08 February 2002
Transcript: Adm. Blair Outlines Fight against Philippine Terrorists
(February 5 interview with NHK Television in Tokyo) (4170)
The commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific (CINCPAC)
outlined the progress that has been made in fighting the terrorist Abu
Sayyaf Group and how the United States soldiers plan to help the
Philippines finish the job.
"The number of hostages that the Abu Sayyaf Group has held has been as
high as 30 or 40 several months ago, and ... the number of hostages
has been reduced to three right now, two Americans and one Philippine
woman, so that's progress," Adm. Dennis C. Blair said in an interview
with NHK Television in Tokyo February 5.
"There has not been in recent months the sorts of hostage taking that
we saw during the early part of last year or in 2000," Blair said. "So
the hostage taking has been reduced by the pressure of the armed
forces of the Philippines, but there still remains a group of Abu
Sayyaf rebels on the loose in Basilan and it's a case of rooting them
out."
Blair stressed the U.S. troops being sent to the Philippines were
undertaking a "very classical training and advisory role."
"They will be going in an observation and advisory role. They will not
be going to lead attacks or to conduct the war themselves," he said.
"They will report an assessment to the Philippine commander and they
will say here are the skills we have, here are the training abilities
that we have, what would you like us to do?" he continued.
Blair said the Philippine battalion commanders will be the ones to
decide what type of training the U.S. soldiers will provide, such as
tactical planning, reconnaissance skills, or squad organization.
Furthermore, Blair said, the length of time the U.S. soldiers will be
deployed in the Philippines depends on the Philippine forces. He
added, however, that he believed the operation would only take several
months.
"We certainly will not be there in permanent bases. We will be in
temporary bases working with our Philippine allies," he said.
The United States will also provide secure radios so that information
can flow from the Philippine headquarters to the commanders,
intelligence reports, and some military materiel.
"The equipment portion of the assistance to the Philippines is partly
focused on additional equipment, a few helicopters and a patrol craft
or two. But the main emphasis is on the maintenance of the equipment
that the Philippines already possesses to help build a supply chain,
to help build a maintenance system so that the operational readiness
rates of the equipment that they have can increase," Blair said.
Blair mentioned that the U.S. government is negotiating with the
Philippine government to have a military logistics support agreement,
which he called "a sign of a mature military relationship."
He also briefly discussed U.S.-Indonesia military relations, and the
accidental U.S. sinking of the Japanese ship, Ehime Maru, last year.
Following is the CINCPAC transcript of the event:
(begin transcript)
UNITED STATES PACIFIC COMMAND
Adm. Dennis C. Blair
Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command
NHK Television Interview
Tokyo, Japan
February 5, 2002
NHK: Some terrorists were recently arrested in Malaysia, Singapore and
the Philippines. What's your assessment of the threat of terrorism in
Southeast Asia?
Adm. Blair: The terrorist rings that were broken up by Malaysia and by
Singapore were dangerous rings. They were considering plans to attack
not only American forces and U.S. embassies in those countries but
also other commercial interests in the countries. The arrests have set
those rings back considerably, and I think taken the initiative away
from them. However, we have no assurances that there aren't other
parts of the terrorist rings present or other rings, so it requires
continued vigilance, continued sharing of intelligence and very
aggressive work in order to ensure that we are making our people safe.
NHK: How are you working against the terrorist rings in Southeast
Asia?
Adm. Blair: It takes different forms in different countries. I think
the largest and most visible is in the Philippines right now where we
are sending U.S. advisors to the southern Philippines where they will
provide training, they will provide maintenance assistance, they will
provide intelligence support, they will provide advisory functions to
the armed forces of the Philippines as the armed forces of the
Philippines attack the Abu Sayyaf Group.
In other places there are different forms of assistance. For instance,
our major exercise in Thailand, the Cobra Gold exercise, will include
counterterrorist training in the exercise. So those countries who
participate in that exercise and the 10 or 12 countries that observe
will increase their skills, their ability to work together. We will
exchange information.
