Panetta Believes U.S. Close to Defeating al-Qaida

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 9, 2011 – Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said he believes the United States “is within reach of strategically defeating al Qaida.”

Panetta, who arrived in Afghanistan this afternoon, said the United States has identified some of the key al-Qaida leadership in Pakistan, Yemen and other areas.

“If we can be successful in going after them, I think we can really undermine their ability to do any kind of planning, to be able to conduct any kind of attack on this country,” the secretary said to press traveling with him. “It’s within reach. Is it going to take more work? You bet it is.”

He explained his reasoning saying there are between 10 to 20 key al-Qaida leaders in areas like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa and tracking them down would mean the defeat of the terror organization.

“We have undermined their ability to conduct 9-11-type attacks,” he said. “We have them on the run. Now is the moment, following what happened to [Osama] bin Laden to put maximum pressure on them, because I do believe if we continue this effort we can cripple al-Qaida as a threat.

Panetta said al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is most likely in hiding in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Area.

Al Qaeda Grows in North Africa, Defense Secretary Says

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

July 13, 2007 – Al Qaeda has become a "franchised" organization that has emerged most recently in North Africa, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. In the Maghreb region of North Africa there has been merger of "several groups under the rubric of al Qaeda, and that's probably the newest area where it has emerged as a reasonably coherent organization," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

Subsequent to the ouster of the Taliban in 2002, he said, the kind of centralized control al Qaeda had prior to 9/11 became almost impossible. The terrorist group has since evolved "into a much broader organization, but one in which there are a number of autonomous or semi-autonomous organizations that are under this overall umbrella led by Osama bin Laden," Gates said.

The secretary said that many terrorist organizations now fall under the umbrella of Osama bin Laden's cell in Pakistan, but operate somewhat autonomously in their respective regions.

"We have pretty good evidence that, for example, al Qaeda in Iraq takes strategic guidance and inspiration from the al Qaeda in the western part of Pakistan. They get advice, they clearly are connected, but they also have ... substantial autonomy," Gates said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, he said, is responsible for the majority of car bombings in the region aimed at creating mayhem and generating a lack of confidence in the local government.

"The large scale attacks that have killed significant number of Iraqis are essentially, intended to create as much mayhem as possible in a general neighborhood or area," he said.

This is different from the sectarian violence that pits one specific group against another, he said.

Speaking alongside the secretary, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the decrease in independent Iraqi army battalions reported in the recently released benchmark report was not cause for alarm. The decrease from 10 battalions in March to six now is due to combat losses.

"As units operate in the field, they have casualties," Pace said. "They consume vehicles and equipment, and need to come out of the line and be resupplied, just like our own units. So the fact that a number may be changing within a very narrow band shouldn't be of overly concern."

Yet, defense officials hope to see "more Iraqi units being able to operate on their own and more units that work operating side by side with us, moving into the lead," he said.

About 6,000 U.S. troops are now training Iraqi security forces. Whether that number will increase will be determined by the top commander there, Pace said.

"We have an opportunity to assess whether or not the size of the teams we currently have with the Iraqis is adequate, and do we have enough teams with enough units in the field," he said.

More training with the Iraqis is needed, Pace said. "We do need to have more opportunities to have embedded units with them," he said.

The two top defense leaders also discussed the length of time it would take to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Currently the system for moving troops in or out of Iraq is set for about one brigade a month, Pace said. That can be increased, or surged, but as troops leave, commanders have to be aware of covering the same area with a smaller number of troops as well as maintaining command consistency.

"So you want to have a good feel for what your end state is going to be so that when you start arranging your forces on the battlefield, you're not causing additional strain and misunderstandings amongst boundaries," Pace said.

Gates said the timeline for a withdrawal of troops would be determined by the current situation on the ground and whether the U.S. has a long-term security agreement that would leave a contingent of soldiers there.

U.S. Military Program Targets Terrorism in North Africa

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

March 15, 2007 – The United States is keeping a watchful eye on developments in North Africa to ensure terrorists don't gain a foothold there, a senior U.S. military officer said in remarks provided to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee at a hearing here today. The Defense Department is participating in the U.S. State Department's Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership, Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock stated, because of concern that Islamic terrorist organizations like al Qaeda may use ungoverned areas of North Africa to gain new recruits and train for future attacks.

Craddock is chief of U.S. European Command. Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, the command is responsible for large swaths of Africa, as well as Europe. African nations that now fall under EUCOM's purview will be transferred to the new U.S. Africa Command that's scheduled to stand up Oct. 1.

"Like all combatant commands, EUCOM is dealing with terrorism in all its forms," Craddock stated.

In northern Africa, "al Qaeda-affiliated groups exploit ungoverned spaces to gain sanctuary, recruit, indoctrinate, train, equip, transit and mount operations," Craddock said. "The Trans-Sahara region, in particular, offers sanctuary to Islamic extremist terrorists, smugglers of drugs and contraband and insurgent groups."

There's evidence that al Qaeda has stepped up recruitment of North Africans to carry out attacks against U.S., coalition and pro-Iraqi government forces in Iraq, the general said.

The DoD-State Department initiative in North Africa "strengthens regional counterterrorism capabilities and assists participating nations in halting the illegal flow of arms, goods and people through the region," Craddock said. He noted that Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria and Tunisia are participating in the initiative.

The U.S. military contribution to TSCTP is called Operation Enduring Freedom Trans-Sahara, Craddock said.

"The military component (of TSCTP) utilizes special operations forces to train partners on the conduct of counter-terrorism operations," he explained. The program also helps participants get better control of their territory and prevents terrorist groups from using large, open areas as safe havens.

Globalization and modern communications systems enable terrorists to establish networks anywhere in the world, Craddock pointed out, noting, "the damage individual states or groups within those states can do is unprecedented."

However, the DoD-State Department anti-terror program in North Africa has the potential to produce significant results, and at modest cost, Craddock said.

"It can be a powerful brake on future terrorist expansion," he said.

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