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Transcript -M illa w Analyst CallTuesday, Dec 20,2005.0930OSD - Public Affairs, Room 2E556, The PentagonHost: Tara Jones. OSD Pub lic AffairsOn background- uote as senior DoD officialDurabon approximately 20 minutesTranscriber MurphyMs Jones Tn s s Tara "ones at the Pentagon Welcome to the conference call Thanks for10 rung JS this morn ng Iwant to rem nd ycu hat today's call is on backgmuno. so you may quotea senior DoD official.I a m w ~ t h e-fm the Army and-from tha Jant S M neyw.ll oe briefingyou on troop aojdstments in A hanistan and we look forwam to your questions attne end W th that Iwill turn 11 over t o h

Okay thanks Tam Good mommg We - as you ve seen in some press reportsthat wi Ibe out shortly within the nour here in tne Pentagon thatwill out1 ne an adjustment of troops for our forces inOEF in AfghanistanIt will outline the fac t that 4" Brigade, 10" Mountain Division will not dep loy as a brigade unit,rather, one battalion ask force pulled from that b rigade will go forward to provide support to theNATO transformation n the south-what will be ca lled Regional Command South, and they willbe pa rtneringwith UK, Canadian and others in the south to create a multi-national force under theNATO ISAF flag as i t makes Its transition.The end resLltof i n k w 11m ean a decrease in overall J S presence in Afghan Stan by somethingon the o rder of aoo-n 2 500 to ks Numbers a M e bit soh, but 11will Be pfew close n thatcategory.It signals kind of a beg inningof an expansion of NATO's mission. This is based on anassessment that G eneral Eikenberry- Karl Eikenberry - has made in the theater, withrecommendations to General Ab iiaid that the security conditions, the progress on the ground hasbeen such that we can begin to transition rom direct combat operations in the southern part ofthe country to stability operations that are more closely aligned with the NATO ISAF mission AndNATO has stood up to that.So this A enotner step n a SJCCSSStory inAfgnanistan It comes on the nee ls of parliamentbeing seated 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 stab i nv in the number of DIOV ncos and itallows for NATO to continue to take on an expanded mle'in Afghanistan.So g m ews story Goo0 news n that we can reouce tne num oerof folks mat am deploy ng,g m ews n That NATO is able to ~ e gan expansion of is ISAF miss on and good newsbecadse a ll tnat s4gna.s som e success on tne ground in AfghanistanSo that's kind of a quick overview. We areprobably best suited to let you all fire away atquestions, so I'll stop there and let you jump in, and w ecan go from questions. And I've got folksfrom 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 notgoing to u-rn over prisoners perhaps to us because of tne r restnc tons on capital wnishmen t Ismat go no to at all harm o-ir nte l igence gathering operations n AfgnanIstan9

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Bob, I hink first it's imwrtant to understand that as NATO assumes this newmission, they will come with a set of rules of engagement that will deal with detainees as theytake them. There is, for example, in RC-West and RC-North, where they are today, they have anagreement with the government of Afghanistan on turning those over We work closely withAfghanistan 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 hink we are very comfortablewith the way NATO approaches detainees in the other parts of the country; we see thatconhnuina as thev move into the south and we feel like we'll have more than adeauate ability toshare in ?at inteliigence nformation with the Afghan governmentQ' Thank youMs Jones Gentlemen, any other questions or the general?Q This is Gordon Cucultu, general. Do we see this as likely to accelerate over the course of2006, or would it be safe to say we're trying this on a t r~ al asis to assess it after a couple ofmonths?Iordon that's a good question, and I hink you want to be a little careful to signal,yo. ^no# in s oe ng the DO* wave of large-scae changes Bi-t I thinit n s mponanl tocnaracterze I n that a e see tnis as me Deg nnmg of Lrtner expansonof me NATO m ssonwn ch genera., s a stao lzaion reconsiri.ciion. governance roe win cerla n y capabe sec-irlyforces should they be neededSo what I see accelerating s the progress hat we've made in Afghanistan with respect togovernance and restoration of a reasonablequality of life for the Afghan peopleAs to how that will affect U S. roops, I think i ts also fair to say that this reduction could continuebased on the conditions we see further on down the road You don't want to overuse- mean,*e oeat .P me con0 lions oaseaapproam bdt trdy Ins is tne beqmn ng of a 10-tineassessment a rout ne -paate a ree,a ati ion by CFC Alpha ana Genera Ao za d an0 tnesecretary on con0 ions as they coot m e o improve an0 1g.ves .s me a0 ty 10 f m e r trans tonfofces to a oroaoer NATO m ss on n the countryit's also important to note that it does not in any way reduce our commitment to the counter-terrorism mission n the country. We will retain all of the very highly trained and well-equippedSpecial Forces units that we have in the country that can wntinue to press the fight against alQaeda and those Talcban elements that want to wntinue to fightIt also s'gna s a f yo- M I an expans on of 0.r relationshipw In Afghan Stan n me area ofstrateg c partners" p oeca-se l ecomes a more mdt i nationa force mats mere n me co-ntryAno men I r nn fna Iv 1 s a measue of o..r confdence n tne ran - m sorry Afanan -government beginning o stand up more and more on its own. and allows us to work closely withboth the Afghan government and the international community on the future of Afghanistan.Q' Can 1 ask a follow-up to that please?

-sureQ. The - know we're going to be asked or that the question will come up and I don't want to leanto far forward in the foxhole on this, but is this then conceptually at least a working model for whatwe would hope to achieve n Iraqi Freedom?Iou know, Gordon I hink there -while there are parallels between he twotheaters, and certainly an assessmentof situations on the ground will continue In both places Its

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important o also understand the differences in Afghanistan, we are, we are. we have beenobviously engaged there with a large multi-national presence or quite a while, and we've begunto really isolate the terrorist element, if vou will, in a small portion of the south and predominantlythe eastern border area in ~fghanis tan,and e'll continue to stay focused on that But theprocess of assessing situations on the ground are parallel, and General Casey clearly willcontin-e to ma

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So they're not completely off the hook, but they 'll beat home station in a PTDO status. SO it maynot necessarily free up that b rigade as quickly as we'd hoped, but itdoes signa l that we arebeg inning o change the size of the force in Afghanistan and so there issome relations I howt h a t n th e you k , o r r m n e m f s u s t a i l i Maybe*might have another comment here.-NO sir, I eally don't. I hink generally that's a ---~hat's a fair way to describe it?I think it's a good (description?)-

I hink with respect to Iraq, you know, we don't all know what we don't al l knowright now, and untilwe see how General Casey assesses he success o fth e elections, and howthis -what it (portends?) for the future , and rea lly understand his recommendation (to?) thesecretary, we can't really comment there, and that's probably as good as i t gets for right now.Tim, does that kind of answeryour question?Q: Yes, sir, it does. Thanks very much.

Okay. Any other questions? Well you all are pretty wetl-behaved today . I waswarmed up for ail thewors t, but, Iappreciate it. If there 's something that you think of in follow-up,get back to Tara. and we'll tw to aet vou whatever informa tionwe can. We appreciate an of yoursupport. 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.