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Transcript MilteryAnalyst Callm r e ? 2 E p adj-enta in IraqP o n s n the recad:PORTIONSOFFTHE RECORDOSD Public Affairs, Room2E556 The PentagonHost LTC OIam Bamglle, Joint C h i ublicAttainTranscriber Murohv

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with tne training of Army transition teams, and perhapseven other Service transition teams.dependingupon thetr maneupBut those are the three functions that the brigade will be performing nowover the next year or so.again, with certainly a portion of them going into Iraq.Now, iwould add that it is stilla net plus in terms of the total numbers,okay?Because hey amgoing in as security companies, somebody else is not going, okay? So this isn't a shell game.certainly, in that context it's just that these people are, again, readily available: they're moreprepared han some of the other companies rom the other units that might be tagged a later Pointin time.Let me talk to you some about the math, okay? Simplicity says that until about August, and for theseveral months eadinoUD to that, we were about 1Wk as what we w l i me baseline force. You allare well aware oecauk you trackedm a we stanea la bump up at mat panf. first fw ne mid-October retarendm andlollowing hat, of co~fseme mia-Dcemt eection and Peaknmbefs went to aboiit 160 000Now thatwas obviously or the election, we've done that before and everycasewe've come backdown to baseline, and that certainly is the intent this time.Simple math woUd say okay we go cam to abo-t 1-30 000 two brigades 3,500 eact that'sawJt 7 000 sowelt neat 131 rant? We the answer 8 no mats not quite w h l And thereason for that is since abou August of last year weve oeen look ng at transition reqdiremenis ohanaover th~sight an0 i-hmately -nly respons b, bes to the raqn A M wove beenpfoviomg to tnem since aboutA ~ g ~ s t ,ne numoemof penpie tnat will be necessary or Wansiwnteams - hese 10 12 man elementsmatmi be working wnn me Iraqi ~ n l bMh combat SLppon-combat micesupport ypes of people thatw 1 suengmen ma1 raqi capabil ty and eventuallya ow them to do

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The last thing is that I ould emphasizeIsthat his all Is coming about as a resultOf Iraqiprogress.Imean, right now, the numbers are at 216,000 trained and equipped; 120Qlus Iraq1zn-ndFyFwy"p;oya; g o ; ~ J y $ ~ n d j E&*m'mm=Fleadership otes right now in that two division headquarters: that numberof brigade headquarterswill ao uo to 11 or so bv tha end of January,So lr s a ncuthamt randline n tu m so f the Iraais.b o t h c k g on line end assuming controlof ground and batttospace s theyare able to doAnd again,tint's ow General Casey, GeneraiVinas.GeneralAbzald, the socreBry end thechairman are all able to arrive at the decision hat has now been made.Iwould emphasizeto you that ITSdone In a military chain of commandthatgees all the way to thepresident it Is not basedon political events. And that's all asa military man Isuppose1need tosay about tha tOkay,hat d'dnt takaa full 15 minutes,but that just gives us more $me for qLiestions.I'llbehawy to field anything that you guys have.Q This is.dl McCuslTwoquick quMtons On I" of he I" ou w id thatthey 8mgong to be tim ing the transton turns.mil they be doing r o t back at Riley, the 1nMinatioMliramim canter. Kiiwai~ra a wherewill thaiomr? And on t m 1AO hioade wnen will theyactuallydose n ~ u w a h ith troopsand equipment, and then lastly, anfcomments about thefuture if things go wed at the end of spring?

-well, firstofalt in tenroof he training, you know, Ihink. End I'll have toconfirmttus(or you, but I hink Ifs going to lake placeat home station In Riey.'nut would certainly imnthe logistics requirements of going elsewtiere o d o n Ican tall you it is not going tolake place nthaaUf. It is gong to taka place In 010 UnitedStattt.

thatallowthem now todeployquickly if&event shouldnecesatate hatIn terms ofwhat will haooen down ranaeJeff. Imean. It lust defends. This has alwaysbeenfiliation based,and &are going to h iv e to read thesituationas ndevelops. ~ w n o w t h ~ ' ~some prettypositive rend linesout there compared to what we saw during he referendum intenroof casualties, n termsof numbemofttlsck, in termsof WIEDs, suicide WIEDs, thosetypa of things Ifthose things continue in a positivefaahlon,and Iraqis continue o show that theya n manage it then I hink there's proCably good news to follow. Butthai will be dependent uponGeneralCasefa assessmentwhen those things pop on to the calendar.Q: Thank youQ: HeyGeneral.Jed Babbln. We heard fromGeneralCaw,and i uess more reoenW from thesecretary,hat we're trrina tobalance hlnos between ~f o vl d h ohe Iraaiswith the su~ooiitheyneedand notcreating n them a dependency on us o do ail of'those in ng Iunderstandtneconcept Give us co& ofpoints- you Know. howdo you makethe udgmml? What do youbabnceone MM net the other n term of trying to not create that dependency?

