30 October 2001
Transcript: Head of U.S. Central Command Press Conference in Tashkent
(Franks: "We are on the timeline," have the initiative in Afghanistan)
(3680)
The operation in Afghanistan to destroy the al Qaida terrorist network
and its Taliban supporters is "on the timeline," General Tommy Franks,
the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) told
journalists at a press conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, October 30.
"We want this operation to be measured; we want this operation to be
mature; we want this operation to focus on targets and target sets. We
want to conduct this operation on our timeline. And I think we are on
that timeline and in a position of initiative at this point," he said.
Franks was in Uzbekistan as part of a trip that he said has taken him
to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and
Oman.
In Uzbekistan, he met with President Islam Karimov and discussed the
campaign against terrorism, as well as training and military and
exchange activities.
"President Karimov has been very forthcoming in providing us with
support," according to Franks.
Asked about suggestions of a cease-fire during Ramadan, Franks said
that "we hear what each of our partners and supporters in this effort
has to say," but he refused to confirm or deny that such suggestions
have been made to him and said he was not going to describe the
conduct of future operations. He also declined to specify particular
places in Afghanistan as campaign objectives, saying that the
anti-terror coalition "will retain the initiative rather than
providing specific focus on a specific area."
Asked whether U.S. ground troops will be committed to the operation,
he replied that the United States "will take nothing off of the
table."
He also said the campaign "will take as long as it takes," emphasizing
that the war against terrorism is not like other wars.
"This war will be fought on many fronts simultaneously. It will be
fought with economic tools, it will be fought with intelligence tools,
and it will be fought with lethal tools," he said.
Following is a transcript of General Franks' press conference, as
provided by U.S. Embassy Tashkent:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Embassy
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Intercontinental Hotel
October 30, 2001
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH U.S. GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF
THE U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND (CENTCOM)
[Also attending were U.S. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley and U.S.
Ambassador to Uzbekistan John E. Herbst]
REAR ADMIRAL CRAIG QUIGLEY: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
General Tommy Franks is the Commander-in-Chief of the United States
Central Command and is in the middle of a trip to a variety of nations
in his area of responsibility. He and Ambassador Herbst have agreed to
spend some time here this afternoon to take your questions.
GENERAL FRANKS: Good afternoon. I am delighted to be back in
Uzbekistan. As Admiral Quigley said, we are in the middle of a
multi-nation swing. We've been on this trip for about eight days. This
is my third visit to Uzbekistan, and it is a good experience to be
back.
I've met today with President Karimov and I've met with several of his
ministers. We had very good meetings, and discussed a wide range of
subjects. Obviously we discussed the campaign against terrorism, we
also discussed our training and military exchange activities in this
country. Prior to coming here, I had the opportunity to visit the
leadership in Bahrain, in the United Arab Emirates, in Qatar and Saudi
Arabia and Egypt and in Oman. I was in Pakistan yesterday.
The purpose of my visit to each one of those countries is the same as
the purpose behind my visit here, and that is to discuss our ongoing
operations. But as many of you know Central Command is responsible for
25 countries in this region and so this has been an opportunity to
visit several of those countries to have the sorts of discussions and
consultations that I have described.
Ambassador, is there anything you would like to say?
AMBASSADOR HERBST: I think you said it all. Thank you.
GENERAL FRANKS: Ok, well then we will be pleased to take your
questions.
QUESTION FROM UZBEK TV: You have just met with President Karimov.
Could you please go into details of your meeting with him and what did
you discuss?
GENERAL FRANKS: As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we had a full,
free, frank discussion of our ongoing operations and operation
Enduring Freedom. We also discussed our ongoing military-to-military
contacts. And as well this morning I met with the Minister of Defense
and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We had wide-ranging, fruitful
discussions.
QUESTION FROM NBC: General, with bombs going astray apparently and
civilian casualties mounting, and the Taliban forces proving to be a
formidable enemy, and the anti-Taliban rebels, General, seeming to
show little appetite, skill or willingness to take the fight to their
enemy, words like "stalemate" and "quagmire" are starting to attach
themselves to the operation. And the question, General, several weeks
into this, can you define what this mission is: is it about
identifying and eliminating bin Laden and his associates? Is it about
deposing the Mullah and his government? Is it about creating a new
government, a new regime inside Afghanistan? Why is the United States
here?
