a spill is not quite same as a leak, but the classification in the federal government really do concern me. what are you doing to address these types of situations? >> my view is that given our cyber security mission should be a model for other agencies and departments. i am familiar with that article. i know that our cyber security experts and intelligence analysis are focused on addressing spills. my recollection is that the article is not accurate in all respects. i'd be happy to look into that.

>> that would be great. i appreciate it. i do appreciate it and thank you for your very good work up there. thank you for all your employees as well. thank you mr. chair. >> thank you senator ernst. i've been cranking up numbers here. i got your sheet on on a company children big difference here is you are including all accompanied children including from mexico and i was talking about unaccompanied children from central america which is a big problem. let's get through this because it's important. it affects your budget. you are budgeting for 75000 unaccompanied children from all sources, correct? >> yes. >> if you take a look at 2014, the crisis, we can put the chart back up there, that was in total about 68,630 1,000,631,000 unaccompanied children. this is only central america.

year-to-date we are 10% above 2014 numbers. >> 68,005 41 is what i have. >> that's right, for the entire year. year-to-date the entire year. year-to-date in 2016 we are at 23000. if you include all in a company children, we are up 10% which would apply we are going to be 10% over 68,000 which is about 75000. that's including mexican children as well. mexico is four times the population of central america. yet mexican unaccompanied children are somewhere between 20 and 25% of the problem. that's why i isolate unaccompanied children from central america because we treat them differently. i'm trying to figure out what the best way is to address this problem in which way is the best to reduce the flow.

the length and adjudication processes one, the fact that when unaccompanied children from central america get here, there apprehended, the processed and dispersed and, the point i'm trying to make is there should be alarm bells ringing right now because in the first four months with just unaccompanied children from central america, were up to 49% over the first four months in 2014. we are up, up 49%. that would imply that if you run the numbers outcome about 77000 unaccompanied children from central america. i backed out my assumption because we've had about 1000

unaccompanied children the first four months. if i assume it's 1000 for february, i can come up with a number were still 28 and a half% ahead of 2014. that would imply --dash do you the early indications show it's going to be worse than 2014. it's going to affect your budget. here's what concerns me. the great efforts of cdp, we've gotten very good, very humane at processing and dispersing.

i said earlier about the situation in columbus, this is a a -- this is not a humane situation. this is an in norma's problem and we are not addressing the root cause in our public policy ought to be what should we do to stem the flow, not figure out how we can more efficiently process and disburse but how do we address the incentives that is incentivizing people to come here? >> a couple of things. i hope you don't mind if i exceed your 36 seconds. first of all, nobody in dhs, cdp , ice or hhs is feeling as if a crisis has been averted.

whether it 75000, 68,039,000, it's a whole lot of kids. it creates a real problem for us. it overwhelms my resources, hhs resources and taxes a lot of other resources. i do think the compare to 2014 is imperfect in that there is a certain trend that existed in 2014 that doesn't exist in 2016. the numbers in january and february 2014 were considerably higher than the numbers in january and february 2016. having said said that, much of this is seasonal. i think we have to assume that march is going to be higher than february and april is going to be higher than march. may june july will probably do what it typically does. we have to assume that we are not going to see numbers as low

as 3100 for the rest of this fiscal year. that is why our budget request assumes 75,000 in 2016. 2016. now, i agree with you that you can put a lot of broader security at this effort to deal with kids who are not seeking to avoid capture. there's only so much you can do by way of border security immigration enforcement. however, i do believe that it is important that people in central america see that people are being repatriated back to central america which is why we have been visible about our efforts in recent months and i do agree with you, chairman that the underlying factors have to be addressed. congress appropriated 750 million for central america

and i am impressed with the new president of guatemala. i hope you had a chance to meet him when he was here a couple weeks ago. he is a dynamic leader of guatemala and i hope, and i have optimism for that country. given the new leadership there i am optimistic. we have to do more and we are seeking to do more to help those in central america with their border security, through training programs and vetting programs, we have to do more in central america which is the heart of the problem. just in my 26 months months in office, i have learned that as long as you have powerful underlying push factors, poverty violence, drought and so forth, there's only so much border security you can accomplish whether it's more personnel or more walls to deal with people who are motivated to leave their homes and travel thousands of miles to come here. >> we create an awful lot of push back. that's the purpose of that

chart. it had some pretty tremendous pull factor. they learned the term, credible fear. all all the sudden were not sending them back. they started sending people back immediately and the flow stopped. we were in guatemala and honduras. we met with the president-elect at that time. i also met with the president when he came here last week, two weeks weeks ago. we actually saw a repatriated station of illegal immigrants return to the airport and during the reorientation speech and this was paraphrased and translated to me, the guatemalans were told doesn't matter how poor, how rich big or small, this is still your motherland. remember remember you have to love your country.

please remember that before attempting to leave the united states. they erupted in to applause. reprocessing center was very moderate. nongovernment agencies were ready to help them. there was a phone bank and one minor. he was separated from the group of adults. their form of child perspective services. we talk about these push backs. the president of honduras asked us, please fix the ambiguity in your laws. they are encouraging our citizens to leave our country. let's face it. this is the united states of america. i don't know how many people from around the world wants come come here, but there are literally hundreds of millions if not billions of people who want to be in america but we can't accept them all. there has to be legal process and we have to look at the incentives we create in our own laws that are the pull factor. there are factors all over the world.

we really have to deal with what we can deal with here. those countries are beautiful countries, but as long as we have the farmers who make 50 times what they can make on normal crops and they don't have to deliver it anywhere, they come pick it up. senator carper was saying the same thing. from our 14 years of border security, the conclusion i came to is our insatiable demand for drugs that is causing so many problems as well. my point is let's look at this with clear eyes and acknowledge the reality and deal with the policies we've enacted over multiple administrations and acknowledge the fact that these things aren't working. we really have to look at what we can do ourselves and state what should be the goal of our policies to stem the flow as

opposed to what were doing right now in your budget. you've done a great job with great humanity with what dhs did in the crisis in 2014. it was pretty extraordinary. that's not the solution. bottom line. i've got a couple questions. >> let me make something, let me me say couple things. first, i agree with what secretary told you. he told me the same thing. about the situation in 2006. i share his view that illegal migration is market sensitive. it reacts information in the marketplace about what is going on and what you can expect to happen after you pay the coyote $6000 you've migrated all way up your. so, that is why to the

consternation and unhappiness of many, i've been public about our enforcement efforts. just the first five months of this fiscal year, with regard to central america, after all these people go through the credible fear process and having their claim heard in court and having appeals run and so forth, just this fiscal year we have sent back 28,000 people to central america. nobody is sitting on their hands. we have sent back 28,000 people 28000 people to central america. >> on average 14 flights a week. people are being sent back routinely. >> out of how many that came? were talking about unaccompanied children, you're talking about almost all adults. what is the total that has come and of the 28,000 is what percent of the total? >> the number of total who have come in just this fiscal year,

sure it exceeds the 28,000 number because a lot of them go through the litigation of their asylum claims. as you know that takes months and months. doj has a limited number of judges to hear these claims. once we have gone through those processes, i am sending back as quickly as possible. >> i understand that and i appreciate that fact, fact, but you know the total amount that's come in? since when? >> since the beginning of year. how many came in illegally that we know of? >> so far this fiscal year there have been 152,000 apprehensions on our border. >> and how many get by without us knowing about it? >> one of the reasons we are both interested in developing better border metrics. >> it is a large of number, without a doubt.

