are take the threat very seriously and working very closely to evaluate understand the dynamic nature of this fledgling network. The potential emer underof dish represents well continue to engage leaders from both countries on ways to meet the challenge. Were all driven to prevent them from establishing a meaningful foothold in central asia. The United States fors afghanistan and our coalition have undergone tremendous changes as well here in the last six months. On january 1, United States forces afghanistan formally ended its combat mission, Operation Enduring flee doom, and sentenced a new mission, operation freedom sentinel. And end all detainee operations. Simultaneously. Troops from 41 nations z. Which crime price the new nato mission, Resolute Support, began their train, advise some assist mission in for longterm sustainable of ansaf. On january 1st ansaf assumed full security responsibilities. Theyre ready and its time. And their second fighting season they were challenged and tested. But they held their own against a very determinedded in. On the battlefield the ansaf fought tenaciously and demonstrated increasing capabilities. Today the government of islamic arraign of afghan is firmly in control of off 34 provincial capitols and all major cities. The Afghan Special forces in particular have proven to be the most proficient in the entire region. Theyve constantly excused direct Action Missions using their own intelligence and own special mission week to carry out longrange insurgent. For both the afghan continues to be a dangerous place weapon lost a Coalition Soldier from turkey last thursday in a Suicide Attack inside of kabul. Ansaf casualty rates increased in 2014. Roughly five to seven percent higher than in 2013. However i think this must be fluid light of the fact that their operational tempo was four times greater than it was in 2013, and that over 100,000 Coalition Forces were not on the battlefield. Even considering the higher casualty rates the attrition rates which account for all losses to the force have not impacted combat readiness. Army and Police Recruiting has not been a problem. Afghan youth continue to join the ranks and service in the securityforwidely respected and viewed as an honorable, patriotic profession. The army remains the most trusted institution in the country. On balance afterring ansaf respond to a variety of challenge is dont believe the insurgents represent anes is stann shall threat to the government. Our ansaf need help in developing the system and processes necessary to run a modern professional army and police force. They also knee sustained support in addressing capability gaps by aviation intelligence sustainment, and special operations to address these gaps our Advisory Mission and mentorship will be vital. Our advisers are at the security ministries, at the army corps level, and police zones and those remain our main efforts. Although clear challenges exist i do believe the ansaf abilities and capacities capacities capacities capacities and morale will be sufficient and will provide for longterm security by the end of the Resolute Support mission. President ghani remarked, quote, compelled by tragedy and cement by mutual sacrifice the partnership between afghanistan, nato and the United States entered a new North Carolina end quote. I believe were at a very critical night our campaign. Many challenges remain before us as a new Afghan Government forms, its still finding its footing and they must do so while contend can with a Security Threat corruption, and economic challenges, yet all of these changes, transitions, offer us really a tremendous opening and an opportunity. The Ghani Administration offers us a strategic opportunity to develop a Strategic Partnership that will stabilize afghanistan and then in turn provide and offer greater security for the region and ultimately the United States homeland. There is a new spirit of cooperation in kabul. Something we didnt have before. And i firmly believe our concurrent counterterrorism and train, advise and assist will deepen our part nor ship and shape doors favorable outcome. We could offer no greater tribute to he American People the fallen and loved ones by maintaining a longterm stability of afghan and enduring protection of our homeland. Id like to direct the members attention to the charts and a couple of of photographs to your right front. We have also provided paper copies for you to look at, and im offer asked, what have we accomplished . What with hey achieved . What is success . I frequently share shes statistics and images to underscore the tremendous progress that has taken place in 13 years. Every measurable piece you look at. Road warned, people using the internet, number of anymore School Females in school the work force pretty incredible. Unprecedented. The Life Expectancy increase of 21 years in the last 13 years. Thats unprecedented. A remarkable investment for a remarkable return on our investment. And few countries advance to rapidly, and that success and the coalition and our ansaf created conditions for that success. 