[Marinir] Fw: US DoD (DEPHAN AS) Briefing 19 Aug 2005
Yap Hong Gie
ouwehoer at centrin.net.id
Sun Aug 21 16:21:11 CEST 2005
Military
U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
Presenter: Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander, Multinational Force
Northwest and Task Force Freedom Friday, August 19, 2005 9:00 a.m. EDT
Defense Department Briefing
(Note: The general appears via teleconference from Iraq.)
BRYAN WHITMAN (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public
Affairs): General Rodriguez, this is Bryan Whitman. Can you hear me?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I can hear you.
MR. WHITMAN: Well, good morning -- or good afternoon, General,
and good morning to the Pentagon press corps that's here. I think most of
you know our briefer that we have today, Major General David Rodriguez. He
last spoke to you here from Iraq on July 1st, and of course he spent a lot
of time in this room briefing when he was with the Joint Staff. He is now
of course the commander of Multinational Forces Northwest and commander of
Task Force Freedom. He is going to give you an operational overview of what
his unit is doing and the ongoing security operations in northwestern Iraq
and then has graciously agreed to take some of your questions. So with
that, let's go ahead and turn it right over to you, General Rodriguez.
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Okay. I appreciate the opportunity once again
to provide an update on the combined efforts of the Iraqi and coalition
forces in the Multinational Force Northwest area of operations. The Iraqi
security forces continue to make strides in improving security for all Iraqi
citizens. We continue to focus on building durable institutions that have
the capacity to serve the Iraqi people in a transparent manner that builds
accountability and trust between the government institutions and the Iraqi
people.
We have remained steadfast in our efforts to help the Iraqi
people win the struggle for their freedom. These combined endeavors are
creating tremendous opportunities for successful elections and a free Iraq.
Some of you have been here and seen firsthand the great courage
of the Iraqi people and the heroic efforts of the soldiers in the 1st
[brigade] of the 25th [Infantry Division] Stryker Brigade, the 3rd Armored
Cavalry Regiment and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regimental Headquarters. It
is an honor for me to represent all them to you today.
I commented before on the courage and confidence of the Iraqi
people and the growing confidence of the Iraqi security forces. I can tell
you this trend is continuing.
As for America's soldiers, they continue to serve heroically
under very demanding conditions, and there is a special place in our hearts
for the families of the troopers who have given their lives to accomplish
the assigned mission. We offer our condolences to those who have shared in
the loss of a husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter or comrade.
We offer encouragement to those who have been wounded in action and are
recovering and to those assisting them to recover. We are incredibly proud
of all of them. We continue to press the fight in memory of their
sacrifices.
Signs of Iraqi growth and progress continue amidst the
insurgents' objective of destroying the Iraqi nation and the people.
Preparations for the constitutional referendum are progressing. Through the
combined efforts and effective partnership of the Independent Electoral
Commission of Iraq, the provincial government and the Iraqi security forces,
over 60 election registration sites have opened on time in both the Nineveh
and the Dohuk provinces, and we are registering increasingly larger numbers
of citizens daily.
The Nineveh provincial government continues to hold regular
regional security and town hall meetings throughout the province, which are
attended by progressively larger numbers of community leaders.
The regional Sunni leaders and population are also increasingly involved in
a political transition that will determine the future of Iraq.
Units of the 2nd and 3rd Iraqi Army divisions are conducting
more effective combined and independent counterinsurgency operations, and
they are continuing to develop to be a source of pride for the country of
Iraq as they stand their ground fighting for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi
people continue to provide quality and timely information to Iraqi security
forces that enable us together to combat this insurgency.
The Mosul and Nineveh provincial police are on the streets of
their cities actively enforcing the rule of law. On any given day, about
800 are in training, and each month some 400 complete the eight- week
basic course for Iraqi police. The Ministry of Interior will open an
accredited police academy in Mosul in the next 30 days to further bolster
their training and readiness.
Since the January elections, 62 mid-level or above terrorist
leaders have been captured or killed in Mosul and Nineveh, 44 of these since
early May, all this through the combined work of Iraqi and coalition forces.
And several of these key leaders have been eliminated from the ranks of the
insurgency as the result of independent Iraqi operations.
The Nineveh provincial government continues to expand its
undertaking of reconstruction programs and planning for economic growth.
They have recently approved and initiated numerous infrastructure projects,
including healthcare facility renovation, new sewers, electrical
distribution, schools and roads that will improve and provide for the basic
needs of the people.
We will continue the hard work until the job is complete, and as
we move forward every day very much encouraged by what we see in the
hearts of the Iraqi people as they create opportunities for their future.
