-

Transcript Millaw Analyst Call

Tuesday, Dec 20,2005.0930

-
OSD Public Affairs, Room 2E556, The Pentagon

Host: Tara Jones. OSD Public Affairs

-
On background quote as senior DoD official
Durabon approximately 20 minutes
Transcriber Murphy

Ms Jones Tn s is Tara "ones at the Pentagon Welcome to the conference call Thanks for
10rung JS this morn ng Iwant to rem nd ycu that today's call is on backgmuno. so you may quote
a senior DoD official.

Iham w~thme-fm the Army and-from tha Jant S M Tney

w.ll oe briefing you on troop aojdstments in A hanistan and we look forwam to your questions at
tne end Wth that I will turn 11over t o h

-
Okay thanks Tam Good mommg We as you ve seen in some press reports
that wi I be out shortly within the nour here in tne Pentagon that
will out1ne an adjustment of troops for our forces in OEF in Afghanistan

It will outline the fact that 4" Brigade, 10" Mountain Divisionwill not deploy asa brigade unit,
rather, one battaliontask force pulled from that brigade will go forward to provide support to the
-
NATO transformationIn the south what will be called Regional Command South, and they will
be partneringwith UK, Canadian and others in the south to create a multi-national force under the
NATO ISAF flag as it makes Its transition.

The end resLlt of i n k w 11mean a decrease in overall J S presence in Afghan Stan by something
on the order of aoo-n 2 500 to ks Numbers a M e bit soh, but 11will Be pfew close n that
category.

It signals kind of a beginningof an expansion of NATO's mission. This is based on an

- -
assessment that General Eikenberry Karl Eikenberry has made in the theater, with
recommendations to General Abiiaid that the security conditions, the progress on the ground has
been such that we can begin to transitionfrom direct combat operations in the southern part of
the country to stability operations that are more closely aligned with the NATO ISAF mission And
NATO has stood up to that.

So this A enotner step n a SJCCSSS story in Afgnanistan It comes on the neels of parliament
being seated à comes on the hee a of some progress being maae n reconstruct on n tne south.
1 comes on tne heels of some morovement in tne stabi nv in the number of DIOV ncos and it
allows for NATO to continue to take on an expanded mle'in Afghanistan.

So g m news story Goo0 news n that we can reouce tne numoerof folks mat am deploy ng,
g m news n That NATO is able to ~ e ngan expansion of is ISAF miss on and good news
becadse all tnat s4gna.s some success on tne ground in Afghanistan

So that's kind of a quick overview. We are probably best suited to let you all fire away at
questions, so I'll stop there and let you jump in, and wecan go from questions. And I've got folks
from the Army as well who can be the experts better than I.

Q General Boo Magmms Question with regard to SAP and the Dutcn I understand they re not
going to u-rn over prisoners perhaps to us because of tne r restnctons on capital wnishment Is
mat go no to at all harm o-ir ntel igence gathering operations n AfgnanIstan9
 Bob, I think first it's imwrtant to understand that as NATO assumes this new
mission, they will come with a set of rules of engagement that will deal with detainees as they
take them. There is, for example, in RC-West and RC-North, where they are today, they have an
agreement with the government of Afghanistan on turning those over We work closely with
Afghanistan on intelligence gathering, and we are comfortable with that relationship.

So I really don't think this will have any substantial effect at all. I think we are very comfortable
with the way NATO approaches detainees in the other parts of the country; we see that
conhnuina as thev move into the south and we feel like we'll have more than adeauate ability to
share in ?at inteliigence information with the Afghan government

Q' Thank you

Ms Jones Gentlemen, any other questions for the general?

Q This is Gordon Cucultu, general. Do we see this as likely to accelerate over the course of
2006, or would it be safe to say we're trying this on a tr~albasis to assess it after a couple of
months?

IGordon that's a good question, and I think you want to be a little careful to signal,
yo. ^no# i n s oe ng the DO* wave of large-scae changes Bi-t I thinit n s mponanl to
cnaracter ze I n that a e see tnis as me Deg nnmg of Lrtner expanson of me NATO m sson
.,
wn ch genera s a stao l zaion reconsiri.ciion. governance r o e w i n cerla n y capabe sec-irly
forces should they be needed

So what I see accelerating is the progress that we've made in Afghanistan with respect to
governance and restoration of a reasonablequality of life for the Afghan people

As to how that will affect U S.troops, I think its also fair to say that this reduction could continue
based on the conditions we see further on down the road You don't want to overuse - I mean,
*e oeat .P me con0 lions oasea approam bdt trdy I n s is tne beqmn ng of a 10-tine
assessment a rout ne -paate a ree,a ati ion by CFC Alpha ana Genera Ao za d an0 tne
secretary on con0 ions as they coot m e to improve an0 1g.ves .s me a0 ty 10 f m e r trans ton
fofces to a oroaoer NATO m ss on n the country

it's also important to note that it does not in any way reduce our commitment to the counter-
terrorism mission in the country. We will retain all of the very highly trained and well-equipped
Special Forces units that we have in the country that can wntinue to press the fight against al
Qaeda and those Talcban elements that want to wntinue to fight

It also s'gna s a f yo- M I an expans on of 0.r relationship w In Afghan Stan n me area of

strateg c partners" p oeca-se lbecomes a more mdti nationa force mats mere n me co-ntry
Ano men I t r nn fna Iv 1 s a measue of o..r confdence n tne ran - m sorry Afanan -
government beginning to stand up more and more on its own. and allows us to work closely with
both the Afghan government and the internationalcommunity on the future of Afghanistan.

