Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20151010 :

CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings October 10, 2015

Learn more. Thank you sir. Thank you mr. Miller. I like to echo mr. Millers, that everyone is concerned about tha investigation and how it ended. Those who had no involvement in us the and a mistake. T ha general you and i headache conversation about the report,1, we first got the 9 11 commissiot report delivered to congress it had chapter 12 that detailed what we needed to do in future e e shouldnt do. It specifically set our fight was not against al qaeda and a summa been bottomed solely, if if we viewed our fight is that wextre would lose. It was islamic extremism andter worldwide terrorism. When we look at iraq, it is clear that we have not heraldede chapter 12. We have seen isis take hold, ano now threaten our homeland. You have made recommendations that we continue to hold troops inaf. Afghanistan, you both isil there. Can you tell if you did withtr john troops down to a level of ef00 the effect on the safety of our troops and the ability ofcon our effectiveness for counterterrorism actions . To sir if came down to 1000 as you just discussed, there is no counterterrorism structure forco in those numbers. If you draw down to that size in one location, your solely dependent upon protection for tt that particular site. Outer layers that we would not have, that we have had in the past. Im not sure if that answers my court soon. It to does it cripples our i ability to undertake those actions. When you jot to those forces ara those forces at greater risk without a larger footprint e ention work. So if theyre in one location the enemy would know it they were at. O everythi we make sure we could doumb whatever we could to mitigate as we continue to draw down, every commanded her will make surehe they have the right protection. With the effects enter the country. Sir thousand number, there is no allocation in that. Thank you. Thank you jenna for your service and testimony hereu hava today. Mo you have probably one of the most complex missions that youbl could possibly even imagine. Again, we appreciate your wa efforts. Ks again i want to associate myself with mr. Millers remarks about thert investigation. Rders, i i think it is important to when youre talking about doctorsnd a without parties it was almost ar year ago when theyre working handinhand in africa taking on the a bowl a challenge. They ara a valuable international resource. That is why i do think it requires the absolute top level of scrutiny andan independence in the investigation. I would like to turn for a moment, your comments regarding Afghan Security forces. At at the end of the day,se a i thinkt is the linchpin in terms of the strategy to hand off power and t security in that part of the world. In particular, the alt, alt, of semp comment you made in interesting, about how they were misemployed, clearly when were talking about corruption issues and the need to root out corruption, they frankly have been a big topic of conversation. Now with just majorjri criticsf u. S. Forces over there but with people who want to help the missions. Can you talk about where president donnie is in terms of the alt, the criticism is that they havent gone rogue out there a lot and there have been complaints within the civilianhe population with how they operate. Thank you for the question. We have looked at the alt andiz police very hard in the last several months. Ff theres about 30,000 and 174o districts. What has been done recently is e new directive to go out to thegt Police Chiefs to make sure theyt have done the right betting, the right training, they have the right leadership in place and they dont misuse them. In some places theyll put out smaller checkpoints in theen thg village and theyre trying to be that village security. When the get taken out five or 10 kilometers without mutual supporting fires, withoutargets support, then they become easy targets for the taliban and andn other insurgent groups. Not only because of that and th, casualties that have been taken, forc have potentially some issues with leadership taken advantage of that. He has done a holistic scrub scrub of the altt and will continue to force thee place and ef to meet the same standardsso in place. He hhe in some places they havent don it well. He has reenergized that o that. Working hard to d this past weekend he yet all th. Police chiefs back in the cobble and the entire conference was od al t. Ower i think that would send a thwerful message that there is realer change happening if therr reforms the government can thely talk about. What mr. Davis talked about it put conditionality on the alp. If they do do not getures e through the reforms, if they dont abide by all the procedures, then we do not pay. Rage is a is a condition we put on them. That sounds like pretty goodd leverage. Thank you i yieldk. Back. Mr. Wilson. Thank you mr. Chairman i andc greatly to see bipartisan support of your efforts. Iveven had the great opportunity, 12 opportunity, 12 times over the years of my service in congress to visit, ive seen a civilspir Society Society developed, it id so inspiring to go along streets and seat little girls with white scarves went to school. It warms your heart. Then to see little guys with baseball caps that is notindiget indigenous to afghanistan, these are people who are truly working to develop a civil society. Maki i want to thank you. It is alsot very personal, my appreciation of your service. Un my younger s nunter, served as an engineer i afghanistan for one year. I know one year. I know he was making aat difference by helping build and rebuild that country. Onalim so that to protect American Families at home, and you have. Additionally, i additionally, i am grateful as a veteran. My unit serve their, it was the trainst deployment from South Carolina since world war ii. 1600 troops. They were spread they were spread all over the country. There helping train forces, they were so inspired, these these are lifelong friends of minmiend and would