presumably, all these people are in deportation proceedings at one stage of the process or another but as you know it is time-consuming. we are routinely sending hundreds and thousands of people back to central america and i kinda made a big deal about that. >> one of the reasons we only have a thousand mexican unaccompanied children is we can send them back right away. it's just easier to do it so there's. >> it's a different situation it's not quite the same situation. >> why is mexico different situation, just briefly? >> the pushback features are not the same and the economy is better. mexico is a much different country than 15 years ago when the number of illegal migrants coming from there were far greater. so i think it is notable that

though our economy is improving, the number of apprehensions on our southern border is a fraction of what it used to be thanks to the investments we and the congress have made in border security over the last 15 years. could we do better? absolute. are we concerned about another spike? yes we have to prepare for and we are concerned. nobody's popping champagne court. just yesterday adam meeting with the sec. of hhs on this problem to try to anticipate what could be the worst. again, as i said i don't think 2014 is a great comparator. i think trendlines are different but still we can see seasonal migration trending up again, absolutely. >> the other thing that's different is mexico. they have of i vibrant middle

class. they didn't have that 20 years ago. partly that could be attributable and they still have rule of law on this country and they have their challenges in mexico in that regard. the folks that are coming out of what a mama, the secretaries been down there and i've been down there, if we lived in those countries trying to raise our families, we might want to try to get them out into a safer place two. cyber security. i know we've talked a little bit about that over the last several years. we've talked about a lot. they provided greater hiring flexibility and the other piece is to try to reconcile the

difference of the responsibilities with respect to protecting our.gov domain. we've done that in a thoughtful way. and we have a real-time system were actually able to respond in a real-time basis rather than a year after an intrusion. we have provided funding for all of that and you now have had an opportunity to begin hiring cyber warriors. how's it going. >> first well, thank you for taking on this complex subject and pushing a really good bill last year. thank you also for the cyber legislation we had in 2014 that gives us additional hiring authorities. we are competing in a tough

marketplace against the private sector that is in a position to offer a lot more money. they are making very aggressive efforts to implement the 2014 legislation and be in the interim do a lot of things in terms of recruitment we need more cyber talent without a doubt. we are not where we should be right now. that is without a doubt. >> let me interrupt. one of your top cyber people went to georgia tech and i'm sure she was making good money. she was gave it up to work at the department of homeland security. the reason why, when i talk to her about it was that she felt an obligation and a desire to

give back to her country. it's all well and good that it has work for other companies and businesses, but in this case there's something to be said to appealing to patriotism.p:f some of these monies will be used to expand intrusion detection systems across the board and to bring in the new personnel that we talked about for your cyber ops. how does the budget support implementation of the cyber

security information sharing legislation that was enacted last year when we worked on it together? how does the budget support implementation? >> short answer is, further investments in maintaining our technology and building upon what we have. further investments in the system and cdm, legislation specifically authorizes dhs to go into other federal departments and agencies and detect and monitor arm block intrusions. that is a good thing that congress gave us the authority to do that because we were finding considerable uncertainty to do that. one of my top priorities for federal civilian.gov, while instilling office is to have e3 a in place to block intrusions

across our civilian system before the end of this year. i think that's one of the legal mandates in the bill. but, as as i've said, einstein is also a platform for building additional capabilities. were not just going after known intrusions but also suspected intrusions. there are pilots out there to do that now and i think we need to build on that in the future. so the funding for additional technology implements legislation that was passed last year. >> just a quick question to follow up on encryption. we hear a lot in the media about apple and the disagreements that they have with the fbi. it's a serious matter. we have a mass killing in san bernardino where 14 people were killed by a couple who were radicalized.

there's a cell phone, and apple cell phone that's in question that was not owned by the killers but was owned by the county where the husband that actually worked. we have a role to play here. the administration has spelled-out their own views and i think there's actually some people who don't want to speak, it's a tough tough issue. as we consider legislation on the issue do you want to shed some light? >> my advice is that ensure that you have the views of all the stakeholders from the tech

sector from the intelligence community and from the law enforcement community, federal and state. one person who comes to mind for example is the manhattan da. he was a friend of mine and has been very vocal about the encryption issue from the local law enforcement level. he reminds us that basically any crime that involves communication, not just federal crime is harder to detect because of the encryption issue. i do believe that there needs to be a real adjustment in the pendulum. i think the response of the demands of the marketplace and the tech sector has gone a long way toward encryption. it has in fact created a situation where crime and potential terrorist plotting is harder to detect.

i and others do agree that there needs to be a recalibration. i support the government position in the case involving apple in california and so, if we are to grapple with this problem, i think smart people can't solve the problem but we have to ensure that all the stakeholders are represented in that discussion. >> we continue to welcome your counsel. chairman, we worked a whole lot on trying to put legislative language authorizing some of the friday want to leave some of your reforms in place for the next secretary? will these reforms help get them off the high risk list and do the work more effectively?

>> first well, through our very able undersecretary who is sitting right there,. >> what's his name? >> rest feel. he's a former practice of mine. we worked a long way. i believe very strongly that a lot of the things we are doing to remove the pipes in dhs and have a more strategic approach to budget making, acquisition and so forth should be institutionalized. it's not just something that should exist while i am in office. i think it will make the department a better more effective place for homeland security if we move in the direction of more centralized and more strategic approaches to our homeland security mission. we have been far too often and we need to move toward a model

more like the department of defense rehab joint duty, joint tax forces and the like. there are provisions in the current law that create some limitations on our ability to do that. i'm sure our staffs have spoken to you about that in the current insecurity act. authorization of our unity of initiative is something i very much support which includes reforming and restructuring. i have seen the legislative language that i know your community is working through now on a number of these things that i support that. i support the good work there. >> i thing is fair to say that we support what you're doing as well. thank you so much for joining us. >> i saw some questions as well. i will step through them.

by the way, i do appreciate you working with me on a board metrics bill and the fact that you recognize that we need to understand the situation. let's talk a little bit about critical interest infrastructure. i talked a little bit about ted koppel's book, lights out. out. we held a hearing on this. we had james woolsey. the mp commission in 2008 cast your department with a number of quick fixes. they basically reported that there hadn't been a lot on that. we witnessed the unsolved attack on a substation at metcalf. you read about the cyber attack on the power grid system in ukraine. you look at the potential of

solar storms and geo- magnetic disturbances. look at north korea. i'm concerned about around. these threats are real. i guess can you just talk about, across the board the infrastructure, particularly particularly the electrical grid which is the number one, electricity's go down and lights go out, were in a in a world of hurt and we have these massive power transforms. doctor garwin, he is a real national treasure. he referred to him as one of the true geniuses he ever met. can you speak to me on what the department has done in terms of the charger were given based on the 2008 commission on critical infrastructure, particularly

electrical grid where we had on that? better than we were but there's more to do. i don't agree with everything in ted koppel's book, but i think he was right to put a spotlight on the issue. since the earthquake in japan in 2012 there were a lot of lessons learned for u.s. government and private sector critical infrastructure. since that which was sort of a seminal event, we've done a lot more partnering with the private sector and infrastructure to work with them and sharing best practices and information about potential for a cyber attack on power grids. we do exercise it now with them. we are in a better place than we were. there was a dhs team along with

an interagency team in the train recently that was a cyber attack that led to a power failure and were not at a position to attribute it to any particular source. that was a cyber attack. >> it would have appeared to have been fairly sophisticated, yes. that must be a wake-up call for those who have not already been awakened by this problem in this risk. we are working with critical infrastructure all the time. i have spoken to ceos of utilities about this program and they are concerned of this issue as well but there is more to do. >> what does the lead group in your department suggest? >> we have a lead secretary for infrastructure who is part of this effort but also our cyber security efforts as well.

