Dempsey Arrives in Afghanistan to Meet with Leaders

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 19, 2012 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived here today for consultations with coalition and Afghan leaders.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said he tries to come to Afghanistan every 60 to 90 days to hold face-to-face meetings with leaders. The chairman spoke to reporters traveling with him aboard his C-17.

During this visit, Dempsey will hold meetings at the highest coalition levels – Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces here, and Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command. The chairman will also meet with “the new players” on the U.S. side, including Army Lt. Gen. James Terry, the commander of the corps command here.

“They’ve been in country about 60 to 75 days and I want to get some insights from them on how they think the campaign is coming,” Dempsey said. “Then I’ll talk to John about the same thing.”

The chairman will also hold meetings with his counterpart, Afghan Army Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi.

The general said he is coming to Afghanistan with an open mind and wants to hear the ground truth.

“I don’t have any new insights to share with you before I get there, but I hope to leave with some new insights,” Dempsey told the reporters.

The coalition leaders will discuss the problem of insider attacks – where members of the Afghan forces turn their weapons on coalition personnel. There have been 40 such insider attacks, and 23 Americans have been killed. The most recent was today in southern Afghanistan.

Dempsey said he was pleased that Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly spoke out against these attacks.

“The president speaking on it was tremendously important, and I hope it permeates to the lowest levels of the Afghan government and military,” he said. “We speak out about it, and we take measures to mitigate the risk.”

But the more Afghan leaders speak out about this, “the better off we will be,” Dempsey said.

Coalition and Afghan leaders are looking at the vetting process for Afghan soldiers and police. “We’ve had an eight-step vetting process in place in earnest for about a year, but we haven’t turned the corner on it,” he said.

Officials are examining the vetting process and investigating where it failed. This includes going back to village leaders who vouched for these men and asking them what happened.

In his conversations with Allen, the chairman said he will ask if he the commander has all he needs to combat the problem of insider attacks.

The Afghan police are the group most susceptible to launching insider attacks. In discussing the issue, the chairman drew on his experience building the Iraqi police forces.

“The vulnerability of local police to (terrorist) influence is great … They don’t move around the country the way the Army does, so they live at the point of corruption. I’m sure that’s the case here too,” Dempsey said.

“Are the local police more vulnerable to those kind of activities? Absolutely,” he said.

MH-53 Helicopter Crashes Near Oman

American Forces Press Service

FIFTH FLEET AREA OF OPERATIONS, July 19, 2012 – An MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasure Squadron-15 crashed 58 miles southwest of Muscat, Oman, today while conducting heavy lift support operations, according to a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command news release issued today.

The crash was not due to hostile activity and the status of the five crew members is still being determined, the release said.

Another MH-53E helicopter assigned to the squadron is on the scene, providing search and rescue assistance, according to the news release.

The incident is under investigation, the release said.

Little: Middle East Minesweeping Exercise Set for September

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2012 – A multinational minesweeping exercise scheduled for this fall in the waters of the Middle East is intended to increase U.S. capabilities and cooperation with allies, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today.

“This is not an exercise aimed to deliver a message to Iran,” Little said in answer to questions about the reported maneuvers.

Rather, “It’s an international symposium and exercise of mine countermeasures conducted in multiple locations in the [U.S. Naval Forces Central Command] area of operations,” he added.  “This is a defensive exercise aimed at preserving freedom of navigation in the international waterways of the Middle East and aimed at promoting regional stability in the [U.S. Central Command] area of responsibility.”

According to Centcom, the International Mines Countermeasures Exercise, scheduled to run from Sept. 16 through Sept. 27, will include more than 20 nations across four continents.

Scenarios will focus on a hypothetical threat from an extremist organization mining the international strategic waterways of the Middle East, Centcom said in a statement.

Additionally, there will be scenario-based exercises held in the Persian Gulf, but they will not extend to the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, Centcom officials said. Exercises will take place in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Oman.

Little noted this will be an important exercise involving an international contingent of military planners.

“These exercises are designed to enhance cooperation, develop a mutual maritime capability and aimed at promoting long-term regional stability,” he said.

Defense Leaders Provide Middle East Update

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – Steady progress is being made in dealing with challenges in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters in a briefing here today.

Topics included the situation between U.S. ally Turkey and the internally embattled Syria, a rescheduled U.S.-Israeli military exercise, an upcoming DOD visit to Iraq, and continuing discussions with military leaders in Pakistan.

“We continue to be concerned about developments in Syria,” Panetta said, referring to ongoing violence between the brutal authoritarian regime of Bashar Assad and determined opposition groups, and the movement of Turkish military assets to the Syrian border after the June 22 shootdown by Syrian forces of a Turkish Phantom F-4 fighter and its two-member aircrew.

The secretary said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is engaged in discussions with U.S. allies in the region, including Turkey.

“Turkey is one of our allies in that region,” Panetta said. “We continue to be in close discussions with them with regard to how we best approach the situation in Syria.”

Dempsey said he had a recent conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Necdet Ozel, adding, “He's taking a very measured approach to the incident. … He and I are staying in contact.”

Also in the region, the chairman said the United States and Israel have rescheduled a joint military exercise called Austere Challenge.

Dempsey said a final decision on the exercise date will be determined during a current visit to Israel by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy James N. Miller.

In Iraq, where the level of violence increased this month, Panetta said discussions continue with the Iraqis on the threat from al-Qaida terrorists.

“We've seen increased violence [and] … we share the concern of the Iraqis with regard to that increased violence,” the secretary said, adding, “We're going to continue to work with them to … improve their ability to be able to deal with those kinds of threats.”