v-h. ~ dh nk mar* a good question ~ n df a finoue queriion na sort ofway because n a t p ndswtiat you're d d n g Wh at the time Imean UwfbJut like Inobr httarv imk Iraaiunitsam ~ e f t e rhen other* But- they are able to& p. w> am P Wmuch &iring that th& do so

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Ican toll you tnat in the reports this morning, that mare's the firtwhat they am call.ng Iraqiorigaae-level sweep that'staken place oJt n the EuphratesRiverValley Thems a Marine rrtecorn- out of ~ ~ 1 . 2at is them asa ~ u tho^ uvs conche of t oiannedn andex&ted all i n heirown.Sothat'ihihpeofgrowththatwe& and matwe want toencourage.And I hink Diere's a beliefon the p r t of our military and certainlyour IkuderaMp hat.you know, some of theseunitewill be reticent o step toward unbsa you absolutely compel themto do so.butthat's ur rasmmlUlltv to bothtmin the Imabas tobone. conduct the neaMUIYcountennwmenwaslobk. uttomakew m hatthat'first Gb isundaretood and executedaswon as we a nmakeithappenQ: Great, thanks.0:This IsJeff McCausland again. One other question -on the transition eams -*fa in thefuture? Is that going to be Amiy-Marine, or is that gang to beso le lyhy?

Jeff. actually US ll S*rvic*s.The guyswno amoJ doingwe dose cornbet kindof stuff n lrt Army and Mane BJIw i l t we've seen the direction, andwDwaiMntly thewi ll inor fu on the oartotmaNaw and theAr Forcamano uo wt rm Thev can.Sowme ofthese-transition teams arebase facilities (base acilities7itrainingeams;some of themarelogirt-amining tnm Sowtrm t plawibb that a VnMtion hamcanwontto dothe type ofthings ( h iwe find resident n tneAr Forcea he Navy.aoa n those Servicesam stewing UPDig bme to help relievesome of thestresson thetwoground ServicesBut clearty where there isa ground combat role and that extends out to the bordertransitionteams- he special police and the transit& teams -you am goingto ftid mostof thoseare Army and Mamie.

Q: How are we coming, partailarly wilh theMEF,of impressing upon the Sunnis that the U Sandthe Coalition forms am them lastgreathope, that If they continue he insurgency then,youknow, time willJust orce us to turn itover the Kurdsand the Shi'a to solve ittor hem, endwe canhelp them more than anybodywfth revising he constitution, conomicresources, ositions In thecabinetAre we makingprogresswith them?e m , hink so. I eesome really positive signs, without soundlng overty

I Isjuatthe turnout of the Sunnlvow. I hinkBuyma620thetthh o d ?) t latt. re not willingto see that occur that way this lime around. So that's I hink apositive sign.Secondly, you know,we're actually seeing some red on red. In and around Ramadi, and out onthewesternborder. The- some of the badguys have really had itwith the AQI folks in R d i ,and them am lightstaking place them, them are threats, them is intimidation- on bothskies.really.But i fs he old thing the enemy ofmy enemy Is my friend.And althoughthese, ou know,FRE (former regime elements?) and former Saddamlsts aren't going to really befriend us nwaysthat we are seeingoutwest. we stillsee thatasa ~ositfvehing. and I hinka realizationon thepertoft hose folks^ that you know, the final lokitin here Is going to be pllbcal, nutkinetic.Theotharthlno s that out on thehordar,ana he border msts am now in Dbceand manned UP,sowe think wc a n start to throttle, you know, someof the numbers thatwe'veseen cominga cm .but secondly,you've got Intel aheite out there that have foughttheAQI previoijth, whoam offering heir .young men to join the military In a militia-sortof way. we call themDesertProtectors. Andwe'vegot three p latms of those folks out and about And they am piovlding agood Ut of intelligence; hey're helpingof coursewith thesecurity role; and Use good lie

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between sheiksout there that weren't necessarily avorable to the Manna n thewest that arenow by necessitycaused to work somewhat in sync.Q:And havesome of them continued with me cease fire they put in during the election?