>> i went to work very closely with with you and over the next few months just do as much as we can legislation legislatively. i have more questions but alternate over to chairman mccain. >> thank you very much. welcome back. couple issues, real quick, we are terribly short of staffing at our ports of entry on our southern border. we pass legislation which would expedite veterans being hired, we've done a number of things, but we are still for example, their 20% understaffed. it's well it's well over 100. you see these vacant lanes and traffic is stacked up behind it because we don't have the personnel. it's my understanding that it

takes about 18 months and we did pass legislation that would expedite veterans and former military but were still not making up for that shortfall. i am the view that we need to have some kind of incentive pay or hazardous duty pay at ports of entry that expires true experience high-traffic. >> we are not where we need to be. no argument from me there. cdt needs to and is to making aggressive efforts to hire and bring on people faster, to get get them through the polygraph exams. i fully support the hiring of veterans and making it easy to hire veterans. i understand you are interested in legislation to deal with pay

in these areas and i'm happy to look at what that would look like. >> it's a very tough environment. all of our southern border and i would argue, in arizona, it gets particularly warm. i can understand how tough the duty is. i think we provide incentive pay for hardship is positions. i hope you would look at that and be introducing legislation on it because it's just not sufficient. we are well over a hundred agents short. it's either there's something wrong with the level of staffing required or something wrong with the level of personnel. i know that you know that

there's an academic of manufactured heroin. those depths have been described by some governors, including the governor of new hampshire as an epidemic. the heroine is being transported across the border and arizona and has increased 223% as the drug cartels transport and distribute the drug to the united states. i think it's particularly interesting now with the passing of nancy reagan, reagan, just say no to drugs was something that we ought to do a lot more of. do you agree that the heroine drug overdose deaths are skyrocketing. that's a fact that we get from the governors. aren't most of this, these

manufactured heroin coming across through the ports of entry rather than smuggle off the border. what you propose we need to come back to what some governors describe as a port epidemic? >> i agree most of the heroine's that is seized is seized at ports of entry on our southern border. that's what the facts and statistics show as opposed to maritime, for example. we have seen greater levels of seizures by border protection and hsi. we have created a national task force with the department of justice to deal with the heroine epidemic specifically, part of the task force mission that i created two years ago, which is

modeled, by the way of the structure we have in arizona, is the illegal narcotics, not just illegal migrants. i want rj tf to be focused on narcotics as well. we are in alarming increase. this needs to be a national effort. we are seeing seizures at higher levels without a doubt. >> it also seems that the problem is increasing, according to the governors, rather than rather than decreasing. i agree with them. i agree with the whole supply and demand. it seems to me that despite our increase, the problem is growing worse. would you agree with that? >> yes sir. >> you have any ideas? >> i think we need more

resources at the federal government level, not just dhs, but d.o. g and four needed to send data effort to deal with this effort. i hope congress can get some recommendations from you. >> quite frankly i've not seen anything like this. when i travel to new hampshire and hear the governor say it's an epidemic in her state and throughout the midwest as well. maybe also some time we all talk about demand, but nobody seems to want to discuss that aspect of it as well. i know that's disappointing to you. finally, on the children showing up the border, is one of the answers allowing increasing our embassy and consulate capability in those three countries, el

salvador, nick water growth and guatemala so they can go there rather than showing up on our border? >> yes or, i agree with that. i think you for the good work that you do. we have some spirited discussion from time to time, but i appreciate the work you are doing. finally, as nancy reagan inaugurated, maybe we ought to be talking more about trying to address the demand side of this problem rather than blaming it all on the mexican cartels. i'm glad to blame it on them, but there is a demand. do you agree? >> i agree. you have to deal with the demand in the supply. >> pinky mr. sec. >> thank you senator mccain. we mentioned earlier that what i've come to in this committee and the root cause is the

insatiable demand for drugs. that is an important component. we are trying to work on a piece of legislation to address that. here's an idea, in terms of drugs at the border through course of entry, we held a hearing and i know you're busy with the armed services committee. it's incredibly interesting on canine units. the red teams, the failure rates because it is difficult to detect these things went to university of pennsylvania where they've got a groundbreaking canine training unit there. there's unbelievable capabilities. in the hearing, we didn't really increase the number of canine units. i want your evaluation. in an approach to airport security for bomb sniffing and potentially drug sniffing and

all those issues, do you think it is good to explore the efficacy and expansion of canine units throughout your different missions? whether it's drug interdiction or trying to potentially step out bombs in airports, that kind of thing. >> there's actually no better technology than a dog knows. they can detect certain type of explosives and other items. i've seen us expand the use of canine set airports in the past year to look for prohibited items in airports and in and around airplanes. i do believe in canine use. it is very, very effective. there's a number of our missions that we use, not just aviation. >> we haven't really increase the numbers. is is that something you want to

look at? >> i think about 2500 units totaling dhs, but it's been pretty flat. do you think it's so effective we should be looking at it more? >> i understand you had a hearing dedicated to exclusively this? >> canines are very effective. one the things i was fascinated to learn when i was in turkey last week is that they are not as opposed to using canines there as one might expect them to be. they are embracing this too. i think it is worth looking at, yes. >> let's work together on that per the final thing, i want to talk about personnel. what do we need to do to take it to your sabbatical and come here, or whatever program we can come up with to attract those individuals. i am very impressed with the

individuals like yourself and your entire team here. the quality of the workforce, these people are patriots and they take their mission serious about keeping this nationstate safe in understanding the constraints. i'm a private-sector guy. i understand the constraints. we have to put our heads together and figure out what do we need to do so your department is staffed with the best and brightest. there are plenty of patriots in america that will do it. let's try and breakdown the barriers we create bureaucratically. >> we have terrific career people and i agree with what tom said which is we ought to appeal to people's sense of of patriotism and hey, how about spending a couple years serving your country, working for for the government and cyber security which will better enable you to get that traffic job later on in the private

sector. >> they have a marketing ad campaign trying to make it really attractive to, not going to these apps, but go in and figure out how do you make an economy run with the information technology. maybe we can do something like that. again, we want to work with you in terms of what senator mccain was talking about so the refugee and asylum seekers can do that within central america rather than making the dangerous journey. we want to work with you in terms of reducing our insatiable demand for drugs and the passing of nancy reagan is an important reminder. that actually worked. it was very effective about reducing demand for tobacco. we should try the same thing with drugs. again, i want to think your entire management team and thank you mr. sanctuary for coming here and for all of your

efforts. this was not an easy job. it's an enormous challenge in your working hard to try to keep this nation safe and secure. thank you for your efforts. with that, the hearing record will remain open for 15 days until march 23 at 5 pm for submissions and statements to the record. this this hearing is dropped. >> thank you.

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[inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] on. [inaudible conversation] >> coming up on c-span two, senate armed services hearing on the fight against isys, homeland, homeland security secretary jay johnson testifies

at a senate hearing regarding the annual budget. discussion with u.s. relations about canada and later live coverage of the questions of the british house of commons. >> i think what's so unusual is that if i can be sappy for a second, to be able to have professional and personal partnerships for over 15 years is a really unusual thing. >> your temperament and great vision in terms of editing is something i don't have and don't spend any time on. i've stuck closely to the grunt side of the equation. >> sunday night on q&a, susan glasser and peter baker who are married join us to talk about their careers in the upcoming plans to move to israel. >> it's going to be a great adventure. we were teaching in moscow for the post. we've done overseas things

together, but we've never spent time in jews from and israel. i think we're looking forward to learning a lot. it's going to be an adventure. it has so much history and it's a vital part of today's issues. we spend a lot of time writing about it in washington but we've never lived there. >> i will also basically be changing roles. we are continuing to expand both here in the united states and internationally. we are looking at creating and launching new things. i came here to start a political magazine about two and half years ago. then we started on a really exciting new platform to take us into the reporting. >> sunday night at eastern on c-span q&a.