GENERAL FRANKS: That's a multi-megaton question. Let me approach each
point, if I can. First off, what is the operation about? What are the
objectives? The overall operation around the globe is to disconnect,
to destroy terrorist networks with global reach. As the President and
Secretary Rumsfeld have said, I think, on many occasions, the
operation in Afghanistan is the destruction of the Al-Qaeda terrorist
network and the destruction of Taliban leadership which provides safe
harbor for that terrorist organization and obviously this is a part of
our overall global campaign.
With regard to your comment or your question concerning stalemate, of
course, I don't believe that this operation is a stalemate. I think
the President has said on several occasions, I know the Secretary has
said on several occasions, that we are committed to this as long as it
takes. And so, in my view, it is not at all a stalemate. I believe
that we are on the timeline that we established which essentially is
the timeline that we exercise at our initiative.
You mentioned the loss of civilian lives. I think anytime there is a
loss of civilian life in a war it is sad, but it is also a war. Our
motivation is to set conditions that will permit us to achieve the
objectives which I mentioned in the first part of my answer. And one
other quick point along the same lines. We want this operation to be
measured; we want this operation to be mature; we want this operation
to focus on targets and target sets. We want to conduct this operation
on our timeline. And I think we are on that timeline and in a position
of initiative at this point.
QUESTION FROM TURKISTAN-PRESS NEWS AGENCY: General, you had meetings
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Ministry of Defense, you
met with the President. Did the United States and Uzbekistan set any
new directions for cooperation in the framework of this anti-terrorist
operation?
GENERAL FRANKS: I think I got the question. If I didn't get it all,
then come at me again, please. Essentially, the question is about the
setting of pre-conditions. I believe that it has been widely
publicized that we have a great many nations involved in this campaign
against terrorism. I think it has also been well documented over time
that some of the nations involved in this effort are perhaps in a
floating coalition. The idea being that we will have nations which
will involve themselves by providing financial support, we'll have
other nations that involve themselves by providing other sources of
support which they choose for their own national reasons, not to talk
about. We have some nations who very openly talk about military
formations and military support they provide.
And I believe the best and most direct answer to the question is to
say that each of the nations in this counter-terrorism campaign around
the globe will certainly speak for themselves with respect to what
they are providing in the categories that I've mentioned a few minutes
ago. And I don't think it is my place to do that. Please bear with me,
then, if I don't comment. Let me further add, though, that we do have
what we need in order to be able to conduct this operation.
QUESTION FROM USA TODAY: Good afternoon, General, the nominal allies
on the ground for the U.S. -- the Northern Alliance -- have told us
and others that they are short of food and other supplies. But perhaps
more importantly from a military perspective, they seem to be fighting
among themselves as to who will do what. What strategy would you like
to see them implementing at this time?
GENERAL FRANKS: I mentioned in my opening remarks that we've been
traveling about the region and talking to leaders in the region. I did
not mention that we also had discussions with leaders of the
opposition groups and will continue to do that both in the south as
well as in the north. Our purpose is to satisfy ourselves that each of
the groups with whom we cooperate has mutual and shared interests with
us. And the needs of each group will vary by group and our ability and
willingness to support the groups will also vary by group.
QUESTION: Sorry, General, the question was about their strategy. Sorry
if it got lost in the translation. What would the U.S. military like
to see their strategy on the ground be?
GENERAL FRANKS: I think that is a fair question. I will do my best to
answer it. I think one will find that there are certain opposition
groups in certain places that may well contribute directly to our core
objectives, which I announced earlier. It may well be that there are
other opposition groups in the position to assist us, for example, in
opening a land bridge so that we can move massive amounts of
humanitarian assistance for more than seven and a half million people
in Afghanistan who need it.
And so actually we will address each of the opposition groups in terms
of what our mutual interests might be. I think it has been said that
those who expect another "Desert Storm" will wonder every day what it
is that this war is all about. This is a different war. This war will
be fought on many fronts simultaneously. It will be fought with
economic tools, it will be fought with intelligence tools, and it will
be fought with lethal tools. And the fact is that each of the
opposition groups will contribute in different ways to those
approaches. That gets closer to your question?