741 million years, life years of Afghan People based on new Life Expectancy. I want to underscore that we are underwriting the progress not for the afghans but nor American People. The afghan stood and security contributes to our own. The next or two pictures of 2001 and where we are in 2014. The first one shows inside of kabul. Then and on the bottom now and then kabul that day at night, and then fifth Fastest Growing city in the country. Remarkable difference. Would have undercocut the terrorists appeal. And the work of u. S. Coalition and civilanses over the last 13 years created conditionsy afghans can take responsibility for their own security and governance. The afghans welcome the opportunity to shape their destiny. But they will still desire and need our assistance. Were supporting emergence of a security, prosperous afghanistan that desires to be and can be our reliable Strategic Partner and one that will never allow terrorists to use its territory to plan and launch attacks against us. President ghani asked for additional flexible in nato and u. S. Mission to account nor fact that his government remains in transition. He acknowledges that while the ansaf are better equipped than ever. Work remains to build their bury bureaucratic system. A tremendous psychological boost to the Afghan People. Well continuously assess the progress of Resolute Support and United States forces afghanistan is currently involved in a comprehensive review of our campaign and this review is look at all of our lines of effort, not just the military and i have provide various options and recommendations for justing our force posture through the chain of command. One issue is to determine how long we should stay and can stay engaged at the recommending until level before. I express my profound gratitude to the committee memberes for your unfailing support of our mission and our troops in afghan. Im humbled and privileged to lead the men and women of their caliber and courage, and every day theyre making all of us proud. My written statement committed earlier be taken in the record. Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate they dat you brought. Some of this is surprising to me, and ive some of the information about the attitudes of the Afghan People are helpful to us. Are particularly helpful to us. I think mr. Smith and i will withhold our questions at the moment. I would request if we could put the posters down just to unless members have questions about it, just to not block folks view, and i would yield five minutes to the distinguished gentleman from new jersey mr. Mcarthur. Thank you mr. Chairman, and general, also really appreciated your comments and i want to echo what you said about our men and women in uniform and their families and the sacrifices theyve made. Its important at every opportunity to remember them. I had a question about a comment that secretary carried made yesterday. Secretary cart err told the senate Armed Services committee that withdrawal from afghanistan would be conditionedbased. It steamed me that hinted that maybe there was no Firm Deadline for withdrawal, and my understanding has been that there has been an articulated plan by the from have troop drawdowns by the end of 2016. So my question for you is do you think that extending withdrawal past 2016 would help you better accomplish your goals on the ground . Thank you for the question and i did see the secretarys comments. I really provided options that stay within the framework of what the president put out there, and it does show the current plan is 9800 u. S. Going down to 500 with the end of december of 15 and then down to 1,000 by the end of 16. The options i presented do not go past 16. Theyre all providing flexibility within 15 16, sir. Not to put you in a difficult position relative to stated goals by the president , but its helpful for us to get your perspective as the commander on the ground. You showed tremendous progress here, which we, i think all celebrate and want to see that continue and be in a position to be sustained after our mission there is complete. Do you what would be your level of confidence that you can achieve that by the end of 2016 . Sir honestly i owe you my most military advice is a do to my chain of command. I dont know what we can accomplish in the summer fighting season 15 at the trainadvise level. We just started a new Resolute Support mission on 1 january. I want to get through a full fighting season april through late september time frame, focus on train advise and assist and with our ct mission and if we look at a downsize of the 5500 that could take tower eye off of focus on train and assist when we need it. We take a look at all the different conditions out there. We continuously make assessments, taken into account the enemy situation, the Friendly Forces how theyre doing, the people, the different regions, and all of those will go in as i continue to make assessments and provide that. But i really do need to understand and see what we can do with these new entities, train advise and assist commands we have in our spokes. In the east and kandahar in the south. This is a new dynamic, we havent been at that level before. My initial assessment right now is they continue to work very well and the afghans really do over the last 13plus years, have continued to develop. This is my third time in afghan mitchell last time was as the command 1 other 1st visited a couple times between 11 and when i took over this summer. The difference from back in 10 and 11 to today is night day. The Afghan Security forces