>> military commanders of special operations testify at a senate hearing about the global campaign against terrorism. most of the questioning focused on the fight against isis.se this is two hours 20 minutes. >> were discussing the u.s. central command, africa command and speciald iv operations commd

in the context of our review ano oversight of the fiscal year 2017 defense budget. please welcome our witnesses, we thank each of you for decades of distinguished service in your leadership of our men and women in uniform. i'd like to extend special thanks to general austen and general rodriguez as this may be their last appearance before this committee. our nation's most distinguished national security leaders have testified before this committee repeatedly. nowhere does this unraveling show more obvious than in the middle east. this emerging vacuum has been filled by the most extreme and anti-american forces, sunni terrorist sunni terrorist groups such as isis and al qaeda and shiite's tree extremists.ul

as a result almost every middle eastern country is now a battleground or combatant in one or more c wars. this morning's wall street, new york times entitled pentagon plan to fight isis and libya includes barrage of airstrikes. these aren diverse, complex and trans- regional threats to our military fronts every day across lines of responsibilities. is this committee continues through the in the review of the nichols act, we are interested to hear views on which we arere unable to bests succeed.

what reforms we need to consider and what successes might we have. this this is critical because there are already too many obstacles as ital is. micromanagement and misguided spending has made our job more difficult. this has been especially true for our special operations forces. more than 15 years of continuous deployment based on unique capabilities has led to stress p on the force. we are placing greater demands on the operators and families and we must be diligent and provide the necessary support to maintain their capabilities, not just indirect action but been in building -- while we marvel ourf special operations forces, we

must remember there just one part of our foursome strategy. they're not a not a magic solution to every problem or a substitute for coherent strategy as theth administration has demonstrated repeatedly. spy relief from the spending caps imposed by the budget control act, we are still placing an unnecessary and dangerous burden on the backs of our service members. president obama fiscal year 17 defense budget request does little to relieve that burden. secretary carter hasdg said the military is at an inflection point requiring urgent and simultaneous investment in next-generation technology such as the 50% increase in the fight against isil.

he chose to request the lowest level of defense spendinghr is rise by last year's budget agreement. operational requirements have grown. this comes as no sprites from administration that the past seven years have sought to scale back. in moments of consequence, this president walked away and ignored the lessonss of history that power of vacuum. one wars don't and because politicians say so. they often outweigh the risk of action. america cannot solve the problem of the middle east, american leadership is indispensable to

managing i them. there's major items hanging in the balance. we cannot afford to ignore these lessons again. in afghanistan the president has told that we will proceed to cun u.s. troop presence in half by t this year. he has yet to explain the of reducing troop levels from 9000 down to 5000. diminished operational flexibility of u.s. counterterrorism forces and perhaps the most damaging of all, the end of the u.s. system at all, but the the highest level of the afghan military. all of this translates into its risk. once they are addressed in days,

they they will be addressed in months, that is it if they are addressed at all.l. risks would've been in our power to reverse but they will be put on a plate to discuss later. in iraq and syria, the artificial limitation on troop levels ties the hands of a military commanders and makes our troops more vulnerable to attack in much less likely to succeed. the president has inched forward with incremental increases in capabilities. this misguided gradualism serves only to allow the enemy to adjust for these capabilities ever make a difference. it is clear to me from my conversations with our military commanders, both on the ground and in theo pentagon, untran, that they've been reduced from considering what it will take tu win to what will i be allowed to

do. it's our troops and national security that are paying the price. : terror with isil al-qaeda boko haram and al-shabaab commanding territory launching successful attacks throughout the continent. most alarming isil now commands an army of 5000 fighters in libya while the threat in asia continues to metastasize about the threat in africa continues to metastasize our military commanders are being forced to do more with less starved for resources and denied timely and flexible authorities to take advantage of battlefield opportunities and hault the advance of extremism. in the gulf of president is failing to live up to the promises made at the camp david summit in may 2015. for example the president committed to fast-tracking arms sales, excuse me to fast-tracking arms transfers to

our golf partners that fighter aircraft sales for qatar kuwait and bahrain that could help thwart iranian hegemony missions are languishing on the shelf gathering dust. once again the american credibility is disintegrating as a malign influence of i ran and russia continues to grow. this administration's great failure to date has not done that it makes mistakes. it is rather it has failed or perhaps refuse to learn from them. unless we chart a new course it may well be this administration's lasting legacy. senator reed. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. i too want to join you in thinking and commanding general austin and general rodrigues for their extraordinary service and since this is likely to be her last appearance before the committee but having the privilege to work with you for many years your professionalism,

skill and commitment to the sailors airmen marines without parallel so thank you both. general votel we appreciate your appearing today special operations commander may well see you again tomorrow i suspect as you have been nominated to be the successor to general austin central command and armed services also. deeply appreciated. earlier this year travel try it iraq afghanistan djibouti to see some of the challenges we have been talking about. in iraq the diplomatic military official site met universally agreed iraqi security forces successfully taking ramadi in june is critical for providing momentum for upcoming operations. while isil has now lost considerable territory that will they once held in iraq the more difficult military task is still ahead to the coming months the combination of the newly trained iraqi security force enabled the coalition intelligence and airstrikes should be able to

make progress in making isil a population center. i look forward to our witnesses assessment of what we can expect realistically in the coming months as the iraqi special forces and security forces turn their attention to muzzle. in addition iraq's political leadership is confirmed long-standing questions to political reconciliation in iraq and general austin i look forward to your assessment of the political atmosphere in baghdad and we believe the conditions are set for a political dialogue to stabilize the political situation to complement military actions taking place. in syria the cessation of hostility appears to be tenuously holding and tenuously at last. it remains unclear however this incremental step will be sufficient to set the stage for meaningful political negotiations which every side set is the ultimate solution to the issue issue. i saw remains in control most of the -- busted eastern syria with special operations or forces

have made gains but the battlefield dynamic continues to present many challenges and his general breedlove discussed this with the weaponization of refugees they were russian activity in syria regime activity present military political and humanitarian issues that we have not seen in an era and i hope our witnesses will provide their assessment of the situation this respect. i ran continues to be a significant concern to the committee particularly its missile tests and ongoing support to nonstate actors across the middle east. general austin i hope you'll update the assessment of iran's activity in the wake of the joint comprehensive plan of actions implementation. in afghanistan the past year has been one of political transition. the u.s. continues to evaluate how we can enable the government of afghanistan to protect the government's population. the new commander is now conducting an assessment of what capabilities has been associated

troop levels will be required to achieve our objective in afghanistan throughout the rest of 2016 and 2017 and as i said before his recommendations must be given most serious consideration since he is on the battlefield and the closest to the issue. general austin general votel your attention to this is deeply appreciated. one of the results of said comes operations against isil in iraq and syria has been the isil's metastasizing into libya and other places as we talked about. your command is undertaken a number of operations against isil in libya. a lack of a functioning government in tripoli or more unified military makes it difficult to stamp arbison i hope you will give us your insights on this issue. while in djibouti i was a familiar with the operations in somalia and as you know general rodrigues the amazon african union mission's has been functioning but is coming under