let me know they think. They think and know that they were working with who they identified as their afghanuch brothers. I remember the first time i went to afghanistan was Sheila Jackson lee, she pointed out thatad bad news has no feet, god news has no feet and bad news has wings. E the good thing is extraordinary progress has remained. I agree with the chairman to, success is to deny safe havens which protects American Families. We cannot forget forget it was september 11, 2001 the attacks are country culminated from a case in afghanistan. Im appreciative of your efforta in the largely bipartisan support we have here. With that in mind, with special Operations Alliance with support of conventional forces how can special operations fill in this gap . On sir, today we look at tactical levels that continue to build the afghan capacity. We do not have conventional lerces at the brigade level. I only have them at the cored te level and at the ministry levele we are not really doing thatfoe. Much with the conventional side. Special operating forcesgrea ngntinue to do great work everyi single day. With your leadership, i appreciate. I am concerned about the information intelligence sharing between the u. S. And Afghan National defense securita forces. As it leads to operations in afghanistan, can you speak of what is necessary to improve tha coordination throughout the country . We have a dedicated effort, we saw them essential function seven which is strictly intelligence and how we work with the moi to share intelligence and build intelligence capability, their enterprise. We have made Great Strides there. They recently done a nonthreat center which brings in intelligence from moi, mod, nds, the Intel Organization to produce National Level targets. They never had that before. Thei difference that is making is pretty huge. We continue every day to build upon theirn capacity, we have seen some grades progress in some of the operations even on the tactical level. Not only in the hardware side, also the Human Capital cyber intelligence. That is so important to prevent Collateral Damage which of course is your goal. As i conclude again, i, i am so your grateful for your service and your service to of american personnel. Having been there ive seen, myr first visit there the country was totally disc roi. It was consequence consequence of a 30 year civil war. O theres nothing to see except se rubble. Then to see that rubble removed, the streets paved for the first time. To see a shop develop, see f opportunity for schools, for bridges to be built, we sentuch. Units to work on agriculture to advance. Thank thank you very much. I yield my. Time. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you general for being here today. Y. Your eciate very much testimony, like so many and many americans, i was so alarmed of the tragedy of the Doctors Without Borders facility in afghanistan. I look for to your investigation in a hopefully a very arensparent one. I appreciate how serious you are taking us. I want to go to a different in place and questioning, how bestf for afghan to secure their country and what kind of support is necessary to aid them in thao effort . I would like to hear more about what you are doing to ensure afghan women, 50 of the opulation is part of your process. Ive been part of a delegation at least six trips overvi that focused on one f visiting with our women whowero served us and for whom w e are grateful, also on an emphasis of learning more of the changesghad that our presence has brought in the lives of afghan women. It has been very promising, over and over again we hear the real differences that have taken th place. I remain concerned that whatever our way forward may be, how best we secure those beings. Don we dont trade them away and a n reconciliation process, we dont adequately trained Afghan National Security Forces, whether its local police, the y National Police whatever it may be. Requires a culture change. That culture change has begun but it fragile. I would like to hear, in in your work with the train, advise, and assist Security Forces how you o address the rights of women so that the Security Forces that hopefully will remain in place,k are also committed to securing the lives of women who are verye much a part of their country question. Thank you for the question. Every day present colony and th dr. Speak of this, their leadership in our continued our future sist that to engage women in the military continues to improve. They put more of a spotlight on it and continue to assist with emphasize not the committee. This earmarked money has helped us emphasize not only ato infrastructure to house and take care of women in the military, protect them, it has been critical. We think about that. Of that. I have a womens Advisory Committee that i cochair, ituarr meets quarterly to talk about different issues. Weee at my level in her level we meet quarterly but the Committee Meets weekly. G we in fact over the last month or so it has been meeting weekly ty push womens issues with theits army. For the police, it is is easier to recruit women into the polick , they go through training and conserve where theyre at. But general the question im asking, i think its verytever, important the Security Forces, local police whatever reflect thend population. I appreciate the efforts, especially congresswoman davis to make sure we at least provide some elements and female presence in the Afghan National Security Forces. The reality reality is, most of those forces are men. A they have had a certain histori approach to women. It is really about how we train the men to protect the rights of women. T im curious to how that peace ih moving for. They do some of that and womn their officer training, basic basic training, not only the rights of women but men. They continue to work that. R they continue to get after thaty as they see more women in positions of increased responsibility, they see more womene who are tied with aatior special operating forces to go t on objectives, search other thndles, and is pretty