continue to progress. They have an precision ongoing now. I wont go into great deal because it is ongoing insure northern helmund but this was an operation that was entirely plan and led from the afghanistan perspective. I took back briefs on it when i was the helmund. This is a threecore operation. There is supporting from the 205th and 207. Ive never seen an afghan operation that complex back briefed to me and the Senior Leadership inside of afghan on the explosion army sign and the integration between the pillars, police army intelligence, was pretty remarkable. I think they continue to get better and better. I i can analyze that bert after the fighting season but i believe that the flexibility we asked for and have put forward will provide us a better opportunity to take advantage of things that have change over the last six months, president ghani and his embracing of the International Community, the relationship between afghanistan and change in leadership of force skis think leadership and Holding People conditionable makes a difference. Thank you, general. I yield back. Thank you. Mr. Aguilar. Thank you mr. Chairman. I appreciate the change in for mad. Ill add you to the Christmas Card list. Thank you for that. Thank you, general, for being here. With respect to the aumf if congress were to pass the proposed ammf can you provide examples what you can and cannot do within that . Thank you for the question. I have not read the entire aumf. I can tell you from looking at it briefly, what that would provide the authority is have today and the resources i have today i can continue to work hard at the Ct Commission the train, advise and assist mission i have. With the aumf the way i understand it with no geographical boundaries issue think i too will be able to prosecutor what need to for today. After 2015, where my authority made change, and id have to go back and look at that but for today i have no issues as i think general austin said from centcom yet with that. If detention policies at all changed post 1 january . Absolutely. I do not have the authority to detain the insurgents. All detainees we would have had have been turned over to afghanistan or other countries. I have no detention facilities inside of afghanistan. Thank you. One of the things we talked about extensively is risk. Can you talk to us you mentioned in your testimony that it wouldnt be affected too severely. But can you add more color to that discussion of risk associated with the proposed drawdown . Risk take in a lot of different factors. The tricks the coalition of u. S. Forces, the risk to the Afghan Security forces. I think, again, any commander on the grounds would like to have more resources and more people. We continue to work hard through that as i make the assessment today and take a look at many of the things as we have drown down. I dont say withdrawal but were in a continuous transition and for the next two years plus it will be a continued transition. As you transition you lose people which provides security, most of my force protection is security is by, with and through the afghans. We have gone from 300 plus cops, combat outforces and Forward Operating bays to less than 25 today sort that increases the risk in some areas to force protection, to security as you transition forces you lose resources so the number of aircraft, the number of isr platforms goes into the calculus is a look at the risk assessment, both the risk to mission and risk to force and as i looked at flexibility, president ghani asked for flexibility itch did take into account all those to try to mitigate risk of force as we move forward. Can you give us some examples of things that president ghani may discuss when he addresses congress this month . First officer with the president ghani and dr. Abdullah, the ceo it is really a new dynamic. I have had to deal with president karzai when i first got there in times before, and i think the American People all the people need to understand that every time president ghani or dr. Abdullah address the crowd they thank the International Community and thank the nuss particular, thank then the families for the sacrifice of their sons and daughters. You never would have heard that before. Its a completely different atmosphere. I think the president will talk to all of you about that. I think he is quite proud of that. Quite proud that he has taken on his leadership rope as a leadership role as manier in chief, visiting training sites and military hospitals. I attend their National Security conferences. I am able to talk to him about different Security Issues at any time. I think he would tell you he spend probably 40 on security and 40 on economics butlk but i think we really talk about where afghanistan has come where the Security Forces are where it would not be without the help of the Great Coalition and the us in particular, particular, not only the men and women who have made sacrifices but the Economic Impact of the us provided along with many other nations. He may talk about how he sees the future and we will get after corruption brought in the perspective and deal in terms of original aspect, how he has engaged with pakistan, india, saudi arabia, the entire region and how he needs to do that from an economic and security perspective. Engaging and his message will be one of thanks and also he has a great vision nor future of afghanistan. Thank you for your continued service, general. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Knight. Thank you mr. Chairman. General, id like to talk about a couple other things. Lea talk about readiness of forces. This has been a generation that could have gone into their military career in 1990 and now be retired and have been or have seen bat for the last 24 heres. So here in congress we worry about things like sequestration worry about readiness of force and worry about onetoone ratios of young men and women being over there, and for a year and being back here for a year six months and a year or something of that nature. Can you give us an idea of the readiness of force today as compared to maybe four or five years ago or even ten years ago . I can talk better and give you perspective on on the readiness of force is get from the services as they are service providers, a little bit different perspective when i was the vice chief over the army. But all the forces i get in afghanistan, particularly from the u. S. Are trained at the highest level and are focused on their mission in afghanistan. Snow issue with that. All the services prioritize their deploying forces first and make shower they get the necessary training because theyll be putting their lives on the line. On sequestration it was six months ago when i was vice and i continue to talk to Senior Leadership from all the services with sequestration that would devastate at the services and ability to provide the same force is give today. My son is a sergeant in the army has been to afghanistan divide. He was an 82nd airborne, currently in the 101st, and i worry about both as a father and then as a commander the ability to make sure that we continue provide the very best training and all the resources and things that go with us for or soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and services that deploy and sequestration would dampen that and would elevate the risk, absolutely. Thank you. I think that you have a lot of committed people here that believe that, too. Secondly, when we talk about detainees, you say you turn them over to the Security Forces or to afghan, what happens from there . Is there some sort of a prosecution . Is there some sort of judicial action there or are they just detained or are they released . Its probably all of the above, quite frankly. With the detainees we had there was a long process we went through to get assureses from either countries they were sent to for afghanistan as well to make sure the right assurance is put in place they would be tried if they had to go through the process that they would be treated humanely. And so that was carefully taken a look at at all of the different detainees released from u. S. Control, coalition control. No long deer we have detention facilities inside of the afghanistan system. That continues to grow. Outside of bagram is the very best detention facility in all of afghanistan. Continues to be i think the Gold Standard they have there. Theyre in the process right now based on direction from president ghani to move the National Threat detainees to par1 and get them out of places that are overcrowded like down in kandahar, inside of kabul to make sure theys less tenant and have the right security so theyre not freed without going through the proper trials and so i think they continue to work that very hard. Par1 is a Gold Standard that has the right prosecution efforts, has the right folks the judges contained in one unit, and we have a very small train and advice assist sell that will help build that capability for them. Thank you, general if yield back. Mr. Milton. Thank you mr. Chairman. General, thank you very much for joining us this morning. I was impressed by what i saw two week others ago with the progress you have made. I share the chairmans view of the situation in iraq. Where i think that all the progress we made or much of the progress we made during the surge has now been squandered we withdrawing too quickly and not providing the ongoing political and diplomatic support that we knew was necessary that ambassador crocker and general petraeus called for the end of the surge. Im interested to hear what you were doing differently in afghanistan this time around. Ill add i have the highest speak for president ghani but im not interested in hearing what is different about our partner. The after you invest trillions of dollars 0 our national treasure, after you invest thousands of lives, we shouldnt leave the Eventual Success of our mission up to the whims of our partner. So im interested in what you and the u. S. Effort there is doing differently from iraq. Thanks for the question. Thank you for visiting our troops here. I apologize for not being. There was back here doing the testimony. I spent 18, 19 months in iraq as a one star back in 20062007 during the surge, inside of baghdad. And i think the fundamental difference for me is the Afghan Security forces and their leadership and their determination to make sure they see the news. They see the media and understand what is going on with iraq and have permanently told me many Senior Leadership they will not let happen to afghanistan what happened to iraq. During the political unstable last fall many people thought thatted