increasing pressure. we interned have been helping them recently there was a significant airstrike by u.s. forces to help support their efforts so i would like your assessment of the situation there and as we go forward what we can do. there's one issue that cut across all the areas and that was we seem to be losing the information war of messaging, of getting our message to the people of all these countries about our support for legitimate government for a reasonable government. that is ironic to say the least to your comments about how we can reverse this tide and in fact point to the population to our site would be appreciated. again and general votel finally as the chairman has noted your special operations forces has sustained extraordinary operation before for but for the last two years. we know what they have done extraordinary work and we appreciate your leadership but

we would also like you to commend them personally and their families for what they would have to do would be remiss if i didn't address the senior personnel that are here. thank you for your leadership. general austin, priddy at morning turmeric and ranking member reed this in which members of the committee want to thank you for the opportunity to appear here today to discuss the current posture of the united states central command. i'm pleased to appear here this morning alongside general david rodrigues and joseph votel predebate global security environment is incredibly complex. most of the challenges that we face transcends borders and i could not ask her for two better teammates and the gentleman beside me to work through these challenges on a daily basis. ladies and gentlemen as pastors and especially challenging one for the governments, for the

people of the central region. we have seen an almost unprecedented level of turmoil and conflict from regional state and nonstate actors along with increasing involvement by external stayed at her such as russia and china. at the same time many of the countries that make up the central region are under growing economic pressure and of course a the combination of these and other factors makes this strategically important region vulnerable to conflict and to increased instability. presently the united states central command is involved in or supporting multiple military operations and they include the campaign to counter isil in iraq and syria and are resolute support mission in afghanistan. we are providing limited support for the saudi led coalition in yemen and we continue to prosecute the fight against terrorism and extremism throughout our area for sponsor

ability. we are also dealing with them is to please have seen throughout the region that is caused by a ram. i will talk briefly about a few the situations in particular as we continue to demand a large portion of our attention and our resources. i will start with the fight against isil. ladies and gentlemen we are defeating this enemy in iraq and syria. we are pressuring isil on more fronts than in any other point in time since they march into mosul 18 months ago and we are doing so by degrading the enemy's military capability by taking back territory, by diminishing its economic resources and by removing its senior leadership from the battlefield. we are also slowing the flow of foreign fighters. all of these actions in combination are contribute contributed to a force that is less capable and increasingly demoralized and paranoid and prone to defection.

while we are defeating isil in iraq and syria we see increased efforts by this enemy to expand into other areas of the globe namely north africa the iranian peninsula and south asia. and he is expanding into these and other areas in part because he knows he is losing in iraq and syria and finding other ways to maintain his legitimacy. holding the suspension will require a concerted effort by the international community going forward to in the meantime iraq security forces are performing better with time there are capacity building efforts. if notes the kurdish peshmerga remain critical to our efforts on the ground in the northern part of the country. they are irreplaceable and we must do all that we can to support them. in syria we continue to work with indigenous forces including syrian arabs, turkoman and others as they take the fight to the enemy.

together they are achieving tremendous results including securing more than 18,000 square kilometers of territory previously held by the enemy. ladies and gentlemen the fight against isil in iraq and syria remains incredibly complex and while the defeat of isil will take time and it will not be easing you can rest assured that we will get it done. meanwhile in afghanistan and the security forces continued to hold their own. they have come a long way over the past 14 plus years and we want to ensure that they maintain momentum going forward. this past year the afghans underwent multiple transitions that together have shifted the operational environment. i still assessed that the afghan security forces are capable of holding their gains against the taliban however like with any plan changing emissions on the ground may require a reevaluation of our planning. we have invested a great deal in that country.

it is an important country for a number of reasons and we want to do what's necessary to help the afghans be successful long term. finally with respect to i ran while we are hopeful that the implementation of the agreement and results of the recent elections will lead to more responsible behavior by the uranium we have not yet seen any indication that they intend to pursue a different path. the fact remained in i ran today is a significant destabilizing force in the region. ladies and gentlemen some of the behavior that we have seen from i ran of late is certainly not the behavior you would expect to see from a nation that wants to be taken seriously as a respected member of the international community. and so we will continue to keep a close eye on i ran going forward for you today despite the many challenges that exist in centcom we do see progress being made in a number of areas. if not her decades of investment are paying off and we are seeing

our regional partners assumed a greater share of security responsibilities in the region. they are dealing with extremist threats in our own countries while conducting military operations as a part of a counter isil coalition in iraq and syria. and so we are encouraged by what we are seeing and we remain committed to working with our partners in support of our shared goals and objectives. ultimately we want to see the strategically important central region moving in the direction of increased stability and security and we must be properly resourced to do what is required to actively protect and promote our interests. we do appreciate this committees strong continued support. in closing chairman mccain and ranking member. members of the committee want to thank you must import me for the strong support that you continue to show to our servicemembers are civilians and their families

i'm incredibly proud of them and i know that you are as well. thank you again for the opportunity and i look forward to answering questions. >> thank you general rodrigues. >> chairman and a member distinguished members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to update you on the efforts united states africa command. for the past three years i've been honored to command the men and women of africa and the man. africa africa is an enduring united states and it's important important -- it's important is to grow as african economies populations and influence growth small but wise investments in africa security institutions today offer disproportionate benefits to africa europe and the united states. african solutions to african problems are in the long run in the best interest of africans americans and indeed the world. and the most trouble spots of the continent africans have an understandable fear and distrust of the government's security forces which are charged with promoting and guarding the

welfare of other people. predatory practices correction in political and economic exclusion of portions of the population as well as inconsistent adherence to the rule of law combined to crush the hope of a better future. these conditions create an environment ripe for the expansion of violent extremism and represent a threat not only to africa but to our european allies in the united united states. the effectively addressing the threat before it or after a military crisis requires eight conference of approach employing development events to address the root causes of extremism and replace fear and uncertainty with trust and confidence in african institutions. this approach must seek improvements in governance to assess assist adherence to the rule of law and society. african command contribution of this broad solution relies primarily in encouraging and enabling the professionalism of

the african security institutions which was secured national populations, cooperate in addressing regional security concerns and increasingly play a role in sustaining global security. our military strategy articulates a long-term regionally focused approach to enabling our african partners. our operational proceeds -- seeks to disrupt and neutralize transnational threats like building defense capabilities and capacity to what we have achieved our present several areas" person and coordinate with our partners and allies in interagency partners threats and challenges remain. in east africa where helping to set the conditions for the eventual transfer from the african union mission in somalia amazon to the somalia national army and the federal government of somalia. however al-shabaab remains a continuing threat and is conducting almost daily lethal asymmetric attacks in somalia

against troops. in north africa libya's insecurity has negative consequences for its people its neighbors, europe's southern flank inner peace and security objectives in africa and the middle east. an international coalition to support the libyans to counter the islamic state of libya would support a functional government of national core and reduce the risk of the expansion of isis. further instability in north africa and the emergence of a direct threat to u.s. interests. stability and that is a long-term proposition that will require inappropriate long-term strategy. across west africa are partners and allies are countering terrorist organizations like oh rom for the multinational joint task force two troops from cameroon chad nazir and nigeria the multinational task force is a collaborative regional effort to address boko haram's lethal attacks aimed at destabilizing

