NATO Chief Discusses Alliance Role in Syria, Afghanistan

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2012 – NATO’s core business is security, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels yesterday as he outlined the role of the alliance and the international community in Syria and Afghanistan.

“NATO is where North America and Europe come together every day to discuss the security issues which concern us,” Rasmussen said, “and NATO is where Europe and North America work together every day to find solutions.”

In NATO, any ally can bring any issue to the table at any time, he added, referring to the meeting of NATO allies called by Turkey after a June 22 shootdown by Syrian forces of a Turkish F-4 fighter and its two-member crew.

“We condemn Syria’s shooting down of the Turkish aircraft in the strongest possible terms, and we condemn the escalating spiral of killing, destruction and human rights abuses in Syria,” Rasmussen said.

“The right response to this crisis remains a political response,” he added, “and a concerted response by the international community against a regime that has lost all humanity and all legitimacy.”

Last week Kofi Annan, the Joint Special Envoy for Syria, announced a June 30 meeting of the Action Group for Syria in Geneva. There, according to the United Nations, the international group forged an agreement outlining steps for a peaceful transition in Syria while strongly condemning the continued and escalating violence that has taken place there over the past 16 months.

The group also called for all parties to immediately recommit to a sustained halt of armed violence, to fully cooperate with observers serving with the U.N. supervision mission in Syria, and to implement a six-point peace plan that Annan put forward earlier this year.

The U.N. estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising began.

Rasmussen said he welcomed the action group meeting.

“The international community has come together [and] … clearly endorsed a plan for a democratic transition to end the violence and answer the legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria,” the secretary general added.

To enforce the political plan, he said, every member of the international community should use its influence to bring an end to the bloodshed and move Syria forward.

“This conflict has already gone on for too long,” Rasmussen noted. “It has cost too many lives and put the stability of the whole region at risk. The international community has a duty to put an end to it -- and to do it now.”

NATO is at work on another sort of transition in Afghanistan, he said: to put the security of Afghanistan in the hands of the Afghans.

“As we speak,” the secretary general added, “half the Afghan population lives in areas where their own forces are in the lead for providing security. And over the coming weeks and months, that protection will extend to three quarters of the population.”

But security is just one challenge in Afghanistan, and NATO is just one part of the solution, he said. In the bigger picture of Afghanistan’s security future, Rasmussen added, development and good governance must come together, and the international community and the Afghan people are putting the pieces in place.

“Over the last few months, we have built a strong framework of partnership and mutual responsibility on which Afghanistan can rely as it stands on its own two feet,” he said.

In Chicago in May, decisions at the NATO summit sent a clear message that after 2014, NATO’s mission will be to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces, Rasmussen added.

At a conference in the Afghan capital of Kabul in June, the message was one of regional responsibility for the countries of Central Asia and their neighbors to support Afghanistan well into the next decade, he said.

Next week, the international community will gather in Tokyo to show its commitment to Afghanistan’s long-term economic development, he said, calling it a key opportunity to make sure Afghanistan continues to develop and remain secure after 2014.

“Even when Afghanistan is fully in charge of its own security, it will still be one of the poorest countries in the world,” Rasmussen said. “And the best way to maintain its security will be to help it face this challenge.”

At the same time, the international community needs to know that the Afghan authorities will live up to their commitments, the secretary general said.

Rasmussen said Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged to improve governance, fight corruption and ensure the protection of human rights, including the rights of women.

Delivering on those pledges is vital, Rasmussen added.

“We now have a once-in-a-generation chance to break the cycle of violence and extremism in Afghanistan,” the secretary general said, “[and] to build long-term security for Afghans, the wider region and for ourselves. It’s a chance we must all seize.”

U.S. to Maintain Pressure on Assad Regime, Press Secretary Says

By Amaani Lyle

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2012 – The U.S. will continue to apply economic and diplomatic pressure on Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime and it encourages Syrians to resist, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters during a press briefing today.

“I think you have some complex dynamics at work in Syria,” Little said. “Day by day by day, in the eyes of the Syrian people, and certainly in the eyes of the international community, the Assad regime is losing its legitimacy.”

Citing the latest instance of eroding faith in the regime, Little expressed U.S. support for the Syrian fighter pilot who sought and gained political asylum in Jordan following his decision to defect by flying a MIG-21 fighter jet across the border on Thursday.