QUESTION FROM LATVIAN "RESPUBLIKA" NEWSPAPER: How will countries --
candidates to NATO membership -- participate in this anti-terrorist
operation and how would you describe their participation?
GENERAL FRANKS: Having to do with NATO nations, let me address that as
well as the nations of Central Asia. You know that relationships that
we have in this region weren't started after the 11th of September.
I've been in and out of this area on many occasions over the last
several years working with the militaries of all the countries of the
region. Obviously when it comes to the historical and traditional NATO
countries, we have relationships with them, some going back over a
long, long period of time. The best answer I can give you and the most
honest answer I can give you is that a great many of these nations are
contributing to this effort in a variety of ways, not the least of
which is national liaison elements, many of which are today at my
headquarters in Tampa, Florida. And it is within that cooperative
arrangement that one finds some military forces being offered,
military capability, one finds intelligence and so forth, as I
mentioned before. So each will participate in a different way, but I
will say at this point that what we see we find to be satisfying.
QUESTION: After you met with [Pakistani] President Musharraf
yesterday, he publicly suggested a cease-fire during Ramadan and he
seems to be suggesting that this would be a step forward in terms of a
political solution. What is your response to that suggestion?
GENERAL FRANKS: I had a very good discussion with President Musharraf
in Islamabad, Pakistan, yesterday. Our leadership and certainly I am
of a mind that we should take on board, that we hear what each of our
partners and supporters in this effort has to say. Without
specifically acknowledging President Musharraf's comments to which you
made reference a minute ago, [I] would say that I think we should
leave it to each of these national leaders to, you know, to say what
they choose to say. I will tell you that everything President
Musharraf had to say to me is taken very seriously. But I will not
confirm for you that the President suggested to me that either I
should or should not continue military operations during Ramadan. I
think it would be wholly unrealistic to expect that I am going to
describe the conduct of our future operations. So I would ask that you
not take any such implication away from my answer.
QUESTION FROM UPI: What is the number of U.S. servicemen in
Uzbekistan? Are they located at the border and what units are they?
GENERAL FRANKS: Actually I won't tell you how many supporting nations,
American or otherwise, are located in Uzbekistan, because I believe
this should remain a prerogative of the leadership of this country.
QUESTION FROM BBC: How will the U.S. conduct the control of its
military aviation in Uzbekistan? Is the United States planning to
establish a military base there and is the United States giving a
guarantee to Uzbekistan from the threat from the ruling Taliban
regime?
GENERAL FRANKS: Well, let me say that the relationship that we have on
the military side between my own country and Uzbekistan is a
relationship of mutual benefit. The activity that we conduct within
Uzbekistan may well change from day to day and from week to week. And
as to the specific question about "do we intend to do aircraft control
from Uzbekistan and if we do, where will it be?" I don't think it is
appropriate for operational security reasons for me to talk about what
we think we will do in the future. Let me simply reinforce the point
to say that the relationship and the arrangements that we find are
certainly satisfactory to our efforts.
QUESTION: General, could I push you on one answer that surprised me a
little bit? You seemed to suggest that we are right on the timeline.
Many officials at the Pentagon would readily admit that they are
frustrated and surprised at the slow pace of the war. And in
particular, they point at Mazar-e-Sharif, which they thought would be
under Northern Alliance control by winter. They now have serious
doubts about that.
GENERAL FRANKS: I think that is a fair question. And obviously I can't
comment to reports you reference reports within the Pentagon. I can
tell you that my boss, the Secretary of Defense, and the President
have not indicated to me any frustration with the pace of this
activity.
I mentioned two points earlier that I think bear reinforcing. The
first has to do with initiative and that means that we will undertake
our actions on a timeline that is satisfying to us. We will maintain
the initiative. And the second is that the nature of our operations is
different than from what we have seen before. With respect to
Mazar-e-Sharif, we have had discussions concerning a variety of places
inside Afghanistan. We have discussed whether it would in fact support
our campaign objectives to move toward a variety of places, perhaps
Kandahar, perhaps Herat, perhaps Mazar-e-Sharif, perhaps Kabul. And we
have taken a decision that says we will remain focused on our
objectives and we will retain the initiative rather than providing
specific focus on a specific area which would be a lot like previous
wars, but not much like this war.