governments and terrorizing civilians. in central africa to the combined efforts of the civilian agencies non-governmental organizations and military forces the resistance arming the longer threatens regional stability and capacity to harm civilian populations has diminished greatly. today we estimate less than 200 lra fighters a minute local communities are better prepared to protect themselves. elections in transition of power remain a source for political instability in many african nations. despite a decline in violent attempts challenges to the electoral process and the peaceful democratic transfer of power threaten new and established governments. currently our requirements are increasing faster than our resources both in the command we seek innovative ways to mitigate capability by refining our priorities and deliberately approving the alignment of our resources to our strategy. success however requires be on

the command itself. "praise him with their afghan partners aloys interagency non-governmental organizations and international organizations will over time strengthen democratic institutions, spur economic growth in advance african peace and security to a degree the u.s. military efforts alone cannot achieve. together we can help the people of africa achieve their potential on the global stage. i want to thank you all for you continued support to our mission into the soldiers sailors airmen marring coast guard and civilians contractors and their families as we continue to advance our nations defense interests in africa. thank you very much. and thank you general votel. the morning general can make a general can recommend breed and establishment of the committee thank you for the opportunity to appear this morning alongside my teammates general lloyd austin and general dave rodrigues to discuss current posture of the united states special operations command. on any given day nearly 10,000

soft men and women are deployed to over 80 countries around the globe and fill combatant command requirement that. >> a range of congressional might delay needed core activities of behind-the-scenes information gathering and party building to high-end dynamic strike operations are it every success they achieve reinforces what we argue no our people are our greatest asset. they are adaptive and innovative through persistent presence in harm presence in harm's way they allow us to see opportunities early and they have routinely deliver strategic impacts with the smallest of footprints. perhaps nothing makes this point more clearly than the stories of two operators you have likely heard about in the past days and weeks. navy s.e.a.l.s senior chief petty officer ed tires and was awarded the congressional medal of honor last week for his courage and heroism above and beyond the call of duty in rescuing an american citizen held hostage in afghanistan in 2012. more recently army green beret

first class matthew mcclintock provided immediate medical care to wounded american teammate before leaving an afghan almond under intense fire to secure landing zone for that aircraft. this courageous actions cost him his life to save a place of his teammates and ultimately turned the tide of engagement. while the stories of these two american heroes are publicly known if the stories of thousands of soft operators from all of our services aircrews acquisition specialist intelligence analyst communicators logisticians and many others that underwrite our enduring soft value information quiet professionalism and absolute excellence in accomplishing our most challenging military mission so allow me to emphasize my strongest point this morning, thank you for your devotion to the well-being and resilience for the men and women of socom and their families. their emotional social psychological and physical health is in good hands thanks

to you and we are very grateful for the enthusiastic support. while the command priorities remain a change for my testimony last year u.s. socom continues to learn evolve and adapt to meet the current operational requirement. an environment characterized by rapidly shifting power with competition conflict in state and nonstate actors, actress of increasingly ambiguous trans-regional and multidimensional. as a result this past year we focused on gaining a deeper understanding of today's gray zone challenges and we restructure operational rhythm to focus on the trans-regional violent extreme organizations. the demand for sauce demand for soft skills as remains understandably high. therefore your support for socom is more important than ever. it is a truth that's often not been mass-produced and consistent batsmen are peopling capabilities is very important.

as good as the men and women in socom are we remained extraordinarily dependent on service provided capabilities and capacity to perform our mission mission. i asked for your strong support for them as well. we simply could not perform our mission without service provided capabilities infrastructure and institutional programs could alongside her colleagues and the services we are grateful for the budget ability forged out of last year's agreement and remain hopeful for similar stability beyond 2017. in closing i'd like to once again thank the committee in congress as a whole for your outstanding supporting funding authorities and encouragement. your oversight to our efforts to man train equipped and employed remains critical as we confront increasingly complex security environment really look forward to continuing this great relationship and i pledge to you we will remain transparent engaged in responsive to their main humble command of special operations support a in the world but i'm certainly proud of each and every one of our team

members and their families as they continue to serve our great nation could it look forward to your questions today. >> thank you general. general austin general nicholson a new commander in afghanistan testified before this committee in no uncertain terms that the sense of security situation in afghanistan is deteriorating. do you agree with that? >> sir as you heard me say in my opening statement i do think the environment in the country has changed because of the number. >> he said the situation was deteriorating general. what i really would like is a straightforward answer. i only have a few minutes here. you said that the situation is deteriorating. do you agree with that assessment? >> in part i agree. i think that the taliban has become more active and the ansf

have been challenged over the last year. san thank you. would that argue for not having further reductions in troop strength there in afghanistan would you think? >> sir as i mentioned earlier you start with a plan, the plan is based on facts and order to continue planning. when the situation changes so that those facts are no longer longer -- or this decision she made her no longer permit you have to go back and visit your plan so i would agree with a review of the plan is in order. >> do you agree with general breedlove that putin is quote to liberally weapon icing migration and attempt to overwhelm european structures and break european resolve? >> i think what we have seen with the use of barrel bombs and

the massive number of refugees and displaced personnel i think it's absolutely awful and again there is no logical reason that he would choose to employ this kind of weapon over and over again. again i think the fact that we have a cessation of hostilities on the ground right now has enabled us to get some humanitarian assistance to some of the disadvantaged people and that's a good thing but what he has done with his barrel bombing is awful. >> actually he is not barrel bombing. assad is but he is indiscriminately bombing targets without regard to precision weapons are precision targets. isn't that true? >> i misunderstood you.

i thought you said assad. >> general breedlove said that putin is deliberately weapon icing migration in an attempt to overwhelm european structures and break european resolve. i'm sorry if i didn't make that clear. >> i misunderstood you chairman. clearly the approach that the russians have taken is irresponsible. they are using bombs and they have inflicted extraordinary numbers of civilian casualties and again it is indiscriminate so a really poor approach. >> again general breedlove said it's an attempt to overwhelm european structures and break european resolve including breaking up -- do you support the sale of fighter aircraft to qatar kuwait and bahrain?

>> i do chairman. >> you think putin's $8 million in advance arms sales to iran increase risk to u.s. forces and operations in the region? >> certainly that will enable him to have greater capabilities and their adversaries excuse me but i would say at the same time the gcc countries have spent some $10 billion in military hardware during the same time period. >> general rodriguez there's a "new york times" "new york times" story that says pentagon plans to fight isis in libya includes a barrage of airstrikes by 30 to 40 targets in four areas of the country. it would deal a crippling blow to the islamic states affiliate outside of iraq and syria. it's a quote from the story. would you recommend a barrage of

airstrikes as just described in "the new york times"? >> sir that answer would be better put in a classified setting and i will get that to you and your leadership. >> do you believe rigorous action should be taken in the in response to the matassa station up by this? >> i think in the international community has to take action to hault the expansion to grade and defeated. >> do you think we are doing enough now to stop the spread for kids -- particularly the expansion would be a? >> the spread in libya continues to be a challenge because the lack of governance as well as the breakup of the military and the multiple militias on the ground and we continue to develop our situational understanding. >> my question was do you think we need to do more? >> i think the international community --.