“We have long called for members of the Syrian armed forces and members of the Syrian regime to defect and to abandon their positions rather than be complicit in the regime’s atrocities,” Little said. “This is just one of countless instances where Syrians, including members of the security forces, have rejected the abysmal actions of the Assad regime, and it certainly will not be the last.”

Soldiers who defected from the Syrian army in the past 15 months indicate hostile groups are losing their strongholds in the region, Little said. He also addressed what might enable opposition groups to effectively organize themselves amidst violence and hostility.

“One way to explain this is to look at the physics of a brutal authoritarian regime,” Little said. “Brutal authoritarian regimes, like the Assad regime, can be quite rigid … and rigidity often breeds brittleness. So at a certain point, we may be looking at a very brittle Assad regime, and that helps the opposition.”

Little said the resolve of opposition groups seems to be strengthening over time, even in the wake of “despicable acts” perpetuated by the Assad regime.

“They are standing up in the face of coercion and in the face of profound violence,” he said.

Little said the U.S. is not providing lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, but it does remain focused on State Department-led humanitarian assistance programs to aid “the right people inside that country.”

“The eye on the prize here is allowing the Syrian people to determine their own future,” Little said.

Pentagon: In Syria, Iran Helps Assad, al-Qaida Foments Violence

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – In Syria, where Bashar Assad’s government continues to massacre its population, Iran is supporting the regime and members of al-Qaida are in the country for their own purposes, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby told reporters today.

“We remain deeply troubled and concerned by the ongoing violence in Syria and by the horrific acts of the Assad regime against its own people,” Kirby told reporters at a Pentagon press briefing.

“And we certainly have seen reports and have reason to believe that Iran continues to assist the Assad regime in committing these acts of atrocities against the Syrian people,” he added.

Other nations share that concern, the Pentagon spokesman said, and some are providing lethal assistance to opponents of the Syrian regime.

Kirby said defense officials have seen but cannot confirm reports that the Iranians are using commercial airliners to move arms into Syria.

“The larger issue here is that the Iranian regime, Tehran, continues to support, in tangible and intangible ways, the Assad regime,” he added, “and that needs to stop.”

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said the administration has been focused on the need to bring about a political transition in Syria sooner rather than later.

“The longer that Assad and his thugs are allowed to brutally murder the Syrian people, the more likely it becomes a sectarian civil war; the more likely that it spills over Syrian borders; the more likely that it transforms into a proxy war with different players,” Carney said, “including … Iran, which is already engaging in malignant behavior with regards to the Syrian situation, stepping up that kind of activity and not being alone in doing that.”

What’s happening in Syria, he added, “only underscores the urgent need to take action to prevent further devolution of the situation there, take action to support the process of political transition, to isolate and pressure Assad into taking himself out of power so that that transition can proceed.”

At the Pentagon, Kirby said defense officials believe “al-Qaida has some presence inside Syria and interest in fomenting violence in Syria.”

He added, “We do not believe they share the goals of the Syrian opposition or that they are even embraced by the opposition … The sense that we get is that it is primarily members of [al-Qaida in Iraq] that are migrating into Syria.”

Syria drew renewed world attention following a massacre May 25 of more than 100 people north of the city of Homs which international observers largely blamed on forces linked to the government.

U.S. policy on Syria is to work with international partners to put diplomatic and economic pressure on Damascus to help stem the humanitarian crisis.

The Defense Department supports the administration’s position, Kirby said, while providing options to the nation’s leaders for other potential responses.

“That's what we do and we would be irresponsible if we weren't thinking about options, whether or not they're called for, he said”

The military can be valuable in any number of scenarios, not all of which involve combat, Kirby added.

“The point is we're doing the prudent thing that we're supposed to do, which is to think through options. But we've not been called to present any,” the Pentagon spokesman said.

“These are decisions that only the policymakers can make,” Kirby said. “And again, we're supporting the commander in chief's intent, which is to keep the pressure on [the Assad regime] diplomatically and economically.”

Panetta: Pakistan’s Jailing of Doctor ‘Unhelpful’ to U.S. Relations

By Nick Simeone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – Pakistan’s jailing of a doctor who helped the United States find and kill Osama bin Laden a year ago is undermining efforts by both countries to improve relations, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in an interview that aired today.