Before leaving Iraq, he added, U.S. forces worked in great cooperation on this problem.

“We've continued to work with their security forces but we think it's really important now that we try to bring that cooperation even closer together to make sure that these kinds of threats are dealt with directly,” Panetta said.

Dempsey said Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, had high-level consultative talks with the Iraqis earlier this year and Panetta hosted a May 23 meeting at the Pentagon with Iraqi Acting Minister of Defense Saadoun al-Dulaymi.

“What we're doing is charting a way ahead, actually, on the potential for exercises, the things we talked about at the closing ceremony” in December 2011, the chairman said, adding that he plans a visit to Iraq later this year.

Discussions also continue between American and Pakistani officials over the reopening of Pakistan supply routes -- called ground lines of communication, or GLOCs -- into Afghanistan, and the breakup of Pakistan safe havens for militant groups like the Haqqani network, Panetta said.

“We continue to have a line of communication with the Pakistanis to try to see if we can take steps to reopen the GLOCs,” Panetta said, adding, “The good news is that there continue to be those discussions.”

Tough issues still need to be settled, the secretary said.

“I think the important thing right now is that both sides, in good faith, keep working to see if we can resolve this,” he said.

Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, met recently with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the secretary said.

“I think [Allen] made clear that both the United States and Pakistan have to work together to deal with the threat from the Haqqanis,” Panetta said, adding that Kayani seemed receptive to U.S. concerns.

“After all,” the secretary said, “they, too, have been victims of terrorism. They lost 17 Pakistanis on a patrol to the [Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan] … so we have a common enemy. It would make sense if we could work together to confront that common enemy.”

Mattis Defends Afghan Strategy, Warns of Iran, Al-Qaida Threats

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2012 – The commander of U.S. Central Command staunchly defended the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan before Congress today, saying that, despite recent violence over the Quran-burning incident, he believes it is bearing fruit.

“I’m delighted to defend our strategy. I believe it is working,” Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“We should not allow a few criminals, malcontents, to define the Afghan security forces,” he said. “Even their performance during these last two weeks -- disciplined, restrained, standing by us -- is an indication that this is a force that’s come a long ways.”

He noted that no vetting process can totally eliminate insider threats. “No force is perfect,” he said. “I would just remind everyone that even Jesus of Nazareth had one out of 12 go to mud on him.”

What particularly stands out following “a very disappointing and unintentional mistake by U.S. forces” was that it didn’t shake the Afghan security force’s confidence in them.

“It did not shake the teamwork,” Mattis said.

The general noted that Afghan security forces are within 60 days of reaching the 352,000-man goal that had been set for October 2012.

In his opening statement to the panel, Mattis said Iran and al-Qaida remain the two biggest threats in the Centcom area of responsibility.

He told the panel he’s never seen the region so tumultuous in the 30 years he has supported U.S. efforts there.

He noted challenges posed by radicals, violent extremists, malignant networks and state-sponsored agents and unconventional proxies who seek to violently exploit differences there.

But the general singled out Iran as the No. 1 threat to regional stability and security. “They're fighting basically a shadow war every day,” he told the panel, asserting themselves in destabilizing ways throughout the region, and beyond.

He noted that although Iran has never gotten along particularly well with the Taliban, “they’re willing to help the Taliban to some degree to fight us in Afghanistan,” he said.

Mattis also pointed to Iran’s efforts to take advantage of turmoil associated with the Arab Awakening movement. “It’s highly concerning,” he said.

Meanwhile, despite security gains in the fight against terrorists, “the threat remains,” he said.

“Al-Qaida and associated groups continue to kill innocents from the Levant to Yemen and are adapting in the face of U.S. pressure,” Mattis said. He noted a troubling development as al-Qaida begins to make a comeback in Iraq. It’s evident “notably in the western Iraq area,” he said. “But the threat is extending into Baghdad.”

Mattis emphasized during his testimony that his overarching goal is to prevent further conflict, and he reaffirmed that the U.S. won’t waiver in defense of its allies, partners and national interests.

The region “remains of great strategic importance to other world powers and is vital to many of America’s most enduring national interests,” he told the panel.

Centom is postured to address the challenges, Mattis said, as it works closely with the State Department and other agencies to promote peace and stability. “The military challenge will be determining how we retain a sustainable presence and operational flexibility in a fiscally constrained environment,” he said.

“Although we are withdrawing some ground forces from the region, we are not withdrawing our support for long-time allies and partners,” he said. “Nor are we pulling back our commitment from a region that too many times has taken a commitment of American blood and treasure to restore stability.”

Mattis recognized the “grim cost” the defense of U.S. interests in the region has taken during more than 10 years of war. He noted that 612 Americans have died and 8,251 have been wounded since he took command in August 2010.

“Through persistent military-to-military engagement, our troops reassure our friends and temper adversary intentions,” he said.

Mattis called other security cooperation activities “cost-effective means for building our friends’ defensive capabilities, allowing us to operate in concert with our allies and friends and to rapidly respond in times of need.”

Looking to the future, Mattis said Centcom is appropriately funded to carry out its mission. He did, however, identify some needed capabilities: improved counter-improvised explosive device protection; information operations and voice programs to counter adversary propaganda on the Internet; and improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, among them.

Mattis also noted the need for specific resources vital to the Afghanistan campaign. He cited coalition support funds, the command’s emergency response program, Afghan infrastructure fund and reintegration authority.

These funds “enable us to meet urgent humanitarian and infrastructure needs of a population that is increasingly secured by its own forces -- forces we have been building and training through the Afghan security forces fund,” he said.