I'm happy to take your questions.
MR. WHITMAN: Thank you, General. And we'll get right into it
here.
Go ahead, Will.
Q General, this is Will Dunham with Reuters. Can you tell
us what the findings were from the investigation into the December mess hall
suicide bombing? And did it determine how the suicide bombers got in and
exactly who they were?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time hearing.
Could you repeat the question, please?
Q General, it's Will Dunham with Reuters. Can you tell us
what the findings were of the investigation into the December mess hall
suicide bombing? And did it determine how the suicide bombers got in and
who they were?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The latest information we have on that was that
it was believed to be an Ansar al-Sunna terrorist suspect who was involved
in the Marez bombing. And the exact technique and how he got on that was
never able to be fully determined. But we continue to pursue all
intelligence leads that we have on that, but that was never determined
finally.
Q Let me just follow up. Was the perpetrator -- was the
bomber somebody who managed to infiltrate and work on the base somehow?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The investigation showed that we think he
infiltrated on the base just to conduct the bombing; it was not a member of
the workforce on the base.
MR. WHITMAN: Go ahead.
Q General, Sandra Erwin with National Defense. Can you
tell us what kind of IED -- what is the level of IED attacks that you see in
your area? We heard from General LaFontaine last week that the attacks have
doubled. Can you give us a sense of what kinds of threats do you see now in
your area from the IEDs?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: I think the question is about IEDs. And we
have, of course, had a tremendous effort ongoing to combat the IEDs, which
are the most prevalent weapon that has been used against us. Over the last
three months, they have decreased in both number and effectiveness by about
20 percent. This has been a combination of several things. One, of course,
is the tactics, techniques and procedures that we're using as we conduct our
operations. The disruption in the senior leadership that we've been able to
have on the leadership of the insurgency, they've been a little bit less
complex because of the pressure that we've been able to keep on them. And
also, we continue to get a large number of tips from the Iraqi people to
help us discover them and get the word when they're putting them in, as well
as the impact of several large caches that were seized throughout the last
three months. So we continue to use all available technology, tactics,
techniques and procedures to decrease the impact and effect of IEDs on our
forces.
Q A follow-up on that. Some of the other officials we talk
to say the IED sophistication has been increasing; but you're saying the
opposite; you're saying that they're going down in numbers and
sophistication?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Right now in this area they are going
down in number as well as in sophistication. For example, there have not
been as many buried and camouflaged, covered or concealed as had been in the
past. And I think I explained why we thought that was.
Q Thank you.
MR. WHITMAN: Go ahead.
Q General, this is Gordon Trowbridge from the Army Times
newspapers. There's been a lot of conversation over the last couple of
years about troop levels in Iraq. I wonder if you could just give us a
sense of whether or not you think you have adequate force to conduct the
operations that you need to conduct in your area.
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes, we have adequate force to conduct the
operations in our area of operations. And we have actually -- recently
there's been an Iraqi security force that was moved out of the area and
moved to another area. So it actually has decreased the level of Iraqi
security forces up in the area. And we have approximately 35,000 Iraqi
security forces up here, in addition to the approximately 10,000 coalition
forces on the ground.
MR. WHITMAN: All right, John.
Q This is John Lumpkin with AP. To follow up on Will's
question about the mess hall -- mess tent bombing -- and these may be things
that aren't known, but have you been able to determine whether the bomber
somehow snuck past perimeter security or if he had some help from the
inside? Was he wearing any kind of Iraqi uniform? Was he an Iraqi or from
another country? And is -- and it sounded like this -- is the investigation
itself complete?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: He was believed to be wearing an Iraqi uniform,
and he was not believed to be working on the base. And the investigation is
complete, yes.
Q Was he an Iraqi national?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: We are not sure whether he was an Iraqi
national or not. We believe he was associated with the Ansar al-Sunna
group, but we could never determine whether he was an Iraqi national or not.
Q And then did he sneak past perimeter guards or did -- is
it your sense that someone let him in?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: There was -- we do not believe he snuck past or
went through the perimeter guards and gates.
Q How could he have gotten in?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's a large perimeter, and we think that
he was somehow able to infiltrate through the perimeter, not going through
an official gate.
MR. WHITMAN: Go ahead, Joe.