Q' Can 1 ask a follow-up to that please?

-sure

-
Q. The 1 know we're going to be asked or that the question will come up and I don't want to lean
to far forward in the foxhole on this, but is this then conceptually at least a working model for what
we would hope to achieve in Iraqi Freedom?

IYou know, Gordon I think there - while there are parallels between the two
theaters, and certainly an assessmentof situations on the ground will continue In both places Its
important to also understand the differences in Afghanistan, we are, we are. we have been
obviously engaged there with a large multi-national presencefor quite a while, and we've begun
to really isolate the terrorist element, if vou will, in a small portion of the south and predominantly
the eastern border area in ~fghanistan,andwe'll continue to stay focused on that But the
process of assessing situations on the ground are parallel, and General Casey clearly will
contin-e to ma<e tnose assessments over 1me ana ne too ike Genera E Kenoerry w t make
some reconmenoat ons to the secretafy in terms of how h e ad.A ana snape in raq as we So
mere are para e s inere are o ffe,ences wcud be ca-tious a w J oraw ng too m.cn nto Inat
just yet.

0:Thanks very much

Sure Any other questions?

0 BOOMag nn s aga n On PRTs (prov nca reconstn.clion teams, tne o m o-lion of PRTs s
that sn h ng at al more n hATO s favor, are we downsiz ng our presence there or wnat s me
distribution?

-well, Bob, as NATO assumes more and more of a role throughout the country,
they will also take on more responsibilitytor the PRTs that are deployed. As an example, the PRT
in Lashkar Gah (Helmend Province),which is nght now a U S PRT will transition to UK as the UK
moves into that region The Canadians are taking overa PRT in the Kandahar region as they
move in So it is a transfer of PRT responsibilityto NATO, and that really is a central element of
NATO's mission in each of these regions as they move forces in.

The U S will still retain leadership on a number of the PRTs The number I think that sticks in my
head today is we'll still have somewhere around 12, but please don't quote me on that because
my public math is usually wrong But essentially we'll keep all of the PRTs - the vast majority of
the PRTs in the east; we will work a couple of PRTs up in the Panjsher Valley (near Kabul), and
then - but the intent being that we would encourage and welcome other nations picking up some
of those responsibilities.And we'll still keep one or two of those PRTs as part of NATO as well,
and thal's important to mention, as well

An0 one po nt a menton neie mat some m ght say we.1 yo. re en ng NATO lane I n s on so YOJ

- ..
can go nome n fact * e l cont n-e to have more forces contr o m g to hATO tnan me otner
a t o n n me orocess an0 so as we make mis fina transition I mean 1male v as hATO
might assume'the entire country, the U S will still be the dominant partner there. SO, in addition
to around forces of course we'li continue to Drovide all the air and the intelliaence surveillance
an; reconna ssance me srppon ng fires (7; a great deal of og st cs suppin So tne J S w I
st I oe present n me hATO 'n sson for the foreseeable future So 118s not a - sno- a not De
cnaracter zeo as nano ng tn s over to some other nations n NATO an0 the L S not pan c pat ng

Q: General, Tim Eads Can you tell us how this is going to affect the rotation schedule in Iraq, or if
it will affect the rotation schedule in Iraq, if you're (bringing?) up these troops'"

-well, -
as you may know, Tim, the rotation I mean, we work the yearly rotation
schedules a good deal in advance. The forces earmarked to go to Afghanistan and the forces
earmarked to go to Iraq are kind of done in separate bins

/Vnat in s # oc 00" 0"s y s ease the tempo of 4'" Br gaoe 10'" Mounts n oeca-se they are not
gong toAfgnan.stan an0 ri ineory f yo. extrapolate thm over t me mat force COJa oe ava .abe
for some otner m ss on sooner man they m ght normal y oe

But there are some unknowns in this One of the key elements here is this brigade will remain on
a prepared to deploy order, which really means that if General Elkenberryfound a crisis
developed that he needed that additional force, we'd push that forward
 So they're not completely off the hook, but they'll be at home station in a PTDO status. SO it may
not necessarily free up that brigade as quickly as we'd hoped, but it does signal that we are
beginningto change the size of the force in Afghanistan and so there is some relations I how
t h a t in the you k , I o r r m in e m o f s u s t a i l i Maybe*
might have another comment here.

-NO, sir, I really don't. I think generally that's a --

-~hat's a fair way to describe it?

I think it's a good (description?) -

I think with respect to Iraq, you know, we don't all know what we don't all know
right now, and until we see how General Casey assesses the success ofthe elections, and how
-
this what it (portends?) for the future, and really understandhis recommendation (to?) the
secretary, we can't really comment there, and that's probably as good as it gets for right now.

Tim, does that kind of answer your question?

Q: Yes, sir, it does. Thanks very much.

Okay. Any other questions? Well you all are pretty wetl-behaved today. I was
warmed up for ail the worst, but, I appreciate it. If there's something that you think of in follow-up,
. whatever informationwe can. We appreciate an of your
get back to Tara. and we'll tw to aet vou
support. You're doing great work.

Q: Well, thank you very much.

Ms. Jones: All right, thank you gentlemen, take care, happy holidays.

Q: Merry Christmas.

Q: Merry Christmas.