We also work in -- Many of the skills in the counternarcotics area are
transferrable to the counterterrorism area. So in Thailand, for
example, where we work against narcotic smugglers, training the Thai
armed forces and the border police, those same skills can transfer to
working against terrorism.
So it's a mixture of approaches for different countries.
NHK: You mentioned the Abu Sayyaf attack. After September 11th the war
started, the war started in Afghanistan. Can we say that the war has
moved to Southeast Asia?
Adm. Blair: It's always sort of too neat to divide things up into
little phases and pieces. We were beginning our work in the Asia
Pacific region even before operations were complete in Afghanistan,
and I think it's important that there really be aggressive pressure
across the globe on these organizations. So I think you'll see
pressure in many places.
For instance you may have read in the paper that terrorists from
Algeria were captured in Bosnia and sent to Guantanamo Bay. You may
have read that in the Middle East area there were reportings of ships
trying to look for escaping terrorists. Meanwhile we talked about
Malaysia and Singapore making their arrests.
So it's a case of simultaneous pressure all across the world in order
to defeat terrorism.
NHK: How long do you think -- The U.S. Army are going to stay in the
Philippines until the Abu Sayyaf disappear?
Adm. Blair: Our objective is to assist the Philippines in their
campaign, so really the length of our stay will be determined by
providing training, providing the maintenance to the Philippines so
that they can continue to carry out the battle.
I think this will take a matter of months. I don't think we'll be
there for many years. We certainly will not be there in permanent
bases. We will be in temporary bases working with our Philippine
allies. So I think that will be the pattern and the time scale.
NHK: Your objective is to root out the al Qaida network. Abu Sayyaf in
the Philippines. So is it possible the U.S. forces will leave the
Philippines before Abu Sayyaf disappear?
Adm. Blair: I think the Philippines will take care of the main effort
of the Abu Sayyaf Group before U.S. forces completely withdraw from
that operation. I think it will be in a matter of months that the Abu
Sayyaf Group will be defeated, and that will be while the U.S. is
still conducting its joint training, its joint exercise with them.
NHK: How successful has the operation has been so far?
Adm. Blair: You need to look at a number of things. The number of
hostages that the Abu Sayyaf Group has held has been as high as 30 or
40 several months ago, and the Philippine armed forces have been
chasing them around the island of Basilan and around the other
islands. The number of hostages has been reduced to three right now,
two Americans and one Philippine woman, so that's progress.
There has not been in recent months the sorts of hostage taking that
we saw during the early part of last year or in 2000 when hostages
were taken from Malaysia, from Sipidan and then from Palawan. So the
hostage taking has been reduced by the pressure of the armed forces of
the Philippines, but there still remains a group of Abu Sayyaf rebels
on the loose in Basilan and it's a case of rooting them out.
Then following that the Philippines, with some assistance from the
United States, needs to bring economic development into the southern
Philippines. The people of Basilan and Mindanao need to feel that
their economic future can be bright and that will reduce their support
or their tolerance for the Abu Sayyaf Group.
NHK: What kind of equipment and weapons have you provided to the
Philippines? And in the future what kind of equipment and weapons are
you going to provide?
Adm. Blair: The equipment portion of the assistance to the Philippines
is partly focused on additional equipment, a few helicopters and a
patrol craft or two. But the main emphasis is on the maintenance of
the equipment that the Philippines already possesses to help build a
supply chain, to help build a maintenance system so that the
operational readiness rates of the equipment that they have can
increase, making more equipment available. And particularly in the
transportation area. Trucks, helicopters, C-130 aircraft, patrol
craft. That's the area that the Philippines tell us they would like
the assistance.
NHK: It is reported that the armed forces of the Philippines are very
eager to get the attack helicopter like a Cobra or Apache from U.S.
forces. What do you think? Is this possible?
Adm. Blair: Helicopters are always useful in an area like Basilan
which has a very underdeveloped road network and a lot of contours and
all. I think the main emphasis will be on transport helicopters in
order to be able to insert people into the areas where they can
capture the Abu Sayyaf Group more quickly. Attack helicopters would be
something for the future, but it's the mobility forces that I think,
the mobility to put their forces in place the Philippines mainly need
in that area right now.
NHK: It is also reported that 160 special forces are deployed to
Basilan. What role do the U.S. forces play in the campaign against Abu
Sayyaf?
Adm. Blair: The number of advisors the United States has will be
greater and lesser depending on the mission. It's not a fixed number.
But if you picture a battalion of Philippines troops has maybe 600
soldiers in it, and for this group, for each of these battalions there
will be a small group of maybe 10 or 12 American soldiers. They will
report an assesment to the Philippine commander and they will say here
are the skills we have, here are the training abilities that we have,
what would you like us to do? Should we work on tactical planning?
Shall we work on the skills of reconnaissance? Should we work on
skills and squad organization? So they will bring that sort of
training skill which will be used by the battalion commander for what
he thinks is most important.
In addition they will bring along with them secure radios so that
information can flow from the Philippine headquarters to the
commanders. They will also bring intelligence which will come from
both the United States and from the Philippines, will be put together
as a huge picture and then can be passed on secure communications to
the commanders.
So it's this combination of training ability, advice, information,
secure communications that will be provided to the battalion levels in
the field quickly.
Them over time we'll work out a plan for a training scheme that will
benefit the entire task force that's down in the Philippines.
So it's a very classical training and advisory role that the United
States will be doing. This is what President Arroyo requested when she
talked with President Bush and this is what we are providing.
NHK: So do the soldiers actually go to the front, though? I mean to
support the Philippine forces?
Adm. Blair: The soldiers will be with the Philippine soldiers when
they go out to do their job. The reason for this is so that they can
understand what the tactical situation is that the Philippine soldiers
face.
It's difficult to provide good training if you don't know what the
tactical challenges are.
But they will be going in an observation and advisory role. They will
not be going to lead attacks or to conduct the war themselves. They
will be going in the advisory role.
Of course if they become involved in some sort of a conflict they will
defend themselves and they will work with their Philippine comrades,
but it will be incidental to their responsibilities as advisors.
NHK: You call this exercise Balikitan and I've heard that 2,000 U.S.
Marine Corps out of Okinawa are already going to Philippines in May
and that's called Balikitan. But they are going to Luzon, not to
Basilan.
So I am quite confused. Their mission is not to root out the Abu
Sayyaf?
Adm. Blair: Right. We will be doing more than one activity with the
Philippines in the next year. The operations that we described in
Basilan are directed against the Abu Sayyaf Group. Then we will have a
separate Balikitan exercise in April which will be training on other
skills, peacekeeping skills, logistics skills, the sort of general
purpose military skills that are required.
We have had a Balikitan exercise for the past two or three years in
Luzon connected with our training in Thailand under Cobra Gold, and
that will be separate from the antiterrorism exercising and training
that we're doing down in the southern part of the Philippines.
There may be some cross-over of transport aircraft and perhaps some
helicopters, but they're really two separate activities.
NHK: So let me ask you about Basilan Island. Who are they in this
Basilan Island? Are they Army special forces? Or are you considering
dispatching Marine Corps or Air Force or Navy?
Adm. Blair: We have a joint task force in that area. It consists of
Army special forces officers, there are also Navy special forces
officers and sailors, there also are Marine Corps advisors, and we
also have Air Force advisors. So all four services have
representatives in our joint task force. They will be working with
their counterparts in the Philippines. For instance our Air Force
officers will be working with air force officers in the Philippines on
subjects like maintenance of helicopters and helicopter planning and
so on.
But because the largest portion of forces involved on the Philippine
side are Army forces, most of our advisors will be Army special forces
advisors.
NHK: What's that exercise in Basilan called? That exercise called
Balikitan?
Adm. Blair: That exercise has different names. We have the name that
we call it in the United States and the Philippines call it Balikitan.
It's the same event, it's just called by different things by the two
different armed forces. That often happens.
NHK: The U.S. government is negotiating with the Philippine government
to have a military logistics support agreement?
Adm. Blair: Uh huh.
NHK: To exchange ammunition and food and that kind of thing? Could you
talk about that?
Adm. Blair: With many countries we have logistics agreements. We have
one with Japan, for example. The concept is pretty simple. If you have
a logistic support agreement then if the United States wants to
provide some equipment to Japan we guarantee that we will make it at
the same price that we would pay for it ourselves, and that the bill
will be sent to the government of Japan and the bill will be settled
as a separate action.
Let's say we sell the government of Japan oil. The government of Japan
sells us transportation services. The bills go to the comptrollers,
they compare the two bills, and they either offset each other or
they're settled. It's a very convenient way of operating.
If you don't have one of those agreements then each time that I sell
you something, I have to get a bill, I have to make a payment, we have
to negotiate it and square it up and it takes time. It's not
efficient. But with the countries that we operate with a great deal we
have one of these agreements that makes our transactions quick, we
guarantee the best price both directions.
So we are in the process of having one of these agreements with the
Philippines and in fact we would like to update our agreement with
Japan. And it's purely a matter of military efficiency so that we can
operate together efficiently and quickly.
NHK: How would you update the agreement with Japan?
Adm. Blair: We would like to have some provisions to make it more
efficient, to make it smoother and cover more different categories of
mutual assistance.
NHK: Well besides Japan, I mean do you have agreements in Southeast
Asia?
Adm. Blair: We have approximately nine in Asia with Australia, with
Singapore, with Malaysia. We are presently negotiating one with India.
So they are fairly common. They're a sign of a mature military
relationship.
NHK: If you can do that, we agree, then is it helpful to defeat Abu
Sayyaf in the Philippines?
Adm. Blair: Very helpful, very helpful. It means that we spend less
time on administration and more time on the mission.
NHK: You said that you think armed forces of Philippines will defeat
the Abu Sayyaf in maybe, in months.
Adm. Blair: Yes.
NHK: What do you think, do you see any difficulty with fighting Abu
Sayyaf?
Adm. Blair: Oh, it's not an easy task. It's very difficult terrain.
The Abu Sayyaf have been there a long time. They know the local
ground. Although their numbers have diminished and their hostages have
diminished they have proved very elusive. They've been under pressure
for seven months now and have not been totally defeated. So it's not
an easy task but I think the combination of intensified Philippine
effort, the sorts of assistance that the United States can bring to
the things I mentioned, intelligence and further training and
maintenance support, I think this will be decisive in going over the
top to defeat them.
Then as I mentioned, the economic assistance can come in in order to
encourage the people to support the government and to prevent
reoccurrence of the Abu Sayyaf Group.
NHK: You mentioned about Cobra Gold. You started with Team Challenge.
Will you continue Team Challenge and what is this year's Team
Challenge like?
Adm. Blair: Cobra Gold is a part of Team Challenge. Team Challenge is
the umbrella that tries to bring together activities from around the
region to support the concept of working together on new missions. So
the Balikitan exercise in Luzon that we mentioned would be part of the
Team Challenge concept. The scenario in Balikitan will be connected
with the scenario in Cobra Gold. In the future we hope to have other
exercises also tied into Cobra Gold.
The Team Challenge concept is to look at missions of the future,
international peace operations, humanitarian assistance,
counterterrorism operations, counternarcotics operations, evacuation
of citizens from areas of harm, and we are looking to have many
nations develop the procedures, the vehicle to operate together, bring
their forces to operate together, and develop really an Asian ability
to do these sorts of operations well.
Right now this year we still have three countries who are participants
-- the United States, Singapore and Thailand. Thailand is the host, of
course. Also we have very strong observer teams from about a dozen
countries, and we hope that countries will progress from observer
teams to participants in future years.
Japan this year will be sending a very strong observation team. It's
important for Japan. Japan is sending troops to East Timor,
construction troops, engineer troops, next month. And the more that
Japan can understand how these international operations work and work
with the other countries the better.
NHK: Let me ask you briefly about Indonesia. It is reported that some
terrorists linked to al Qaida are in Indonesia. How are you working
with Indonesia?
Adm. Blair: In Indonesia our military relations are still at a fairly
low level following the events of East Timor in 1999, but there are
some important military connections. On the intelligence side we share
intelligence with Indonesia about terrorist groups and other aspects
of what's going on there.
We had a small Navy exercise with the Indonesian navy based on a
humanitarian scenario and we will have that again this year. The
Indonesians participate in international conferences. For instance a
representative of the Indonesian Chief of Defense came to Honolulu for
our Chief of Defense conference in November. So we're in touch with
the Indonesian armed forces but we don't have a full relationship with
them and we won't until further development of professional Indonesian
armed forces accountability, observing human rights standards,
international standards.
But we do have many things in common with Indonesia that we would like
to work on together. We would like to work on countering terrorism
together. We would like to work on combatting piracy together.
Indonesia needs assistance in patrolling its borders. A lot of illegal
immigrants and illegal activity around its borders.
So we are working with Indonesia on specific items while we await the
return of full military relations.
NHK: But when do you think you can reach full military cooperation?
Adm. Blair: That really depends on events in Indonesia. I believe that
the leadership of the Indonesian armed forces are working to make
their armed forces more professional. They are working to account for
the past uses by some members of the TNI in past events, and as they
succeed in making these reforms then we will be able to resume a full
relationship with them.
NHK: Do you think not having full military cooperation with Indonesia
is hindering your ability to root out al Qaida in Asia?
Adm. Blair: Indonesia not working with us is not in Indonesia's
interests either, so they need to take the initiative to do the things
that they have told us they want to do in order to resume those
relations. So, the ball is in their court, they know it, they're
working on it, and we hope that in time they will, we will be able to
resume that relationship.
NHK: Let me ask you about Ehime Maru. It has been almost a year since
the accident occurred and the family members going to Hawaii to have a
one year ceremony.
Adm. Blair: Uh huh.
NHK: How do you think the accident have affected our relationship?
Adm. Blair: I think that after a year with all of the sincere effort
that's been shown by the United States Navy in the recovery of the
ship with great effort, especially after the 11th of September, I
think the families of those who were lost and the Japanese people
understand the sincerity and the regret of those of us in the United
States who were responsible, and I think that we can move forward in a
positive way.
We can never make up for the loss of the deaths of those who did lose
their lives, but I think we've done, and demonstrated that we did
everything we can in order to deal with the situation once it occurred
and take care of the families and bring them back.
So I think that we have erased the doubts about our sincerity and
commitment that may have existed and we're ready to move on to the
future of the alliance.
NHK: Are you going to meet the families in Hawaii?
Adm. Blair: I will not be meeting the families, but there will be a
ceremony in which a monument will be established in Hawaii in a place
that looks out in the direction where the accident took place. There
will be representatives from my command, there will be Americans,
particularly Hawaiian Americans of Japanese ancestry and the families.
There will be a very solemn ceremony at that time. The U.S. Navy will
participate in that ceremony.
NHK: To prevent this kind of similar accident, what do you think you
have to do -- USS Greeneville have accident twice in the region. What
do you think the U.S. Navy must do to prevent this kind of accident
again?
Adm. Blair: I think we have redoubled the safety procedures and the
emphasis on those procedures. The incidents which the Greeneville was
involved in since were not on the scale of the Ehime Maru, they were
relatively minor incidents. However, just every day you work to make
your procedures better, to be more careful, to make more checks so
that things don't happen. That's part of what we do in the Navy all
the time.
NHK: Thank you very much.
(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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