Dod News briefing
General Tommy Franks, CENTCOM Commander
Friday, December 7, 2001
(Also participating; Air Vice Marshal Jock Stirrup, UK and Brigadier General Ken Gillespie, Australia in Tampa, Florida)
General Franks: Good afternoon, it's great to be with you, and it's great to be by videoteleconference with our Pentagon press corps.
Today's the 60th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, as we know. It reminds me of the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform throughout the history of our country. And as I speak to you we honor, we remember those sacrifices and we mourn the loss of three great soldiers in Afghanistan day before yesterday. I offer condolences to their families and to their loved ones, as well as to the families of those wounded in the service of their country in this honorable cause. These men are heroes and America remembers.
I'm also honored to be one of the commanders of this coalition in our global fight against terrorism and I'm honored to serve alongside soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and national leaders of more than 50 nations who stand side by side with us.
Today I'm especially pleased to be joined here by military representatives of two of these nations, Air Marshall Jock Stirrup from the United Kingdom and Brigadier General Ken Gillespie from Australia. They've been with us since we first stood up this coalition out here at MacDill Air Force Base.
As we speak today we have more than 230 representatives from more than 20 nations out here with us -- a very visible sign of the international commitment we see to our overall effort.
Similarly I want to recognize today the hospitality of the local community here in Tampa which has opened its arms to our guests. It's an honor to have several friends from Tampa with us here today. I appreciate you being here.
Today's the 62nd day of this fight in Afghanistan. Our objectives have not changed. We will remove the Taliban, this illegitimate leadership as the governing power in Afghanistan, and we will destroy the al Qaeda network and we'll do this as part of a global effort to rid the world of terrorist organizations with global reach.
We're progressing, progressing well, but we have a long way to go. We're tightening the noose but the way ahead has been correctly described as one where we'll find a dirty environment and a very dangerous environment. There remain pockets of al Qaeda and very dedicated Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. The country is not yet stable. We still have an awful lot of work to do.
With that I'll bring Jock and Ken up here and we'd be pleased to answer your questions.
Press: I think a lot of us want to know what's happening in Kandahar today. There seems to be a great deal of confusion about the status of the opposition forces and our forces in particularly.
General Franks: The situation in Kandahar is, interestingly, as you described it. It reminds me of the situation in Mazar-e-Sharif some weeks back as well as the situation in Kunduz and Taliqan and in Herat. I think what we have seen report is in fact true. We have seen the surrender of a great many Taliban forces inside Kandahar. We are not yet sure, we do not yet have a sense of comfort that there is stability in the city and I don't expect that we will have a sense of comfort for perhaps two or three days, until we get a valid assessment of exactly what is going on in Kandahar.
Press: I'd like to hear from either the Air Marshal or the Brigadier, do you feel like you're a part of the team here?
Air Marshal Stirrup: Absolutely. We've been here from pretty much the outset. I think as our Prime Minister and other leaders around the world have said, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States in its response to the attacks of the 11th of September. We're all committed to making sure that terrorism is removed as a force in international affairs. That's what this coalition is all about and that's what we are all here to do.
It's a United States-led coalition. It's being organized here at Central Command so that's why we are here. We are here to contribute our military capabilities, we're here to contribute our advice in the planning and execution of the campaign, and to feed back to our national capital the Commander-in-Chief's intent so that each of us can frame our military response appropriately within that overall intent.
But this is one coalition with one aim in mind and everybody is resolved to see it through until that aim is achieved.
Brigadier General Gillespie: If I could just add, not only do we feel part of it, but we feel like we belong. Many of you will remember that on the day of the attacks, on the 11th that our Prime Minister was in fact in Washington and immediately committed Australians to the cause against terrorism. Many of our senior officers were in fact in the Pentagon at the time of the attack on that building. And of course tens of Australians disappeared in New York on the 11th of September, and so we feel like we belong as well as being part of what is a very happy and hard working group here in MacDill.