“It is so difficult to understand and so disturbing that they would sentence this doctor to 33 years for helping in the search for the most notorious terrorist in our times,” Panetta said in a May 25 taping of ABC’s “This Week” program. “This doctor was not working against Pakistan. He was working against al-Qaeda and I hope that, ultimately, Pakistan understands that because what they have done here, I think, does not help in the effort to try to re-establish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan.”

Last week, a court in northwestern Pakistan convicted Dr. Shakil Afridi of treason and sentenced him to 33 years in prison. In January, Panetta confirmed publically that Afridi helped the U.S gain access to bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by providing “very helpful” information. In the interview that aired today, he made clear the Pakistani court’s decision could undermine months of efforts to get relations back on track.

“What they did with this doctor doesn’t help in the effort to try to do that,” he said.

Several key events, including the secret U.S mission to kill bin Laden last May as well as NATO’s accidental killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan/Pakistan border in November, have severely tested U.S.-Pakistani relations. Six months after Pakistan closed overland NATO supply lines in response to the border incident, Panetta confirmed both countries are still working on terms for re-opening the ground routes. There have been multiple reports that Pakistan is demanding a steep increase in the fees it will collect from vehicles crossing the border.

“They’re negotiating what that price ought to be,” the secretary said. “We’re not about to get gouged in the price. We want a fair price.”

Panetta said the United States and Pakistan remain allies in the fight against terrorism but acknowledged the relationship has strengths and weaknesses. “This has been one of the most complicated relationships that we’ve had working with Pakistan. We have to continue to work at it. It is important. This is a country that has nuclear weapons. This is a country that still is critical in that region of the world. It’s an up and down relationship.”

Panetta’s interview with ABC came just days after nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers aimed at freezing Tehran’s uranium enrichment program ended without apparent progress. Panetta was asked whether the U.S. has a plan ready to strike Iran’s nuclear sites if diplomacy fails to curb what the West suspects is an Iranian covert nuclear weapons program.

“We are prepared for any contingency in that part of the world,” he said. “But our hope is that these matters can be resolved diplomatically.”

Obama Announces Strategy to Counter Atrocities

By Karen Parrish

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2012 – President Barack Obama today announced a strategy to strengthen the U.S. government’s ability to foresee, prevent, and respond to genocide and mass atrocities, and extended U.S. troops’ efforts to do just that in Central Africa.

During a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum here, Obama said preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility for the United States.

“That does not mean that we intervene militarily every time there's an injustice in the world,” the president said. “We cannot and should not. It does mean we possess many tools, diplomatic and political and economic and financial and intelligence and law enforcement, and our moral suasion.”

Obama’s strategy calls for the Defense Department to develop doctrine and increase training and planning efforts emphasizing mass atrocity prevention and response.

Obama announced the creation of the Atrocities Prevention Board, which will include Defense Department representatives as well as those from the departments of State, Treasury, Justice, and Homeland Security; the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the office of the director of National Intelligence, the CIA, and the office of the vice president, according to White House officials.

The board will help identify and address atrocity threats, and will oversee institutional changes to make the U.S. government “more nimble and effective” is response to such threats, administration officials said.

The strategy also increases diplomatic and intelligence efforts to identify and respond to atrocities, they said.

Obama said the United States over the past three years has helped to counter mass atrocities in Libya, South Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire.

The military mission to help counter the Lord’s Resistance Army, a terrorist group in central Africa led by Joseph Kony, demonstrated how U.S. forces can support national and international efforts to quell atrocities, Obama said.

About a hundred U.S. military advisors, mostly from the Army’s Special Forces, have been working since October with the militaries of Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan to capture or kill Kony and other LRA commanders under an Obama executive order.

When he announced that mission, the president directed the National Security Council to review its progress after 150 days.

Today, Obama said, “I can announce that our advisers will continue their efforts to bring this madman to justice and to save lives. It is part of our regional strategy … to end the scourge that is the LRA and help realize a future where no African child is stolen from their family and no girl is raped and no boy is turned into a child soldier.”

The LRA is composed mostly of kidnapped children forced to execute Kony’s terrorist tactics over the past 20 years, administration officials have said. Tens of thousands of people have been murdered and as many as 1.8 million have been displaced by the LRA, they said.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby told reporters today the U.S. advisors in central Africa have had “a significant impact … improving the capabilities of indigenous forces there to put pressure on the LRA.”

The advisors’ role, Kirby emphasized, is training and assistance, not combat. He added that the U.S. assistance is helping.

“We’ve seen indications that [Kony] and his followers are less active and less effective,” he said.