>> i'm not asking about the international community. i'm asking about the of america. >> yes we is part of that international community have to do more sir. >> senator reid rays thank you very much mr. chairman general austin one of the issues in iraq is potential consequences of failures. it's not often in the headlines but it's a potentially serious consequence. can you give us a status of the situation and also the planning that has gone into the consequences of the failure to them? >> yes sir we remain concerned about the status of the dam since the conflict started here. as you know when da'ish captured the dam the employees initially left and it sees.

we have encouraged the iraqi government since the dam has been back in the hands of the iraqis to make sure that they are doing the right things to go about repairing the dam to ensure that it doesn't fail. most recently they have hired an italian company to perform maintenance on the dam. it may be several weeks or months before that company is up and running so there is a time period that we are concerned about where there will be limited to no maintenance on the dam. if the dam fails it will be catastrophic or there will be thousands of people downstream that will either be injured or killed and certainly displaced. the damage could extend all the way down to close to baghdad or into baghdad. we have worked with the iraqi's to ensure that they are doing the right things to inform

people about this than in the event that it does fail what actions they should take to get to safety, and we certainly have placed measures in place to ensure that u.s. citizens, u.s. personnel are accounted for and able to be evacuated in the case of the dam failure. >> thank you. general rodriguez when i was in djibouti refocused on research and shabad and some of the african allies we have in place. i presume you are taking this very seriously and you are beginning to try to disrupt their ability to attack and also to support djibouti and

ethiopian forces on the ground. is that fair? >> yes it is senator. >> is there a any indication that our african colleagues djibouti and ethiopia and dashed ethiopians are committed or wavering to the mission? >> they continue their activities that they have been doing for the last several years and right now because of the adjusting tactics that al-shabaab have taken they need to start making adjustments. >> very good. and general ortell and general austin given the years suggesting encouraging the pakistani forces to take action along the border recently have but one of the consequences they have driven a significant number of terrorist elements into afghanistan which actually seems

to have increased counterterrorism demands on the forces there. is that a fair assumption in terms of the ground? >> sir i think it isn't certainly been pushing into afghanistan has not been in coordinate with our forces so while it has increased the turbulence is also provided us an opportunity to address that threat as well. >> general austin your comments? >> it has increased opportunities and demand on the special operations forces. >> final question general austin and moving back to syria there was indeed a train and equip program and it was terminated. it was deemed policy objectives. the reality is and you may check or dispute this is that in order to hold ground once we capture we need indigenous forces not

just kurds but arabs and syrians are we revising and trying to clip a smaller scale to provide that kind of support? >> we are senator. i have asked for permission to restart the effort by using a different approach. as you mentioned we were being effective but we were slow in getting started in generating the numbers that we needed to generate. part of that was because we were trying to take large numbers of people out of the fighting keep them offer training for long periods of time. we have adjusted our approach as we look to restart her efforts and really focus on smaller numbers of people that we can train on specific skills and as we reintroduce those people back into the fight he will be able

to enable the larger groups that they are a part of. the training would be shorter but again i think they would be able to greatly enable the forces once they are reintroduced reintroduce. >> thank you very much. thank you mr. chairman. >> i want to thank all of you for your distinguished service and leadership to our country. general austin in your opening testimony you talked about iran and he said they are having a destabilizing effect in the region and in fact there's no indication that they are following a different path than they had previously. we know in press reports just this week in fact tuesday that iran the revolutionary guard corps testfired several ballistic missiles from silos across the country and to find recent u.s. sanctions and of course this follows on after the jcpoa was signed to a stick missile test they did in october

and november this year. dni clappers testified before this committee that there would either preferred method for delivering a nuclear weapon and are you concerned about the continuing its pursuit of testi? >> i am senator. stack what are the implications of that? >> certainly hope the jcpoa will prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in near to midterm and forever hopefully but this is something we will continue to watch watch. stack clearly the jcpoa is not continuing to train them on the ballistic missile program. would you agree with me on that? >> i would agree senator and what i would say is what we in the people in the region are concerned about is barely have an over match with numbers of ballistic missiles. the people in the region remain concerned about their

cybercapability and their ability to mind the straits and certainly that to the other quds forces which we seem aligned activity not only throughout the region but all around the globe as well so there are a number of things that lead me to personally believe that their behavior, they haven't changed any course yet. this is something we will continue to watch. >> i would argue that clearly the sanctions the administration did put in place what i've said from the beginning are pathetic and weak are having absolutely no impact given that they are not continuing to test ballistic missiles and i would hope that we would up our game and impose real tough sanctions on iran on our ballistic missile program. i want to follow up on an important question general rodriguez and general votel. this is something that the i asked of their predecessors about in my concern is if we

capture zawahiri are al-baghdadi tomorrow where will we detain these individuals under long-term detention and most importantly and interrogate them so we can find out all that we need to know about al qaeda and isis. as i asked her predecessor going back to 2011 i asked general hamm your predecessor in africom will put happen if we tomorrow captured a member of al qaeda in africa and do you know what he told me? he said i'm going to need moral help on answering that one. i also asked the same of admiral mcraven your successor general votel and he said to me it would be very helpful if there is actually a that would designate as a long-term detention and interrogation to my question to both of you as tomorrow for capture these individuals given the phenomenal work the men and women who serve underneath you

do every day where we going to interrogate them, do you know what you would do with them especially if they want to have a long-term interrogation of them? >> senator in my experience as we have looked at operations where we are actually going to detain somebody we have had a plan in place before we conducted the operation for how we were going to potentially detain them and what their legal disposition would be whether that was. >> general which is recently capture someone and isis and as i understand it they are being held short-term and then they are going to be turned back to the kurds so what about long-term detention place he would agree that long-term interrogation was quite helpful for example in gathering the information we needed and that is what worries me. what are we doing in a long-term setting? >> i would agree there's a requirement for long-term detention. >> do we know where that would be now? >> i don't know that. that is a policy decision that i

think is being debated. >> i think it's a policy decision that's basically never been made under this administration and one that's been left up in the air which means if left up in the air in a way that i think undermines our national security interest and i think that you will need to know what would happen tomorrow given the great work that the men and women who serve underneath you. we hope they capture these individuals and we interrogate them only find out what they know so we can prevent attacks on this country and continue to dismantle the terrorism networks. thank you all. >> thank you all for being here this morning and for your service to the country. general austin i want to follow up on some questions about afghanistan because there's a reporter who weakened the president donnie claimed that isis had been defeated in the eastern part of the country following a 21 day operation by afghan forces.

do we agree with president ghani 's analysis of what's happened there? >> i think we have had good initial effects editor but i think there's more work to be done in that area. >> so do we expect the afghan national forces to follow up with isis in that area? are we working with them directly on what's happening there? can you elaborate a little bit on what's going on? >> as you know senator we are advising and assisting the afghan special operations forces on a daily basis and yes we are helping them to identify these threats and also advising them on the best means to go after these threats. >> so if in fact they are performing well with respect to isis what does that mean for the continued fight against the taliban? i so recently reports of that. having had the opportunity to

visit their backend 2010 and 2011 we visited lashkar which is the provincial capital and saw some really amazing work that had been done by isaf forces to engage the local population to get kids in school to do positive things. it's very distressing to see what's happening now in helmand and the fact that the provincial capital may fall to the taliban under threat from outside can you talk about whether there is is -- whether there are benefits from the effort against eyes as they carry over to the fight against the taliban? i don't want to use the word propaganda but is there messaging there that is helpful in terms of the taliban's recurring activities in afghanistan?