would divide among theth neck the ethnic tracks. They did not do that. They solidified around that and took that as a point of pride to make sure they didnt fracture and they were above that and they were a National Force and they take great pride the doing that. I have seen all afghanled training. I looked at training, medical training marksmanship training clearing building. This unannounces general thats fax news but whats that what the afghans are doing things differently than the iraqis. What are we doing to ensure that . President ghani is a great partner today. He could god willing this wont happen but he could be gone tomorrow. What backstops are we president bush putting in place to make sure we can recovery and wont end up with a situation like we had with Prime Minister maliki in iraq. I think for me the continued trained advice and assist at the Ministry Level and the mod and the moi and all levels that control the army, that control the Police Working on their transparency accountability and oversight and planning programming and budgeting, working on sustainment and planning capability, strategic indications. Working on theyre intelligence. All essential functions we think they need to continue to have as we come out of there, and our continued work in those areas at the Ministry Levels will continue to help. The other pieces they are looking hard at ensuring they are a professional army and a professional police anyway have leadership courses that continue to go on. They take bright leaders in all different ranks and bring them into special courts on leadership different from iraq. Are you seeing the state department devote the level of resources needed to continue this mentorship and support on their diplomatic side of the house . We have a great relation show with ambassador mckinley and the folks were connected to the embassy there they dont do the modomoi but theyre engaged in other ministries the ngos and i think theyre very dedicate ited and work very hard remember all the coalition, all the state department of all the defendant embassies there are because theyre passionate about where afghanistan can go in the future excited about the future of afghanistan and the fact that what happened in iraq has been in the news gives them more depression to say this aint going to happen here. My last question. Just to ensure we are maintaining our commit tom the longterm stability of afghanistan, what is the online financial commitment of the United States to make that happen . Were looking very hard how we continue to be more efficient and reduce that but its about 4. 1 billion for 15 and looking at fy16, i have that down to 3. 8 bill because of in efficiencies we have garnered in their forces and how we operate and will continue to look at that very hard. They are very dependent on the u. S. And other donor nations to have this army and police they have absolutely. Thank you general. Thank you mr. Chairman thank you general campbell, for your service and leadership. I, too had the privilege to participate in the codel chained by joe wilson and i joined congressman multion and congressman ashford on the trip. Was greet visit troops deployed from my district. So my question is in late february, the dod announced the three units to deploy as the upcoming rotation of forces in afghanistan, and one unit it the second brigade from the tenth Mountain Division which i represent, which is located at fort drum. The tenth mountain has supported operations in afghanistan since 2001. The most deployed minute the u. S. Army since 9 11, to both iraq and afghanistan. So based upon my visit and our privilege of meeting with president ghani and the upcoming deployment of soldiers in my district that i represent, id like to know knock your you assessment of the recollection of the security situation and how that will impact future operations against the taliban. Maam, again, thank you for visiting and thank you for the question dime have colonel pat frank with me over here that commanded the third big gate tenth mountain in afghanistan in 20101011. We are very appreciative of the support. What i would tell you is theyll come in and work the train, advise and assist. Ers to protection is our number one priority. The i look at that every day. We continuously monitor the threat streams, both inside of kabul and at all of our combat outposts and attacks. Every day we look how to mitigate the threat but it will continue to be a very dangerous environment. There will be insurgents that want to kill our soldiers. We shouldnt make shouldnt put that aside. Thats out there every day. So every day what we cant do is become complacent we tell our soldiers that in a minemonth, a 12month rotation theyll have an opportunity to make a difference. It may only be 15 seconds where they make the difference in their entire tour when it comes in terms of force protection. The issue is they dont get to pick the 15 seconds so they have to be ready all the time. They do a great job of preparing our soldiers to understand the risk that will become when they do deploy and many of our soldiers have been in numerous times and understand that. It is changing and we continue to take a hard look at that. The green on blue incident inside the news where you have Afghan Soldiers who are Police Attack coalition or attack