Q General, this is Joe Tabet with Al Hurra TV. My question
is, do you have any information or any number about the Islamic militants
who are -- who cross the Iraqi border with Syria every month to carry out
attacks?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: I think I can tell you the people that we have
caught are -- were involved in some of the suicide bombings over the last
several months. Most of the suicide bombings, we believe, have been by
foreigners who have infiltrated into the country, mostly from Syria. And
also we have captured approximately 70 in the last three months. So as for
a sense of numbers, between the 70 that we have captured and that were
detained, and approximately a hundred who were either killed in suicide
attacks or engagements with coalition forces and Iraqi security forces, we
believe there's about 170 been in -- infiltrated in that we've come in
contact with or destroyed or captured in the last three months.
Q Just -- let me follow up, General. This morning the Iraqi
national adviser, Mowaffak Rubaie, said that every month 150 Islamic
militants are crossing the border. Do you agree with him?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: That number, based on what we're seeing up
here, is entirely within the realm of the possibility. But you've got to
understand we only see the Rabiya crossing in the northwest part of the
Syrian border. It does not include what they see down in the south. So --
but based on what we're seeing up here, that's a reasonable estimate, yes.
Q This is Lisa Burgess with Stars and Stripes. General, my
understanding is that the Mosul police are primarily made up a single tribe,
the Jaburi. How does this homogenous makeup affect their relationship with
the population and with the army forces?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The makeup of all the forces, whether the Iraqi
army or the police, is obviously critical to building an institution that
can execute its mission as well as develop trust among the people. So we
work hard to ensure that that force is diversified. They are not all in
balance right now, and so what we do is we recruit -- targeting recruiting
and -- as well as train people from a wide variety of both religious ethnic
backgrounds. Right now, the Jaburi is about 20 percent of the Nineveh
police force out of 14,000 people. So we continue to diversify that force
and try to make it a force that is representative of all Iraqi people.
Q For clarification, how many of the Mosul police are
Jaburi?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The Mosul police force, Jaburi is a little
higher than that 19 percent, but I don't know that right off the top of my
head. There's also a little bit higher percentage than 19 percent who are
the leadership in the Mosul police department.
Q So when you say a little bit higher, do you mean --
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: But you got to understand --
Q Fifty percent --
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, there's probably about 10 -- 10 to 20
percent, and what you go to understand is when the police department had the
challenges last November, the current police chief was requested to do the
job by the minister of Interior. So because of the chaos that was -- the
situation at that particular time, the initial group of people that he went
to were people from his tribe, because that was who he could trust.
So as I said, we continue to work the diversification issues in
both the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police to build a team that is loyal to
the Iraqi people and leaders.
MR. WHITMAN: Let's move? back around.
Q General, I'm Carl Osgood with Executive Intelligence
Review. Can you talk a little bit about the situation with the provision of
basic services: electricity, water, medical care? What's the situation with
these services? Is it better than they were three months ago?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: We continue to improve the basic service. The
provincial government is actively involved. They have improved on most
fronts. It's a challenge, of course, with electricity because of the
booming number of electrical demands that is occurring across all of Iraq at
this point in time, as well as some of the challenges that we've had in
getting the electricity to last a mile to the people from the distribution
centers; because that's been a little bit lagging in the Iraqi efforts to
build that.
On water, on sewer and basic needs, hospitals and medical care,
we continue to improve on a daily basis, and the provincial government is
standing up and leading those efforts.
MR. WHITMAN: (Off mike) -- Will.
Q General, Will Dunham with Reuters. On the mess hall
bombing, you mentioned that the bomber was wearing an Iraqi security forces
uniform. Has it been determined whether he was an actual member of Iraqi
security forces? And also, could you just talk about the general posture of
Ansar al-Sunna in your region?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, we weren't able to determine exactly
whether he was in the Iraqi security forces or just had stolen or acquired
an Iraqi uniform for the Marez bombing.
Ansar al-Sunna is one of the insurgent groups that has an impact
throughout our region; they have in addition to the other insurgency group.
We have also had some impact on some of their senior leadership in the last
three months, but they continue to actively pursue their goals in this
region. Because it's spread across a wide range of Iraq and -- it is a
lethal insurgency force that has been trying to tear down the future of
Iraq.
Q General, Jeff Schogol with Stars and Stripes. We've heard
that when soldiers and Marines find possible roadside bombs, it can take
hours for explosive ordnance disposal people to show up. Do you have enough
EOD people in your command?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, we have enough EOD people in the command.
It takes us approximately 30 to 40 minutes to respond to the roadside bombs.
We also use engineers in many of the situations where it's not quite as
complex. And the challenge that we have is not so much the number of EOD
personnel, but the coordination and the response and the speed with which we
can get them out to the locations throughout the area. So we have enough
EOD personnel to do the job, and we have not had a problem with getting them
out to do the job. We would like to improve the response time and we're
working on that, but it's about 30 minutes most times around here.