General Franks: It is in fact happy and hard working, although I must confess that the language characteristics of some of its members leaves something to be desired.
With that, let me go to the Pentagon press corps, please.
Press: General Franks, this is Bob Burns from Associated Press. I wanted to ask you about Kandahar again.
You said you've seen the surrender of a great many Taliban forces. There are also reports from the area that many of these forces are leaving with their weapons. I'm wondering whether U.S. or opposition forces are pursuing or have in fact engaged or captured any of these forces. Thank you.
General Franks: Thank you.
Yes, we have engaged forces who are leaving Kandahar with their weapons. This is a situation that's very similar to the situations we found in Mazar and also the situation that we found in Kunduz when opposition forces moved there.
I think a similar question was asked of Secretary Rumsfeld a few weeks ago and he said as long as these Taliban fighters have their weapons and represent a threat, it's a war. Yes, they will be engaged.
Press: This is John McWethy with ABC News, General.
You said that they will be engaged. Number one, are they being engaged in hot pursuit, or are you just doing a blocking action? Are they being engaged from the air as they retreat? And what can you tell us about Mullah Omar who supposedly was supposed to be facing justice and now apparently has vanished?
General Franks: Let me begin at the end. I don't think I would say that Mullah Omar has vanished. I think we've said all along, I think the President said that we'll either bring him to justice or bring justice to him. So that's what I believe about Mullah Omar right now.
With respect to what's going on in Kandahar in an operational sense, we are blocking in some cases from the air, we are blocking in some cases with direct fires from the ground, and yes, Taliban forces have been engaged as they have moved out of the city of Kandahar.
More here in Tampa, please.
Press: General Franks, are you getting any closer to locating bin Laden?
General Franks: We're not sure. We think so. The situation that we have faced inside Afghanistan now for two months is that one will read dozens and dozens of intelligence reports and it would probably not surprise you that they don't all agree with respect to where the key leaders are. So we have said that we're tightening the noose, and I think I probably would describe it that way.
There are certain areas where we have opposition groups very much in control in Afghanistan, and of course there are other areas where we do not yet have opposition groups in control of territory. So I will tell you honestly, no, I'm not sure that I know where bin Laden is right now.
Press: General, can you tell us about the Marines that have established this forward operating base? It was reported yesterday that they have in fact perceived some sort of a threat, they actually fired at something. Can you explain a little bit more about what happened there and if in fact it was a threat to them at that forward operating base?
General Franks: The Marines we have set up at Forward Operating Base Rhino in fact have a force from that forward operating base interdicting roads up in the vicinity of Kandahar. They also have security established around Forward Operating Base Rhino. They were involved in fights in both locations yesterday, one interdicting roads up in the vicinity of Kandahar; and secondly, they identified what was perceived to be a small threat to the forward operating base, and both of these enemy elements were engaged.
Back to the Pentagon Press Corps, please.
Press: General Franks, Tom Bowman with the Baltimore Sun.
Hamid Karzi [ph] has said he would like to see the non-Afghan fighters expelled from the country. Do you support that? And if not, what do you plan to do to prevent them from leaving the country?
General Franks: I think the exact legal approach that we will take, I really can't comment on. I will tell you that I think there is a possibility that a great many of the fighters that we see in Afghanistan will be treated as criminals. Additionally there is the possibility that they may be brought out of the country of Afghanistan and be brought to trial either by a tribunal in our own country. I think it's possible that some of the senior leadership of the Taliban may be dealt with in one or the other of those ways. And so right now I really can't tell you.
I'll stay by the line that says we will bring them to justice or bring justice to them.
Press: General Franks, Bob Franklin from CNN.
You spoke a moment ago about typing the news, and you also said that you did not believe that Omar had vanished. Yet by all accounts on the ground he has escaped from Kandahar. Can you reconcile those?
General Franks: I'll go back and say the same thing I said a minute ago about one receiving a great many intelligence reports.
I will tell you that as I stand here I do not have reason to believe that Omar has in fact escaped Kandahar. I have not seen information that will prove that to me, nor have I seen information that he is still in Kandahar. So we simply don't know right now where Omar is.
More from Tampa?
Press: With the pace in Afghanistan seeming to shift somewhat, what's the command's interest now perhaps in Sudan, Somalia, or Iraq?
General Franks: Let me ask you to put up chart number four, if you would please, if you can on the screen here.
No, number four, please.
If the Secretary was here he'd use this pointer and he would have pointed out who those guys were and I can go back and do that in a minute. (Laughter)
In fact if you look at this, this represents the area of responsibility of the United States Central Command and you will see within this area of responsibility over on the left side Egypt and all the way down to the horn of Africa and Kenya. Certainly the Sudan is within this area. You also find Somalia. One finds Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula there. Moving over to the northeast, Afghanistan, and then to the northwest of that, at least on this graphic, Iran and Iraq.
In terms of what we expect to do next, I will only say that Central Command retains interest in the countries that are represented within this AOR and the list of terrorist states I think has been published by our State Department so one can surmise where we're paying the greatest amount of attention.
Press: General, as a result of this friendly fire, if you want to call it that, accident, has anything changed policy-wise, either in the air or on the ground, how we're doing things to prevent something like that from happening again?
General Franks: In a policy sense, no, nothing has changed. What we have done with this incident as well as with the incident up in the vicinity of Mazar-e-Sharif is to investigate the incident so that we can determine precisely what the cause of the incidents are so that if it has to do with a technological solution we can take that solution. If it has to do with the training issues, so that we can take that kind of decision. But the short answer to your question is no, we have not made a policy change.
I think several of us have said this is a war. It's a hard thing. We mourn and I grieve for those who are lost in this. It's our obligation to do the very best we can with the technology and the training that we have to avoid a repeat of these kinds of accidents and incidents and we certainly will within our power do everything we can to do that.
But it's also been said that there is no such thing as the perfect scientific war. There is a great deal of art involved in this. So we will treat this as a war in which we're engaged and that will be the way we'll continue to pursue it.
Press: General, Paul Richter with LA Times.
Opposition leaders in --
Press: [inaudible from Tampa]
General Franks: I do not yet have that. I think we -- My view is that it's possible in dealing with a global positioned weapon, it's possible to either have an incorrect target location provided from the ground or to have a correct target location provided from the ground and to incorrectly program it into the weapon system. It's also possible to have a technical malfunction. So what we have done is we have created an investigating body to take a look at that to review the facts and circumstances to determine which of those possibilities we may have here, and that investigation is ongoing now.
Back to the Pentagon, please.
Press: General, Paul Richter with LA Times.
Opposition leaders near Tora Bora were warning earlier today of their concern that senior al Qaeda members might be slipping over the border in to Pakistan. Can you bring us up to date on what the U.S. effort there consists of to keep that from happening? And also what the Pakistani effort consists of.
General Franks: The Tora Bora area certainly is an area that's of interest to us. We would like to prevent these senior al Qaeda people from escaping to go anywhere, that's for sure. We have opposition forces in the Tora Bora area as you know, Paul, and we have some of our Special Forces people with those forces.
We're in coordination with, certainly with Pakistan as well as with our opposition forces watching carefully to do the best we can in this terribly rugged terrain to prevent the escape of these leaders.
Press: General Franks, this is Tom Gjelton from National Public Radio.
What conditions has the government of Uzbekistan set on their reopening of Friendship Bridge? And specifically, what are they asking of the U.S. military in that regard?
General Franks: President Karimov has made it clear to us that he wants to reopen Friendship Bridge and obviously we want to get it opened as soon as we can because we want to be able to open that humanitarian pipeline up there.
No specific condition has been placed on the opening of Friendship Bridge with the exception of making sure that the bridge can stand the heavy traffic and to be sure that it is not booby trapped or mined, and to settle himself in Uzbekistan that the security situation in northern Afghanistan is such that he can do that. So no specific demands have been made on us to take security action or anything like that.