u. S. Members, that continues to get much less as we mitigated that through our own training with different programs to provide overwatch, the afghans did a much better job on vetting soldiers and police and how they do their training. That has gone way down and we feel we cant get come miss complacent. Force protection is in our mind and we work hard in predeployment and when theyre in country theyre continually reminded and go through processes to make sure they dont become complacent. I want to ask one followup in our discussions with president ghani we talked about the threat of isis and the potential for isis to grow in afghanistan and their most recent recruiting efforts. Does that concern you . Can you talk about what those challenges are going to be . Not just in the short term but the long term . Again, thank you for the question. It is a potential threat. Its how president ghani used that concern to him so its a concern to me. We take a hard look at that. We engage with our Afghanistan Security partners in make sure we see what they see. We come together to discuss that potential threat. I would tell you right now we have seen some recruiting in different parts of the country. We have seen some night letter drops. We have not seen it operationaleyed or not seen money come in or seen the forces gather and prosecute targets but its a potential threat for afghanistan and pakistan. So is a said in my opening comments, it is an area where afghanistan and pakistan can continue to Work Together to go after a potential threat that has already displayed how horrendous they will be and the Afghan Security institutions and the army and police told me they will not let happen the dynamics in afghanistan are different than iraq. With the sunni prosecution, how thats been iraq the political piece, this is not just didnt just happen. This has been building for years and years in syria and iraq, and in afghan its a different dynamic with the culture that you have there as well. And but well see and it will continue to monitor it to make sure that we have a strategy that can attack it on a short, term and midterm and longterm. Thank you. Mr. Ashford. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you, general campbell. I can tell you that when we went to see general ghani he would so terribly appreciative of your efforts and all the efforts of our military and our support personnel. Incredible. Also happy to hear from president ghani of his relationship with the university of nebraska at omaha and the afghan study program, so i was glad to hear that and i want to thang congressman wilson, the chairman of our subcommittee forks his leadership and also my two colleagues. It was an immensely important opportunity for me and our district to see what was going on. Just we had we went to obviously to jordan and iraq and afghanistan so we got the entire picture in a way. And Congress Woman stefanik asked a critical question. We have many fewer members of the Armed Services in iraq than we do in afghanistan and for historic reasons and for reasons you have discussed. Could i just ask you to comment just a little more on this situation . If the isis situation becomes more already is very dangerous but more troops from the american side are necessary or whatever the eventuality might be, can youmeter on the real estate palestine president ghani did relationship. President ghani talked about his pakistani his openings to pakistan, he discussions with pakistan, which seemed very positive. But this threat in syria and iraq which is growing, but were containing to a certain degree, that its the same middle east area. How do you cue comment more on that interrelationship. What if it becomes more difficult for the iraqi forces to be successful in their country . Thank you. Sir, cant comment on the iraqi forces. I can comment on the Afghan Forces. The Senior Leadership of the police and army told me on several occasions they will not let what happened in iraq happen in afghanistan. Theyre very determined about that. Gone out of their way to tell that to me. That question has been raised many different instances and as they talk to leadership and talked to the president. The president brings it because he wants people to understand that the environment in afghanistan continues to evolv. Its a dynamic involvement and he doesnt want his forces to become complacent and wants them to understand what happened in syria and iraq and the network in jump staged and growing to this network, it evolves very quickly, and he schussants to make sure his forces and his Intelligence Services are taking a look at everything and making sure it doesnt get a foot hold inside of afghanistan and continues to spread, and he can be helped with this association with Pakistan Pakistan because they have the same issues and that understanding they have a common enemy they can Work Together will help them. So looking at this hard he gets several security updates a day and the isil piece is on his mind, but in the National Security Council Meetings i sit in, he has all the senior cabinet folks that is a point of discussion, most of them. But i think they view it as a potential threat and ensuring they have a strategy moving forward and that will evolve over time. Thank you, general. I yield back my time at this point. I had a