I ~ o unow, Iminkwe're probably, certainly t h e m w e ' r e g o i n g onumbersofattacksgo up some. There was never really a cease fire; I hink thatlittle misunderstood. I hink there probably were some discussions aking place,but thosearen't new, Imean. I had those when I as out there, and these guys can never quitecome across with the goods. We said, hey, show us your power by cutting off the attacks andwe'll start to believe that you speak for large numbersof people.They were never quite able to do that And althoughI hink there haveonceagain beendiscussions his time, nothing that approached a cease fire, and attacks still did occur, so-although hey were somewhat diminished And these people did help us in securing the pollingsites.So I ton t know that there's a one-for-one rel-rn on lne effort, certainlyone that we'll continuetow e as approach tna new yearQ' Thank you.Q General BobMaginns Onme Hom ofAfrica. you mdmted inp r xplanatonof me firstpo nt that the I*' of the 1" of co-ree ism goingover n ts entirety out elements mightgo to meHorn of Africa Are we growing or ismls a replacementeffort ,n that area?

I ob, I'll be honest wilh you, Idon't know the answer to that The informationIout 30 minutes old. When I stepped n the Army had actually reducedthe number01 securlw companies hat were going to be headed nto Iraq, and included in that numberwasone for the Horn ofAfrica.Iwill tell you that we are trying notto grow it; that's the thrust. It's an economy of force mission,and any request for forces that come in from there are very closely scrutinized, so Iam going tohave to dig more into what theysee s this reyirement Ido know there's a security effort herethat is existent in Diiibouti at the base. Whetheror not these are QUYS that arelust scheduled ogo in and rotate them out, Ican't say for sureWe are not providinga lotof security elsewhere with regard to convoys and that typeof thing. So,Iwould say6040 that they're replacement,but Ican't say that with 100percentassurityQ: Thank you.Q Genera. Tim Eaas Could ~ O L ive LS a .!Mebackground on me timing of ths announcement?Imean is itmea almostexc mve y on the capam ty ofme Iraqi forcesto step in ismeresomethina else n olau- uoii know -the elartinnwas iess man a weekaao Some may man< t sstrange that we are &nok ing troop withdrawals before the governmenthas stood up

Vean T m a1 tnose things certainty went into consawation I can tell you thatL acuasion on tn s now for some tme but that me election hanoingoJt therewas amajor consaeration in terms of the annmncement VOJ know.we neededtis& -we weregetting reports of c ome. that the bad g ~ y sere going to try to disrupt and eraoicate yOJ know.the successoftrie atection as mdcn as mevcould That oov.o~.slv an I aomn Imean YOL ha0a huge turnout and the ability of the Iraqi orces to defend it wasjust excellent

So, it was believed that we would wait and seehow all that panned out before there were any realannouncementsof me decision, and mars essentially what youseehere. Now,we realize that d

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Ican't quantify that for you, bui that's a sensing that I've got. And I hink it'sa self preservationthing morethan it is you know, tor the good of the MNF or even Iraq. But I hink thafs probablyaccurate.The other thing is thatwe do think that what happens in Baghdad, Rarnadi, Samara is directlytied in a lot of instances with what's happening on the border, andwe think that there 1sdisruptionin the flow and also in the safehouse structure that they had established n the Euphrates RiverValley.We're cnaraaenzmghose EJpnrates R.ver Valley operations as be ng very successful notonlyfor nrfiai they did sortof in me loca area but also me mpact m a t has had with these downwantrenos mat Imentioned o you in my openng discussionThe other thing that's kind of interestina s that we'vegotten reports that it issohot, andI anttak mum about it bi,t our S w a l or& charts wodd bear it 01.1 that some of these enderehave actJahy gone into Syria to operate because mey 'rejut soafrad of captureor Doingcoo& esoecialvuo in tne vicinitvof Ta Afarana Mow1 JD inm a w on So mat'sa netpositivedebebpment as well. It doesn't get at the essence of your question, but it does point tothe heat that's being brought against theseguys inwhatwas previously some outlying areas.Q: Thank you.

-okay, I hank you for oining us, gentlemen. Is there anythingI eed to follow upon?Q: (JeffMcCausland?) (Inaudible)verify training sites (Inaudible) Rtby, that might behelpful

-wi~m.Hey guys, great to be withyou again. Have a wonderful Christmas We will betalking toyou again afterthe New Year.

Q: Likewise,sir.Q: Thanks general.0:Great rundown.Q Thank you very much(call ends).