I believe that the bridge will be opened in the next two or three days. That's my belief right now.
Back to Tampa.
Press: With the situation is so confused around Kandahar how do your forces know who's friendly and who isn't.
General Franks: The way they know who's friendly and who isn't is just by being not conservative, but by being cautious. One of the difficulties that one has any time you have a whole lot of people wearing generally the same looking clothing is the business of identification friend and foe. We say IFF. So the business of IFF is very much an issue. It was an issue in Mazar-e-Sharif. It is an issue in Kandahar. And it is just something that we have to pay attention to using all the means at our disposal.
Press: The current situation between Israel and Palestine, how is that impacting holding the coalition together?
General Franks: The situation in the Middle East essentially, while certainly problematic and I think I would join all of our leadership in hoping for a cessation of the violence there, but it has not affected our ability to conduct this operation inside Afghanistan. I have seen no change in the willingness of the states in the region to support this effort.
Back to the Pentagon, please.
Press: Good day, General. Norah Odama with NBC News.
Are you concerned at all that Hamid Karzi cut a deal with Mullah Omar for his safe passage out of Kandahar?
General Franks: One never knows precisely. I'll say that the Secretary and I have both communicated in no uncertain terms with the leadership, with Hamid Karzi our expectation and we believe that he shares the goal of a better Afghanistan that we share, and we believe that he will remain a part of our effort to bring al Qaeda to justice as well as to be sure that we have no opportunity to have this senior Taliban leadership be able to negatively influence the stability which we're working for inside Afghanistan.
Of course I'm concerned. I'm concerned until we are able to assure ourselves that there will be no loss and no escape of any of this Taliban leadership, but I will also say that I believe Mr. Karzi knows what our expectations are now.
Press: General, if I my just follow-up, just to clarify. You said I don't think Omar has vanished, and then you said I don't think we know where he is.
General Franks: If I said I don't think he's vanished then let me correct that. What I will say is that I do not have a reason to suspect that he has vanished. We continue to work on the area around Kandahar and we simply do not know where he is right now, but that does not lead me to believe that he's vanished, if that makes sense to you.
Press: General, Ivan Scott, Pentagon reporter for a group of radio stations. I think I have a cold that rivals yours, so excuse me.
There is a wire service report out of Kabul today quoting a spokesman for the Northern Alliance who says that the caves in the Tora Bora complex have been secured now by Northern Alliance forces, that a mopping up operation is going on, that the main base of Osama bin Laden has been taken by the Northern Alliance, and he quotes his commander in the area saying that some wives, or some women I should say, some vehicles and some weapons were recovered but no Osama bin Laden, and this commander believes that Osama has now escaped into Pakistan. Would you comment on that, please sir?
General Franks: I read the report and the report simply does not square with what I believe to be the situation on the ground right now. There certainly is movement by opposition forces in the Tora Bora area, but that area is by no means completely secured and searched. So that operation in Tora Bora continues.
Back to Tampa.
Press: General, from your coalition partners here, I'd like to hear if you all can tell us whether your forces are involved in what's happening in the southern part of the country right now and in particular how much you, General Franks, are relying on them to carry out the coalition mission.
Air Marshal Stirrup: Well, as regards to where our forces are currently operating, it's certainly not our policy to comment on the details of operations while they're ongoing. What I will say is that as far as the United Kingdom is concerned we've had a substantial military contribution from the very start of this campaign. We have contributed air assets, particularly in those assets where the demand is greatest, particularly in the areas of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, air-to-air refueling and those sorts of things, and air transport, maritime patrol and so on. We have and have had for a considerable time a substantial number of surface vessels in the area contributing to the maritime component as well as Tomahawk armed submarines that have launched missiles against targets in Afghanistan. And we have had and we do have some forces operating on the ground in Afghanistan. But as I say, those operations are ongoing so you'll understand if I don't comment on any detail.