QUESTION: General, I am not sure, but I would imagine that if your
objectives are to eliminate Al Qaida and the Taliban and if you
believe that in order to achieve those objectives you will likely have
to have somebody, either the Northern Alliance or U.S. forces in there
to make sure that they are no longer occupying positions of
leadership, then one of the suggestions has been that someone actually
has to occupy some ground, somewhere in Afghanistan. We have reports
that the Northern Alliance is both frustrated with the degree of
support from the United States and from other reports that the
Northern Alliance simply may be militarily incapable of actually
advancing and taking strategically important areas, be they Kabul or
Mazar-e-Sharif. My question is, as the theater commander are you
willing to commit U.S. ground troops, not simply Special Forces, to
take objectives or let's say tactical objectives in order to achieve
your strategic objectives of taking out Al Qaeda and the Taliban?
GENERAL FRANKS: Long operation. Not a short operation. And we will
take nothing off of the table.
QUESTION FROM CNN: A month ago when Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was
here to meet with President Karimov, President Karimov indicated that
he was not ready to have U.S. ground troops in this country to conduct
lethal military operations into Afghanistan. Have you re-addressed
this issue today in your meeting with President Karimov? Have you
asked about possibly expanding the U.S. missions that are underway
here beyond search and rescue?
GENERAL FRANKS: Let me answer it this way. We have found that
President Karimov has been very forthcoming in providing us with
support. Given the overall nature of this campaign, I think that we
are very satisfied with that. So, have there been additional demands
placed on President Karimov that he didn't respond to, the answer is
no. Uzbekistan, as well as in fact all of the countries in this
region, and so many countries around the world, have committed
themselves to an objective which is to do away with this business of
international terrorism. It would be incorrect to characterize a
particular nation as having said you can do this, but you can't do
that, or no you can't come here and there. What we have found in the
community of nations is, as I've said, satisfying to us with respect
to what we need in order to conduct this piece of our operation.
QUESTION: Is there any talk of sending Joint STARS to Afghanistan?
GENERAL FRANKS: It would be incorrect to say that we have not and do
not currently consider every element of our military arsenal as well
as all of the tools of our power for commitment to this overall
campaign. So, I don't think it is appropriate to discuss whether we
are going to bring J-Stars into the environment or Afghanistan, but
obviously, we have discussed J-Stars as well as a great many
capabilities.
QUESTION FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: Good afternoon, General. You talked
about two objectives in Afghanistan. The timeline to get to these
objectives is still unknown. Can you tell us a little bit about how
much time we are considering? Once those objectives are achieved, do
you see a U.S. role on the ground in Afghanistan to replace the
leadership?
GENERAL FRANKS: Let me begin with the second question, having to do
with once the Taliban is no longer in power in Afghanistan, what then?
I believe that there are a great many nations discussing this at the
diplomatic level as we speak. As you know, there have been meetings in
Pakistan, meetings in Rome, and the responsibility of any military --
ours or any coalition members' military -- at that time to be decided.
Now to your first question, which is how long is this going to take?
The honest answer is the one that the President has given and that is,
it will take as long as it takes. The key for us is the depth of our
determination, and the depth of our resolve, and the depth of our
relationships. In all three cases the depth is very great.
QUESTION FORM RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCY, ITAR-TASS: General, you said that
the Central Command covers twenty-five nations within this region. Can
you tell us please whether Russia is among those nations? Is there any
cooperation underway between the United States and Russia in the
progress of the anti-terrorist operation? Is the military leadership
of the United States satisfied with the conditions and extent of this
cooperation?
GENERAL FRANKS: I can't comment to the last question about the extent
of satisfaction. I think it would be much more appropriate for the
Ambassador or for some of our leadership in Washington to talk to
that. I will tell you that Russia is not a country within my area of
responsibility. Russia, however, is a like-minded state when it comes
to this campaign against terrorism. Do we have coordination and
cooperation in this effort? The answer is, yes we do.
QUESTION FROM THE L.A. TIMES: Does your timeline envision being in
Mazar-e-Sharif by winter? And also, can you tell us a little about how
you got here?
GENERAL FRANKS: Second question first. I got here from Pakistan by
flying directly over Afghanistan. And with regard to whether or not we
will be in Mazar-e-Sharif by, quote, winter, I think I will stay away
from talking about tactics, techniques, and procedures or perhaps
intermediate objectives.
Thank you.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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