incredible. Ontr when other men see this and hown they contribute, it does have a change in attitude. L cont as you know, the army and police have only been around for a couple of years. It will take yo times, we do put conditions as u well on recruiting women, howit, they do that, i think it will tk continue to improve. As you said, it will takees tim, it took time for the United States army for 240 years to get above 15 or 16 at west point. N this is something theyre focusing on. G besay good things for it. You spoke of conditionality and how youve use that as leverage to achieve certainour goals, is that a tool in your toolbox as you move for question work. El yes maam,d absolutely absolutely. Thank you, im yield back. Thank you for being b here, youll mentioned about your that s and the role they play, you think them and i want to make sure they hear that same kind of thanks and heartfelt the admiration for what they have done and allowing your team to do it you do. We thank them very much in our behalf. In the recent attack, what can we glean from what thewhat w television did and the afghan response, what kind of advice and assistance to we provide them in that response. In or was it all them. Thank you for the family fora piece as well. Quite frankly the Afghan Security force was surprise, did president connie has directed ao commission to takeo a look andof figure out what happened. We continue to work that now. In ae nutshell, congress has about 250,000 people in it, predominantly inside the citys police, outside the predominantly inside the citys police, outside the city there are pockets of the army. Over the period ofrs the holidab some of the army was not president. The the tele band probably has a lot already insidegh the town, right after that time. The attack from within the city, the police fought, although they do not take a lot of casualties. When they do not see reinforcements from the army, it kind of method out. I dont think the taliban hadfl. Any intentions to hold conduits it they got a good victory in their race and their flight. The difference here, i think foc they the Afghan Security forces responded quickly. They moved supplies step there, change leadership l out, once tf got back into the city, the taliban for the most part left. There continue to be isolated pockets of resistance in fighting, very small grou inside an urban area. People they continue to work that. Hari i talked with administrator who is in conduits then he told me that he sees that is stillan fragile but he is confident that all the major aries that they own. What do we provide sir, for the, most part of was afghan lead, they got themselves back into the city. I had a few special operating teams that were south of thee el city that provided some planning, training training advice for the special operating forces. I so put Advisory Team in ane airfield south to they could provide the core level headquarters of logistical planning capability to oversee the afghans. What kind of marks when theye get for running the trainings ot time, water, electricity all thu things that you expect government to service, what does that tell us. The conversation as it is a fragile government and not likely to be resilient, can you talk about that. If you are a cobble, for the most part you give them a c. Gh g with high profile attacks insidn of cobble that would be lower. Fr if you are in that outskirts in a faraway your gray would below. Much lower because they havent seen some of the governed mintse they have seen at that level. The national government, on 20 september of september that was one year, they continue to move forward. It is a very tough environment,u they continue to improve. That may change in almost all of theo administers. They changed out the governors. They governors. They have key positions to work on together. Level policies dght there is no daylight between them, the issues that happens when it comes to pick picking people. They understand how important that is. Ty they will try to do what they can to make this work. Ga they do have to engage bettere i with the Afghan People, not onli only a cobble but outside the city. In the time we have left, can you give us what the financial e supports, we so we can already s afford the forces we have, talk about what you see as their hea purchasing the fight . Rsaw i dont think right now welyf have donor fatigue, i dont i think the International Community understands how important this is. At the summit we will look at future funding. Afghanistan has to continue show progress as t they move forward. That donor supports iso absolutely crucial because afghanistan cannot afford what they have now. They are working at heart, pres. Connie is the right guy to do that with his experience. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. General first thank you for your service and your leadership, through you i want to thank all of the men and women who are currently serving in afghanistan and who have served in the past. I would ask you a few questions about the bombing and the attac on the hospital. I recognize there is an ongoingk investigation but i want to ask army per your knowledge by the Afghanistan National army call that strike at that location. s are again, that is a question were asking investigation, i would not want to get out in front of the investigation. I need to learn those facts. Inv there is a dod investigation, it will be very thorough, transparent. As soon as i get the details how make sure the committee has it. Toqu is there ever a scenario where it is okay to esstrike at. Hospital . Hospital is a hospital is an protective facility, we would not target a hospital. When the afghans call for fire, that is not an automatic response. Every dayai the afghans asked ft air support, we just dont goe. Anyplace. Has to go through a rigorous procedure. A u. S. W a u. S. Process under the u. S. O authorities, so that is where ww have to figure outan what happee in that case. I dont want people to thinkny that just because

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