Brigadier General Gillespie: From an Australian perspective we do have forces operating on the ground in Afghanistan. I too won't venture into what they're doing at the present time. And there are Australian forces also taking part in other military operations in the region. We have ground, maritime and air assets currently working either with General Franks' coalition or with other U.S. commanders.
Air Marshal Stirrup: We think they're making an important military contribution, but you'd better ask the commander.
General Franks: First off, I'm sure that you all understood what Air Marshal Stirrup said. I'm not at all sure you were able to understand what Ken said. (Laughter) He said we do have -- (Laughter)
Yes, we do have forces of the services of both the UK and Australia involved in the region and in fact in Afghanistan. And they have been major contributors to the ongoing work there in both cases.
Press: Speaking of troops, general, as we draw closer to Christmas are we thinking of sending more people, more troops from the United States? And what can some of the military people here expect?
General Franks: Our practice throughout this is to say that we continue to plan for a variety of activities so it really would be premature, it really wouldn't be right for me to tell you whether I think we'll increase the number of forces that we have on the ground in the region. I will simply say that the possibility of increasing forces on the ground is certainly on the table. The possibility is on the table.
Back to the Pentagon pool, please.
Press: General Franks, Eric Schmidt from the New York Times.
Can you give us any better sense of the number of specific engagements that the Marines have encountered with fleeing Taliban, the degree of resistance that they're facing from those retreating troops, and also whether you anticipate Marines going into Kandahar, the city itself.
General Franks: Eric, let me begin with the end of that one. I will not say that we anticipate the Marines going into Kandahar. I would simply leave it on the table. We certainly have not ruled out the possibility of the Marines going into Kandahar. We have not ruled it out.
In terms of the overall number of engagements by the Marines, I am not sure since they've moved into Forward Operating Base Rhino. I can tell you in the last 24 hours they have been involved in several fights, both ground-to-ground and air-to-ground.
Press: General, David Schuster from the Fox News Channel.
I know a lot of people around this building have expressed concern about the Taliban troops reorganizing east of Mazar-e-Sharif. What's the level of stability of Kunduz in particular? We've gotten indications that special forces need to reinforce Kunduz. Is that accurate? And if you can describe the scene there.
General Franks: Pull up that map, please, that shows Afghanistan.
The question had to do with Kunduz. Kunduz and the city itself, we are not seeing any sort of dramatic instability. The area that I think is probably being referenced is down south of Kunduz in the general vicinity of Baglan [ph] and just a bit further to the south. In fact there is a pocket of Taliban down there. We have not seen that body of people threaten anyone, but they do continue to have a dialogue, they being that group of Taliban, with the leaders who are currently up, the opposition leaders up in Kunduz.
We do not believe that the road between Kunduz and Mazar-e-Sharif is a very safe road to be using right now. Inside Mazar-e-Sharif we are not seeing any great difficulty in terms of turbulence. One will find the occasional instability of looting food and so forth like that, but Mazar-e-Sharif remains essentially calm. The same thing out here in Herat, the same thing over here in Kabul.
Kandahar I talked about, and it's just going to take us two or three days probably to be sure that we understand everything that's going on in Kandahar as well as down here on the border by Keta [ph] at Spenboldar [ph].
Next please, from the Pentagon.
Press: General, this is Tony Cappacio with Bloomberg News.
A quick question about the Rangers coming back home today. Should we read that as --
General Franks: -- accusing me of taking three from the Pentagon without taking two here.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Press: This is Tony Cappacio with Bloomberg.
The redeployment of the Rangers yesterday back to Fort Benning, should we read into that any sign that the U.S. military commitment is starting to pull down now? There's been a theme in some of the coverage that with the fall of Kandahar and the redeployment of the Rangers the mission may be starting to ebb down.
General Franks: The mission has not started to ebb down, and the short answer to your question is no. One should not read the redeployment of these Rangers as an indication that we are going to pull down the force structure over in the theater. That is not the case and that would be a mis-read.
Back to Tampa, please.
Press: Last week you talked about evidence of weapons of mass destruction research found. What's changed with that?