>> as was mentioned earlier senator the environment in afghanistan this last year has been a very challenging environment to work in because of the number of transitions. transition of power for the first time in that young government history and a new government standing up. we have reduced their footprint. mullah omar's death was announcement caused the taliban to begin to fracture a bit but it also gave rise to a new leader who has yet to prove himself with increased activity and soul of this work together proved to be very challenging for the afghan security forces and there were some setbacks. those setbacks were due to a number of things, leadership and appropriate techniques and general campbell and now general nicholson are working with the afghan security forces to address those setbacks and put measures in place that should

improve the performance there. the president mr. ghani has embraced the suggestions and they are moving out and making corrections. we expect to see some improved performance. there is more advising and assisting that needs to be done going forward to it one of the key things that has transpired here recently is that because the afghans in some cases were overextended they have adjusted their footprint to give them more flexibility. a smaller footprint that allows them to project combat power at will and places that they need to project combat power to. >> thank you. general votel senator reed raised the issue of counter messaging in his opening statement and i know that in 2016 the ndaa provided resources

for technology to support our information operations and communications that to these so can you elaborate on what you are doing in this area to improve our counter messaging efforts which i think are really critical both to what's going on with isis but also to putin in russia. soon russia. >> thank you senator. i agree with your assessment. that's the critical and must be an integrated aspect of all of our operations from start to finish. it can't be something we think about afterwards. i am grateful for this war we have gotten from ndaa. in uso, it looked a publicly available information how we develop the tools and the tech takes in the procedures to use that information to help us understand the threats that we are dealing with. so we are looking at how we can experiment in that area, the different things we can do for

our forces so to publicly available information and being able to work in that is an area in which we hope to improve our capabilities in the future. >> thank you. my time is up that i would be interested in hearing what we are doing to work with other agencies within the federal government so that we are coordinating our messages across all of our activities. thank you. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. chairman. gentlemen thank you for your service. general austin with regard to the challenges surrounding the retaking of mosul and harakah by december this year and coming up up -- raqqa coming up you have to think about 4000 ground forces available if i am correct. is that enough? do you have enough right now to assist in your plans to be able to retake mosul and raqqa?

>> the approach that we have used and will continue to use senator as you know is to use the indigenous forces to conduct the operations on the ground and enable those forces with our aerial fires and other enablers. as we look towards raqqa and mosul clearly there will be things that we will want to do to increase the capability of that, to be able to increase the pace of operations and apple were choir some additional capability. we have gone through and done some analysis to see what types of things we need to provide and we have made those recommendations. >> could you share those recommendations with this committee? >> no sir i would not care to do so because i've just provided those to my leadership. >> that but you have made recommendations and you are awaiting a response to your

recommendations at this time? >> yes it will work its way up the chain. >> if you are allowed to have more ground troops what would be the capabilities that you could accomplish or what could you accomplish if you had more individuals on the ground at this time? >> we could develop better human intelligence. we could perhaps divide more advise-and-assist teams at various levels. we could increase our assistance in terms of providing help to some logistical issues and we could increase some elements of the special operations equipment. >> assuming we would be successful and retaking both of those two towns what then, it's broken.

clearly you come back and you need to reestablish civil order and so forth. when we take them back do we have a plan in place? do we have a plan that we want to execute to bring back in a sense of order to those communities and what does it look like right now and what part would we play? >> the short answer is yes senator first of all we will -- the iraqis will take back mosul and we will work with the syrian indigenous forces to take back raqqa as well. as you have seen us do as they have taken back towns in iraq that includes ramadi, bocce, tikrit sinjar and other places the effort has been to reestablish the security in those places and then immediately try to do what's

necessary to repair damage and make sure that we are taking care of the people and people are able to move back in and resume their lives. so we have dealt incrementally as we have moved forward. there's a lot of work to be done senator. you know from just the gannett ramadi there's someone of work to be accomplished to get that back to some reasonable states but in mosul and looking forward to raqqa the same types of things apply, establish the security and when that's done bring in the humanitarian assistance through the reconstruction activities to get things back to normal. >> do you believe that the current structure in iraq and the government that is there now, do they have the capabilities and competencies to provide that to those committees in iraq? >> i think they do sir. i think it will require a lot of

work and it will require, excuse me, the government to work together much more, much better than what we have seen them do up to this point. >> thank you. thank you mr. chairman. >> senator manchin on the half of the chairman. >> thank you all for being here and thank you for your service. i think general votel given we are reconsidering your nomination to succeed general austin as top commander it would be insightful to get your opinion on the current situation in iraq and syriana guess the question was simply be who is the greatest, who poses the greater threat to the region and to the united states, isis or iran? >> well i think right now senator my answer would be isis does because they are inspiring and there are x. orchestrating external attack that could impact our people so i think we

have to take that extraordinarily seriously. that said as we have discussed here already despite the agreement that is then made we shouldn't, we should understand that iran is not ambiguous in their activities and their focus on the united states and certainly on our allies in the region so i think they do pose a long-term threat as well. ..

>> it certainly adds a little bit of fuel to the problem. they were going to spend money at and buy weapons anyway. this gives them capability to buy more. having said that they are working together in ways that they haven't done in the past and they have continued to buy a healthy dose of our equipment and our weapons as well. so they are increasing their capabilities as well. >> at the last election they just had shows that the moderates got elected and others got pushed out of office. you see that as a promising factor? >> i think it's too soon to

tell. i think that what we saw leading up to the elections is we saw a lot of moderates they get disqualified from the elections and so the folks that are classifying themselves as moderates, or is it just another flavor of hard-liners. >> sir, did that occur saturday? it had just shown that they had completed training against american forces and so the question would be did you have a sense of numbers and also how big of a concern that there are other camps in this region that we don't even know about? >> sir, they pop up and they move and they are at different

places throughout somalia at different times. it is a concern because the last three times that they did something similar to this they had the ability to create a devastating attack. >> the national guard states the partnership program has been successful at building strong relationships in 20 years for some cases. it has been long going on. in your testimony you indicated that you continue to build relationships within national and domestic partners through sustained security operations. so it seems to be something that the national guard has been successful with in the state partnerships program. the uc and the role for this in helping advance the? >> west virginia has played a

key role and it was very successful and we have already engaged on doing this. so i think that the state partnership program is absolutely essential. a number of them are at the same place where we have the best liaison officers and i think that that provides a great opportunity to increase our activities and i think it's a wonderful program and we are going to try to leverage it in every way that we can. >> thank you, we think it's been very successful and cost-effective for us as well. thank you and my time is up. >> thank you very much, gentlemen. thank you for being here today. i appreciate your many years of service. i would like to start with the generals. in your professional military opinion you have served while in our armed services. we want to thank you for that.

what are the implications of russia's actions in syria and the world's response or lack of response. as well as the international behavior. what i'm trying to get is what lessons do you think that latin america and is taking out of syria and what concerns should we have a bowel what he is doing in syria. we have heard a discussion about weaponization. can you give me a little bit of input on that? >> thank you, senator. >> russia's entry into this has made a very complicated problem, even more complicated when you consider the actors that are a part of this, the regime, the

russians, the turks and others, the iranians, the lebanese, hezbollah. all of these elements are interacting with each other that are very much talking about battle space. the introduction of russia has made this more complicated. especially since although they said they came to counter terrorism, what we have seen him do principally is bolster bashir backed regime. that potentially extends the conflict. my personal opinion is that they had no designs on being there for a long period of time, i don't think that they can be there for a long period of time because of the impact it will have on their economy. but clearly they have tried to

to demonstrate muscle and impress the region. i think that they will have an opposite effect when they align themselves with the syrian regime. they also won themselves with lebanese hezbollah and i will eventually alienate them from any of the states in the region. >> you think that that is his overall goal remap the alienation of those groups and alignment with themselves? has he achieved that? >> i think what they wanted to do was gain a greater understanding. they want influence in the region and they want to increase their influence in the region by doing some of the things that they have done. but i think that at the end of the day they will probably have the opposite effect of what they want to do. >> thank you,