Q A quick follow-up question.
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Throughout the Nineveh Province.
Q As a quick follow-up question, what would you consider the
ideal response time?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Well, anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes would
be ideal. But like you said, the challenge is not the number of troops,
it's the coordination in the reports and the responsiveness that we all
continue to work a coordination effort to get done quickly.
Q Sir, Gordon Trowbridge again from Army Times. You
mentioned earlier a figure of about 35,000 Iraqi security forces. I wonder
first if you could give us a a sense of how those break down, the various
MOI organizations versus Iraqi army. And also, could you give us a sense of
the operational abilities of those troops? Do you have any units that are
capable of conducting independent operations? How much assistance are you
giving with command and control and logistics and things like that?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: The sense for the MOI versus the MOD, there's
about 14,000 MOI people who are in the police force for the Nineveh
Province. The remaining Iraqi security forces are about 14,000, which are
in the army. And then there's a couple thousand in the border police. As
far as the effectiveness of each of those, out of the 14,000 police, just to
give you a sense, there have been about 1,000 that have been through the
eight-week training programs that are back in the force right now. We have
trained about 150 of the Iraqi police throughout the province in advanced
training, which includes running police stations as well as the judicial
process and evidence and specific skills that are required for all police
throughout the country. And we have also trained about 2,000 of those
people in a four-day familiarization training that both military police,
Iraqi army and coalition forces have helped to accomplish. So when you look
at a 14,000 police force, we have about 150 that have got the advanced
skills training, 1,000 who have got the eight-week patrolman training, and
about another 2,000 patrolmen who have got a familiarization training, out
of the 14,000.
Now, on the Iraqi army side, of course, all of them have come
through the basic training, although we have two divisions -- the 3rd
Division came through the entire training process from the beginning, that
was built from a training base and it was nationally recruited. And they are
out -- all three of the brigades are operating. The capability to do
independent COIN operations, we estimate those brigades will be ready about
June of next year. In the meantime, they are all operating and fighting now
at various levels of readiness. As could be expected, the lower-level units
are very, very effective. They're very aggressive and they are good at
command and controlling, the small units. That's -- you get to the larger
units, it becomes a bigger challenge, which is where we're helping the most,
which is in the command and control, in both planning and execution; some
intelligence, although the intelligence that the Iraqi security forces bring
to us is tremendous benefit to our combined efforts. We also provide combat
support and combat service support, such as medevac and resupply when
they're operating. And of course we also support them with quick reaction
forces.
The 2nd Division, which is over here in the vicinity of Mosul,
was one that was a National Guard or ICDC-type unit that was recruited from
the local area and was trained as they operated. So they had a lot more
OJT, or on-the-job training. And those four brigades are in a wide range of
readiness rates. One of them is -- will be about three or four months from
gaining the ability to do independent COIN operations with the support I
just talked to you about at the senior leadership level in combat service
support. And then the other three we expect to be ready to go by next
summer; in June of '06 is the plan right now.
But all of them are fighting, and all of them are participating.
MR. WHITMAN: We've got time for maybe one or two more. Let's
go to the back, and then we'll finish up with Joe.
Q General, Jeff Schogol with Stars and Stripes again. Is
there an exact number -- an exact figure of how many Iraqi troops we need to
train before we can start bringing troops home, U.S. troops home?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: There's not an exact number, because it depends
on multiple things. One is the insurgency and the strength of that
insurgency and what we've been able to do to decrease that effectiveness.
The second thing is the combination of all the Iraqi security
forces and of course the impact that the political process has on the
insurgency and the growth of the Iraqi state.
So this is a constantly assessed situation, and I think it's
been very, very clear that we'll come home as soon as we can, but not too
soon.
MR. WHITMAN: (Off mike.)
Q Thank you. General, Joe Tabet with Al Hurra again. In
your area, are you using any technology, like robot, to face IEDs and
roadside bombs?
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes, we have robots. We have electronic
countermeasure devices. We have Buffalos that have long arms that have --
provide the stand-off. So we're using a combination of many, many
technologies, as well as equipment, to include dog -- dog teams is another
component of this process.
But like you said, it's a combination of technology. It's a
combination of tactics, techniques and procedures. It's a combination of
intelligence. So it's a -- as I said, we take this threat very seriously
and are combining every effort we can to reduce the threat to our soldiers.
MR. WHITMAN: Well, General Rodriguez, we've reached the end of
our time here. We just want to thank you for taking the time late in your
day to spend it with us. And we hope that we'll see you again in another
few weeks.
GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Thank you very much.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050819-3703.html
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