General Franks: The short answer is we have not yet found evidence of weapons of mass destruction in the sites that we have been in. I mentioned last week that we were somewhere over having identified 40-plus potential places to look. As of this point we have been through more than 20 of those to take samples and to pick up evidence, if you will, but we have not yet seen anything that convinces us that there were WMD assets in those facilities. That doesn't mean we're going to stop looking, though.
Press: General, those Taliban fighters who have left Kandahar without being disarmed, what is your sense of their numbers and their offensive capabilities at this point?
General Franks: It's a fair question and I can't give you an honest answer. My assessment is that there certainly have been some who have left. We do not know the numbers, I do not know the numbers. The last update that I had was probably six hours ago, and I have not seen Taliban leaving in large numbers armed up to this point.
Back to the Pentagon, please.
Press: General, Bret Bair from Fox News Channel.
You said there's still a focus in Tora Bora. Locals there in eastern Afghanistan say there's another mountain complex called Malawa about 50 miles southeast of Jalalabad along the Pakistani border that's a lower elevation and also possibly a location that's easier to get into Pakistan.
Do we have U.S. soldiers around there? And is it a focus in the hunt for bin Laden?
General Franks: Each place where we do not have opposition forces in control of a piece of geography remains a focus for us. I won't break the practice, I think, of not describing exactly where our special forces and special operating forces are, but I will acknowledge that the area you mentioned as well as several others certainly are interesting to us.
Press: Jim Manion from Ajans France [ph] Press.
Can you say whether the engagements involving the Marines from the air, have they been with helicopter gunships? Also, have U.S. Special Forces been involved in those firefights on the ground around Kandahar?
General Franks: The Marines have been involved from air to ground. My understanding is that they have used some helicopter firepower. They have also used some of their ground systems. They have been in constant contact with our people who are with the opposition groups and they'll continue to do that as we consider whether we want to keep all of our forces positioned just as they are right now, or whether we intend to shift some of their locations will be the business of the next two or three days in front of us.
The Pentagon please.
Press: The Special Forces, have they also been involved in those firefights on the ground around Kandahar?
General Franks: Our special forces have certainly been involved in the fights around Kandahar. As a matter of fact these three brave young men that we lost day before yesterday were involved in firefights up to the north of Kandahar. So yes, we have had our forces involved in the fight in the vicinity of Kandahar.
Tampa?
Press: Paula Gann from the St. Pete Times.
Are there any countries in the Middle East represented in any coalitions, specifically Iraq? And also, what have their contributions been?
General Franks: Iraq is not in the coalition. (Laughter) But yes, there are states in the region who are in the coalition and we're very thankful for that. We have states from the region who have representation out here with us right here in Tampa, and I think I'll let them tell you they are.
Back to the Pentagon.
Press: Craig Warden from Newsday.
If I heard you correctly earlier, you said our goal in Afghanistan is to bring justice to the al Qaeda leadership, but you said regarding senior Taliban leadership, we want them in a position where they can no longer negatively influence stability inside the country.
Are you drawing a distinction between how we might handle al Qaeda leaders and senior Taliban leaders such as Omar, and suggesting the possibility there could be something, we could be satisfied with something less than international tribunal, military tribunal, or imprisonment for folks like Omar?
General Franks: I think it's a fair question but on the latter point about the Taliban I really can't give you what the overall policy will be with respect to Taliban senior leadership. What I am sure of is that there is a sense that they must be brought to justice. That goes without saying. And I think the thing that causes the question to keep coming back is the business of do we demand to take them ourselves out of Afghanistan, or could they be perhaps handled in some other way in terms of the law by a government within Afghanistan? So that's the reason that I gave you the answer I did. I'm not sure what the policy decision will be that is taken on that issue.
So for me to say that the foreign fighters inside Afghanistan will be treated exactly the same way as the Taliban leadership, I simply can't say that because I don't know it to be true. That's what I was trying to communicate.
Thank you very much.
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