question about pakistan but im sure it will be asked and answered. Thank you. Mr. Zinky. Thank you mr. Chairman. And general. Its always good to see you again. I sleep better at night knowing youre there. The former Deputy Commander and act commander of special forces in iraq i think we left iraq too soon. I think when we left iran iraq on a timeline rather than conditions on the ground it affected the sunnis. We disenfranchised them i believe. We isolated the kurds. We to a great inpoured a centralized government to vacuum was filled by Isis Mitchell concern is we dont repeat the same model in afghanistan. Looking forward, what would you consider to be your three priority conditions, and what is that end strength to support that, and lastly, in my experience having the Detention Center at least a temporary Detention Center, gave us the ability to rapidly turn around sensitive site exploitation and do followon missions in a timely manner that made a difference on the ground and not having the ability to have a Detention Center at least a temporary Detention Center to me would adversely affect your ability when you find a target to rapidly turn around and do followup missions. If youd comment on that whether it does adversely affect your ability to turnaround. Thank you, hsu for your service and thank you for the questions as well. I can officer the last one first and come back to the isil piece on intelligence. Intelligence drives operations and thats what we train still in our afghan partners. All operations should be intelligence based and we work that very hard. We do have a very Good Relationship with the mo and i in the mod and the nds this spill service, and as they have the detainees we work in relationship to make sure we can partner with them and the intelligence information they get from their detainees, we try to make sure we can get that information as well because it impacts our force protection and we can help guide them. They are building a fusion cell which combines mod, mo and i nbs togethers, lesson wed learned over years and years. Theyre stove pipped where they are now so you have mi on and missouri od and nds working off pieces and were trying to force sharing. Theyre testing this with a pilot in northern helmund and were seeing good success off this as they share intelligence and understand that it makes them a better capable force as they get this intelligence, turn it squibbingly to drive to other targets. So i think our relationship over the last 13 years of work with them at the Ministry Levels no and at the core levels we have relationship to enable to make sure we can help them with that intelligence. So i feel comfortable where were at. Still a lot of work to do with that. They dont hey the same isr or plat foreigns to provide us. We share where we can but we got make sure we continue to build their capabilities. So were working on how we build the intel capability. Intelligence is one of the eight essential functions that we continue to build at all the Ministry Levels. My Senior Deputy chief of staff for intelligence the j2, Major General scottie barrier was a centcom j2 before this assignment and is the senior intel adviser that i have in country and shrank both the mo and i mod to build the intel capability. So i feel much better than where we were and thats going to help all of news the end. On the isis piece on conditions, i take a look every day and assess different conditions. Time is one condition. Number of people on the ground both from a coalition perspective and from a Afghan Security Institution Perspective is another condition. I think i take a look at all those. I really do want to take a look at what happens after the first full fighting season where the afghans are totally on their own. They led for the last two years but this is the first time they really are on their own and we really are just in train advise and assist and dont have resewerses to provide for them and they are working very hard on their own capacity for Close Air Support and intelligence. I cant give you a number i would feel comfort able with. I need to let this play out. I believe the best thing we can do to hedge against afghanistan not becoming an iraq our number one priority would be to continue the train advise and assist to build their own capacity and capability in clothe air support, special operating forts which increase their ct capability and president ghani said many times he is a Strategic Partner and wants to build the afghan ct capables so down the road they have and well continue to work with them on that. Ill follow up on the deextension centers Detention Centers. Do we have the ability to be present during initial interrogations and interviews or is this separate . The gentlemans time has expired. Is there a one sentence answer gentlemen . Id rather cover that in a closed session and give your more detail on that. All right, sir, thank you. Miss graham. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you, general. Its very so good to hear some good news. So thank you for your report. One thing that you stated is that the terrorist appeal has been undercut in afghanistan. That is something we need to figure out how do we bring that reality into other places in the region. My question focuses on local Law Enforcement. Im aware that recently that Prime Minister ghani has changed the loaded of the local police force and what is the interact action between military and Law Enforcement . My husband those be Law Enforcement, and i know how important it is to have that close relationship. Its often those close toast us that can have the greatest impact on our behaviors. Is the military involved in work with local Law Enforcement and do you see that as a positive development with the changes in Law Enforcement recently in kabul . Thank you. Thank you for the question. In afghanistan it really is we talk about pillars and the security pillars of the police and army two different pillars. I tell people when the pillars they Work Together, the army and police, then they are much stronger and they cant be beat. And i attend a saturday three four hour session every saturday which we call the Senior Security shira and had the senior members of mod and moi and nds this intel arm and the than secured advicer and the police and the army interaction is daily every day. The police operate at differently. They have the Law Enforcement aspect and continue to work through that but in many places they are the only Security Institution in the far reaches of afghanistan and so they are a threat to the insurgents. The Afghan Local Police which provide security in the vinals are the most attacked. They have the least amount of trainingdont have the same weapons as the regular police or army and they do get attacked, but they do stand up and protect and are feared by the taliban and insurgents because theyre directly linked to the people in the communities. The linkage between the police and army is a strong one. They continue to work it inch the provinces they have what would i call occpoocr, institutions they governors have that have police, army and intel folks altogether inside one Operational Command and control element at both the regional at the provincial level, and they provide interaction between the police and army. They sit right next to each other in desks and work that and interact with higher hawks, which has police and army. My my headquarters in kabul i have army afghan army representatives, Afghan Police that sit right next to each other inside of my combined joint operationser in as well. So that interaction is very good. And if i can hit the intel piece or the terrorist appeal less than ten percent of the people in afghanistan embrace the taliban and that us because of the action owes the taliban and they understand the civilian casualty piece, although reports that 70 are caused by insurgents our records show above 90 are caused bid the terrorists and people are tired of this and they want a better life. They want the exact same thing we want. They want to be able to send their kids to school, have roof over their head, job to provide for them, and so they understand they need this National Unity government, 85 of the people want the government to do well and theyre tired of what the taliban and what they represent. And so thats a big change from where we were just a couple years ago. Well, thank you very much for that positive report. I want to correct myself. President ghani. Get his title correct. And lets hope that what you have accomplished in afghanistan will continue and can be spread throughout the region. Thank you for your time, general in your service. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you, general, for being here mitchell question is, think its been fairly disconcerting how much information when it comes to Operational Security the president of the United States has given out and how we read it every day in the media. We learn about the withdrawal the troop size we learn as the taliban does at the same time, all kind of unbelievable information, and i guess to kind of follow up on my colleagues comment i dont want to ask you this for Public Disclosure but i want to ask this or in in writing if want to know the detailed plan b. What are the flags and signs that are going to tryingunder ore reengagement should this go awry . I want to know that we do have a plan, and i dont want too ask it in public for everybody in the world to listen because it does concern me but i would ask for you to provide that in writing or classified briefing, what are we looking for thats going to happen so we dont end up again with more loss of blood and life and engagement for america as we look at iraq. My other question is, on the new aumf with isil as you understand your role i attended a briefing a couple months ago somebody was here from the state department, and we talk about current rules of engagement pertaining to afghanistan with the trainadvise and i as we know isil is networking all over the part of the world we know isil is looking around and recruiting in afghanistan. My question was, under this current operation youre under, if isils identified by american troops Afghan National Security Forces and are trained and advised and assist mode that were in, can we absolutely destroy isil when theyre identified and the answer from the state department, no, maam, they would not be considered a threat to the United States at that point. My comment was i would consider the fact that were at war with them and the mere excessins of isil means we should destroy them in your role right now what is your understanding when