Syrian Actions ‘Utterly Deplorable,’ Pentagon Spokesman Says

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – Armed attacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime that have killed and wounded thousands of citizens since last January are “utterly deplorable,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said here today.

On the same day the State Department suspended operation of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus and moved all American personnel, including Ambassador Robert Ford, out of the country, Little said the Defense Department’s focus “remains on applying intense diplomatic and economic pressure on the Assad regime.”

“We believe there is a strong chance that pressure can yield results on behalf of the Syrian people and those who are repressed in Syria,” he added.

President Barack Obama issued a strong statement Feb. 4 about the regime’s actions.

“Thirty years after his father massacred tens of thousands of innocent Syrian men, women, and children in Hama, Bashar al-Assad has demonstrated a similar disdain for human life and dignity,” the president said.

On Feb. 3, the Syrian government murdered hundreds of citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, Obama added, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help.

“The United States and our international partners support the Syrian people in achieving their aspirations and will continue to assist the Syrian people toward that goal,” the president said.

On Feb. 4, Russian and Chinese representatives on the U.N. Security Council vetoed a resolution that backed an Arab League plan to resolve the crisis in Syria. Thirteen of the council’s 15 members voted in favor of a draft text submitted by Morocco. A veto by any one of the council’s five permanent members -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- means a resolution can’t be adopted.

At the State Department today, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement that the recent surge in violence in Syria, including bombings in Damascus on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6, “has raised serious concerns that our Embassy is not sufficiently protected from armed attack.”

The U.S. embassy, along with several other diplomatic missions, she added, “conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately.”

The deteriorating security situation that led to the suspension of diplomatic operations “makes clear once more the dangerous path Assad has chosen and the regime’s inability to fully control Syria,” Nuland said.

In the meantime, according to news reports, over the past weeks several of the Assad regime’s military leaders have publicly sided with those who oppose the regime.

“It is noteworthy,” Little said, “that we’re seeing some high-level defections of senior Syrian military officials … to the opposition.”

Marine Corps Appoints General to Investigate Video

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2012 – Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos has appointed a three-star general to investigate and take any required administrative or disciplinary action stemming from a video circulated on the Internet that appears to show four Marines urinating on the corpses of enemy fighters in Afghanistan.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, is officially designated as the “consolidated disposition authority” for the allegations surrounding the video. That designation places authority in one commander to initiate any necessary investigations and take any administration or disciplinary action that results from those investigations, Marine Corps officials said.

Waldhauser’s investigation will be conducted in coordination with the ongoing Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into the incident, officials added.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said yesterday the behavior depicted in the video is “utterly deplorable,” and he ordered the Marine Corps and the International Security Assistance Force to investigate. “Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent,” Panetta said in a statement.

ISAF officials said the command has begun a thorough investigation.

ISAF Commander Condemns Objectionable Video

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force and ISAF Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2012 – The commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has joined other senior Defense Department officials in expressing outrage over a video posted on a public website that shows four Marines apparently urinating over three enemy corpses.

“These actions are in direct opposition to everything the military stands for," Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen said after viewing the video. “Such acts in no way reflect the high moral standards and values we expect of our armed forces on a daily basis."

Allen, who is traveling in the United States, echoed comments made yesterday by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who discussed the video over the telephone yesterday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"I assure the people of Afghanistan and the members of the coalition that there will be a thorough investigation and a full accounting of what occurred," Allen said.

"Such acts violate the sanctity of the dead and are deplorable and must be condemned in the strongest manner possible. We will support the investigation of these acts in every way for a swift determination of the facts,” Allen added. “If the investigation confirms the egregious acts depicted on the video, we support the appropriate administration of justice to hold accountable those who committed them.”

In other Afghanistan news today:

-- In the Now Zad district of Helmand province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force detained a suspected insurgent during a search for a Taliban leader who commands attack cells and plans bomb and small-arms attacks against Afghan officials.

-- A combined force detained several suspects while searching for a Haqqani network leader in the Nerkh district of Wardak province. The leader plans suicide-bomb attacks and other insurgent actions.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a combined force killed several insurgents Jan. 11 during a search for a Taliban leader in the Almar district of Faryab province.

The targeted leader is an explosives expert with ties to suicide-attack networks. He is suspected of planning a suicide-bomb attack that killed an Afghan security official in October. The force also seized multiple weapons, chest racks, grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives.