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PRESS CONFERENCE: Security Update, Elections: Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, MNC-I, Feb. 4, 2009

Multi-National Force-Iraq

Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander, Multi-National Corps – Iraq, provides an update on security progress, Iraqi provincial elections and development of Iraqi Security Forces.

PRESS CONFERENCE
LIEUTENANT GENERAL LLOYD AUSTIN, COMMANDER, MULTI-NATIONAL CORPS-IRAQ

DATE: 4 FEBRUARY 2009

PARTICIPANTS:
LT. GEN. AUSTIN AND REPORTERS 1-13, INCLUDING JONATHAN BLAKELY, NPR; MICHAEL CHRISTIE, REUTERS; AAMER MADHANI, USA TODAY; ENNOX SAMUES, NEWSWEEK; AND MIKE GUDGELL, ABC NEWS

(PH) = PHONETIC
INT = INTERPRETER
REPX = REPORTER 1-13

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: As-Salamu 'Alaykum, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thanks for joining us today.

I'd like to start by giving a brief statement, and then I'll entertain any questions that you may have following that. And first and foremost, I'd like to congratulate the Government of Iraq for a successful legitimate and credible election. I'd also like to congratulate the Iraqi Security Forces for a well coordinated and executed security plan.

Prior to election day, I had the opportunity to travel to different cities with the Minister of Defense to observe Iraqi Security Force rehearsals. And I must say that the hard work and dedication that I observed was just absolutely impressive. And so it was no surprise to me that the execution of the election security went so well. And to put things in perspective, there were over 300 attacks on election day in 2005, and only 11 attacks on election day in 2009. So let me congratulate the Iraqi Security Forces again for a job extremely well done.

It's also worth mentioning that the 51 percent voter turnout is a very good participation rate. It demonstrates that the majority of the population is actively participating in the future of this country, and that is, indeed, very promising. And although the results are still being tabulated and verified, and it will be a few weeks before the new provincial governments are seated, I would like to commend everyone that ran for public office and congratulate those who will ultimately win a seat on the provincial councils. Now, only a fraction of those that competed will be elected, but I applaud each and every of them for taking an active role in the election process. And my hope is that all of the candidates there are there -- that participated and that were not elected, will support the newly elected provincial councils in the future.

The great election day security four days ago was possible because of the many security improvements that this country has achieved over the past year. Safe and secure elections did not just happen by chance. The conditions for safe elections were set over the past 12 months, and those conditions were a result of the maneuvering of Iraqi and Coalition Forces against Iraq's enemies. They were a result of a well developed border security strategy and they were a result of a very strong partnership between the Iraqi Security Forces and our Coalition Forces.

As I mentioned, the provincial election process started nearly a year ago when the government passed the Provincial Powers Law. And since then, we've achieved a much improved level of security which has led to this truly historic event. Over the last 10 weeks, the country experienced less than a hundred attacks per week nationwide, which is four times lower than just a year ago and 10 times lower than 18 months ago. These trends illustrate that Iraq is moving towards a more sustainable security which is setting the conditions for a very prosperous future.

The security progress over the past year that led up to the elections was possible because of the cooperation and the partnership between the Iraqi Security Forces and the Coalition Forces and because the people by and large reject violent extremism, and they put their faith in the government.

And through this election, the great people of Iraq demonstrated to the world that this is indeed a sovereign democracy. There's reason to celebrate this great achievement, but we understand that our work here is not yet finished. Provincial elections were another necessary step towards a secure and prosperous Iraq. And as we move into the post-provincial election time frame, we must all work together to ensure that the transition of power within the provinces goes safely and smoothly.

A peaceful transition of government leadership is the critical component to a sovereign democracy. There are those that do not want to see these provincial councils succeed, but the Coalition is committed to assisting the Government of Iraq and the Iraqi Security Forces to ensure that the transitions within each province happen smoothly.

And we must also continue to guard against those that want to destabilize this remarkable progress and destroy this historic accomplishment. The Coalition will continue partnering with the Iraqi Security Forces under the framework of the security agreement to ensure that Iraq's enemies do not get an opportunity to threaten this transition to the newly established provincial governments.

The Iraqi Security Forces have made vast improvements in their ability to provide security to the population, improvements that we all witnessed during the elections this past week. They are in the lead throughout the country in providing security for the population.

Moving forward, the Coalition will remain focused on partnering with the Iraqi Security Forces, and we will continue our combined efforts to build the proper counterinsurgency capabilities so that internal security and stability can be maintained by the police, and the army can focus on more traditional military missions. Our shared goal is to establish police primacy by placing competent and capable police forces within the cities. And we will continue to work towards this goal together in the future.

Again, my heartfelt congratulations to the Iraqi people for your momentous and historic accomplishment. And you should know that we're committed to standing with you and assisting in any way we can as you move towards your national elections at the end of the year.

And thank you very much, and I'll now take some of your questions. Jane.

REP1: Thank you. I'm wondering, sir, what you think of the view that because there was so little violence -- I mean, obviously the Iraqi Security Forces did what seems to be a spectacular job -- but because there was so little violence, there is some link with the insurgency and a political agenda, i.e., do the insurgents have an interest in having successful elections, and does the apparent victory buy a lot of Sunni parties mean that it will have an effect on the insurgency?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Great question, Jane. You know, if you -- Well, as I said earlier, I think what we witnessed on Saturday was the result of a lot of hard work that has occurred over the last year. And even before that, as we witnessed what the surge BCTs helped us do in driving al Qaida out of, out of Anbar and out of Baghdad. So over the last year, we have worked together with our Iraqi partners to secure the borders, to drive down the levels of violence in the cities and other places, and to really begin to attack the insurgent networks in a very meaningful way. And if you look back across the last 10 weeks, Jane, the levels of violence have really dropped off significantly and we've been holding steady for the last 10 weeks; they've been below a hundred attacks per week for the last 10 weeks. So if you consider that, that really dispels any notion that there was some kind -- some type of complicit activity here with the insurgent forces. Yes, sir.

REP2: Hi, Jonathan Blakely from National Public Radio. General, two questions, I guess to piggyback a bit off of that question. Can you tell us specifically, if you can classify where is the insurgency in Iraq right now, the status of it -- taking the elections maybe out of this for a second. I mean, what -- where would you say the insurgency is in Iraq? What's -- Where's Iraq as far as insurgency's concerned. And also, can you characterize -- This is a different question -- the Iraqi police? Yesterday General Hammond said he was pleased with the Iraqi Security Forces but they had a long way to go. He was definitely pleased with what happened with the election, but as far as training they still have a long way to go. Are you still weeding out bad police? Can you tell us the status of the Iraqi police and the ISF? Thanks.

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Okay. I'll take the first part of that question to mean that you are addressing al Qaida and associated movements when you speak of "the insurgency" because you really have Sunni extremist activity and Shia extremist activity that we have been kind of working against over the last several years. But in terms of al Qaida, we think that al Qaida is a much weakened organization from what we've seen in the past. We've had really significant effects against, against their networks; we've taken a number of mid-grade leaders and junior leaders off the battlefield, and we've had sustained good effects over a number of months. So I consider them to be, to be weak -- much weakened from what they were a year ago. But we all know that it is, it is a very well organized organization, it has the ability to re-seed leaders at the, at the junior and mid-grade levels at an alarming rate. And, and because of that, they still maintain an ability to, to conduct high-profile attacks, and unfortunately, many of those high-profile attacks are directed against innocent civilians. And so they still have some capability; we are still working to degrade the network and -- and so we're continuing to pressurize them from a number of different directions.

So the answer is: Much weakened from what they were a year ago, but still some capability there. And so that work is still not yet finished.

In terms of the police, I think the police, development of the police lags behind the development of the army by about a year to a year and a half. And as the army gets better, it enables us to begin to kind of shift our focus and our efforts to partner more with the police and enable the police forces more. Now, when you consider the fact that the police forces are almost twice the size of the army, you can understand some of the difficulties with training and enabling a force that large.

Again, the goal is ultimately to have police primacy in the cities and we're going to continue to work towards that. I think the police have improved and are improving, but we have a ways to go. Yes.

REP3: (Inaudible).

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Now, the question is, are there bad elements in the police forces that we're trying to remove. If you looked at any police force throughout the world, you probably have -- you'd find some elements that are not living up to the, to the spirit of "protect and serve." And so there will be some, some elements that we will have to, to really evaluate and probably eliminate over time, but that's to be expected. Yes, sir.

REP4: General, Michael Christie from Reuters. I was wondering if you could help me understand what's going on in Anbar. How would you characterize the tensions there after the election, the marines on a heightened state of alert. How -- What is the situation over there in Anbar from your perspective at the moment?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Well, the situation in Anbar, as I understand, we have -- there have been some questions raised about the legitimacy of the, some of the proceedings at a couple of places -- those questions are being -- will be entertained by IHEC; there are good procedures to -- and well developed procedures -- to address those, you know, any concerns. And I think we have to provide IHEC the ability to investigate any issues that arise and address those issues. And so I won't speculate on, on any possible outcomes there. Yes, sir.

REP5: Hi, General. I'm Aamer Madhani from USA Today. I was wondering if you'd expand -- You described the participation as being "very good" in this election, 51 percent, basically a national holiday where it was all there was to do, and it's a lower participation than any of the previous elections. The Prime Minister said that he was hoping for 70 to 80 percent. And I don't think it's been minimized at all, the importance of this election. I was just wondering, wondering, if you'd expand on why you thought that participation was very good considering all these other factors.

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Yeah, a great question. First of all, 51 percent of the people voting, that means that over half the people that were eligible came out and, and cast their vote. I think that's, that's impressive. Over half the people spoke that day. When you compare and contrast this with our own elections in, in our country, I think, you know, you'll find that it tracks even better than we would expect for local elections in our country, in the United States. Again, these were not national elections; these were elections for, you know, provincial elections, and then electing a local -- local officials. And so for -- if we look at local elections in our country, I think you'd find that they would probably track even a little bit lower; I think the national elections, you could expect somewhere between 54 to 56 percent I've been told would participate. And local elections tend to run about 15 -- 10 to 15 percent lower than that. So when you consider those factors, I think, you know, these are pretty good results. Yes, sir.

REP6: (Asks question in Arabic.)

INT: Mr. General, what's your opinion about the level of the armed militias in Iraq, and what do you -- when do you think that the field has been cleansed of them, or do you still have concerns about these organizations? And is it true that Iran, as you claimed on several occasions, that Iran still plays -- or supports these organizations and that their presence is -- still exists in Iraq? Thank you.

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: As I understand, the question is, it was, what's my assessment of the state of militias, the current state of militias in the country. Do they still exist, and my answer to that is as I mentioned earlier, there are still some elements that have capabilities; certainly, al Qaida is one of them. There are other associated movements that have capability that, you know, we are continuing to try to address with our Iraqi Security Force partners. There are some Shia extremist elements that are still out there that we're still working against. And although the situation on both sides, both Sunni and Shia extremists, continues to get better on a daily basis. And what was the second part of the question, sir?

REP6: (Asks question in Arabic.)

INT: What about Iran? Do you still believe that Iran supports these organizations?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: I do believe that Iran still supports some of the Shia extremist elements. I believe that they support them with lethal accelerants in terms of munitions, rockets, mortars, EFPs or explosively formed penetrators. I believe that they support them with some degree of training and some funding. Yes, sir.

REP7: Hey, General. Lennox Samuels from Newsweek. Obviously things in the country have improved vastly from a year ago as you pointed out. I was wondering, what part of the country would you say remains most problematic? Are there some -- Are there some particular areas that are worse than others, and could you talk about what efforts might be on the way to address that?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Well, thanks, Lennox. You know, we, we maintain a, a watchful eye on all portions of the country, as you would imagine. We learned in the spring of last year, last March, that the levels of violence can spike out of -- almost out of control on a very -- very rapidly. So, you know, we have to be, be mindful of that. We've got to make sure that we keep our eyes on the indicators. We -- Although we're not seeing a tremendous number of attacks ongoing in the north, that's one area that we continue to work on with our Iraqi Security Force partners in the Mosul region, in the Diyala River Valley. And the reason is because we know that there were some very well established networks in the area around Mosul. We've managed to drive the levels of attack down significantly over the last several months, but again, we remain focused on disabling those, those networks. And so until we're satisfied that, that we have achieved that, we'll continue to work on those, those objectives. Yes, ma'am.

REP8: (Inaudible). You said that the -- You said you believed the -- Teheran still supports some of the Shia militia elements and provides them with these, with rockets, EFPs, to some degree. Is that a lesser degree than before? And to what to attribute a drop in the Iranian support, if there has been such a drop? What's going on there? Are they disengaging somehow? Are they getting fewer supporters here? What's happening on that front?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: We have seen a decrease in the number of -- in the amount of lethal accelerants that we found on the battlefield. And that's -- I think that's due to a number of reasons. Number one, we've been a lot more active in areas of the south; number two, the Iraqi Security Forces have increased their ability to control traffic across their borders. As they become a sovereign -- As they have become a sovereign nation, they've become a lot more attentive to protecting their borders. And so those activities are paying great dividends. We're still seeing some, some rockets and mortars that are, you know, fairly recent, have been made fairly recently. And that leads us to believe that, you know, support activity is still ongoing. And we, again, as I said earlier, we know that some elements that, that were working with Shia extremists, left the country, went into Iran and came back, and we've captured some of those, some of those elements. That's -- Those are the reasons that we believe that the support is still ongoing.

REP8: (Inaudible) have you captured any reasonable or are you talking about the famous ones who were captured, which I think was about -- not last summer, but the summer before?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: You mean...

REP8: I've forgotten --

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: -- senior leadership?

REP8: Yes.

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: We've not captured any senior leadership recently.

REP8: Have you captured real (ph) people going and coming back for the training recently?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: We -- There have been some elements that have returned that indicate that they have been -- they were trained in Iran. Yes.

REP8: Recently?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Fairly recently, yes.

REP9: As Salamu 'Alaykum. (Asks question in Arabic.)

INT: I'm from al Wasit newspaper. Could you please explain to us if you have a role -- or what is your role, about the violations in the elections, are they -- or the ballot boxes that were stolen during the elections, and when will the results of the elections be announced? Thank you.

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Well, first of all, our role in, in the overall election process was to help the Iraqi Security Forces provide a safe and secure environment to conduct credible and legitimate elections. And I think that, you know, based upon what we saw, that went very well. We were very successful in helping the Iraqis do that. Any challenges to the proceedings or the handling of ballots or things of that nature will be investigated by, by IHEC. And I am confident that based upon the well defined procedures they have for, for investigating these things, that, you know, they will be able to address any issues that currently exist out there.

In terms of when the, when the results will be announced, I'll defer to IHEC to make that announcement. I don't have a good idea of when they will feel comfortable with announcing the results. But I think it will be fairly soon, within the next several days.

REP10: (Asks question in Arabic.)

INT: I'm from the Ashid (ph) newspaper. After the success of this election, the President Obama stressed that the quick withdrawal from Iraq and more condensed presence in Afghanistan. How can you describe that withdrawal under the security agreement?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: The question is, as I understand it, you asked for a description of how we're going to withdraw under the new security agreement? I think that the security agreement was fairly straightforward in outlining that, you know, our role here will, will terminate in 2011. And so, you know, of course those are the time frames that we're working within, and again, how and where -- how we go about that will be based upon, you know, whatever decisions the president makes. And so he has not reached any decisions yet to my knowledge. And -- But I can tell you that he is engaging -- or has engaged his senior leadership, both in Iraq and Central Command and on the Joint Staff, the Chairman of the Joint Staff, and of course his Secretary of Defense. And as the senior leaders, you know, provide recommendations and the president makes a decision, then we'll, you know, the appropriate time lines will be outlined. Sir.

REP11: (Asks question in Arabic.)

INT: Amir Mamuri (ph) from al Hurriya Channel. Mr. General, one of the parliamentarians or governmental officials was concerned about the unpreparedness of IS to receive the security file until or year or more. How do you see in the Coalition Forces, the condition of the ISF? Question No. 2, how far is the implementation of the security agreement has gone after turning over the Green Zone and the Republican Palace, and what other stages of the security agreement will be implemented afterwards? Thank you.

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: First of all, regarding the condition of the Iraqi Security Forces, there's no question that they have improved a significant amount. They're a lot more confident and a lot more capable than they were just a year ago, and that is based upon the fact that they've gotten a lot of experience in fighting in places like Basra, Amarah, Sadr City, Mosul, Diyala. And so a number of successful operations that were conducted in conjunction with us as Coalition Forces. And so each and every one of those operations gave us more experience at working together and gave the Iraqi Security Forces a lot more confidence. As you know, and you've seen the Iraqi Security Forces, you know, around the streets of Baghdad and across the country, they've gotten more equipment and, and they're learning how to use that equipment. And so they're getting better every day. There is still some work to be done. And you've heard me say before that, that we still have to ensure that we have the combat enablers that are required for, for the Iraqi Security Forces to be able to stand completely on their own and complete the build-out of the counterinsurgency-capable force. Those types of things are combat engineers, the ability to collect and analyze intelligence, battlefield medicine, logistics and those types of things. And also the ability to provide indirect fires in the form of mortars or artillery, that sort of stuff, for themselves. And so there's, there's some work to be done yet; we have to acquire some equipment and we have to train on that equipment. And so -- But the Iraqi Security Forces continue to improve on a daily basis. And obviously the less fighting that we have to do, the more of an opportunity that we have to devote to training and enabling the Iraqi Security Forces. So I'm optimistic, but the work is not yet done.

REP11: (Asks question in Arabic.)

INT: The second question was about the stages, the implementation of the stages of the security agreement. And so what are the latest steps that you have taken in that regard?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Well, in terms of the security agreement, my assessment is that we are doing extremely well. But that is not a surprise to me; we are doing about what I expected we would do, and that's because we have been partnered with the Iraqi Security Forces for some time now. We've been conducting operations side by side; we've been planning together, working together. And so when the first of January came, came around, it was not a significant effort to, to change and operate under the new security agreement. Again, we are great partners, and we didn't have to change much. There are some things that are unique, you know, to -- with the agreement: We are no longer conducting independent operations, we detain people based upon having warrants for them. And so we've been able to make those changes and remain effective across the entire country in working with the Iraqi Security Forces. So I think it speaks very well for the future, and I, I don't see any major issues in terms of our operations right now. Sir.

REP12: General, Mike Gudgell with ABC News. You're through the elections; what's your next major concern? Post-election violence? Withdrawal to major bases? What are you looking at as you move forward here?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Great question, sir. As you know, it will take some time to get the, the new provincial governments seated. And, you know, we need to be mindful of the fact that there are a number of things that can happen during that time period. There will be great outcomes when they are announced; there will be unexpected outcomes. There'll be great winners; there'll be some bad losers. And so we have to guard against the possibility of people reacting in the wrong way to the outcome of the elections. Again, it's really encouraging that so many people participated and ran for office. But only a small fraction of the number that participated and ran for office will actually -- can actually be elected. And we would hope that, that all the folks that participated will support the new governments, whoever they are, the new leadership, as they are seated.

We also have to look forward to national elections that are coming up at the end of the year or perhaps at the beginning of the next year. We got to make sure that we continue to provide for a safe and secure environment that will enable us to conduct elections in the same, in the same fashion that we saw on Saturday. I think Saturday was a remarkable day for this country and for the region. And so those are two of the issues that are facing us and again, we'll continue to help the Government of Iraq try to extend the central services to the people throughout the country and continue to build upon some of the successes that we've made.

We've got time for one more question, and I think we'll have to wrap it up.

REP13: Thanks, General. If I can just follow up. If you consider potential bad losers, are you looking at Anbar a bit closer now because of problems that might be developing under the surface? How are you treating Anbar right now?

LT. GEN. AUSTIN: Well, you know, quite frankly, I've always been confident that we -- anything that arises in any part of the country that we have the means and the capability to address it. And again, we have always anticipated that there would be some anxiety throughout the country as ballots are tallied and announcements are made. I do think that IHEC will do a great job in addressing any issues that arise. I'm confident that local governments, that local officials, in terms of police and the army -- the police supported by the army can handle whatever comes up. And so we remain vigilant throughout the country, quite frankly.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, and let me say that that's been a pleasure to be with you once again. I am really proud of the accomplishments that we saw on Saturday, again, the result of a lot of hard work that happened throughout the year, but it really speaks highly of this country and also of the Iraqi Security Forces. Again, thank you very much.

[END OF RECORDING.]