Background Briefing

DOD

Subject: Operation ASSURED RESPONSE - Liberia

Attributable To: Senior Military Official

[Also participating in this briefing is Capt. Mike Doubleday, USN, DASD (PA)]

Captain Doubleday: This morning we have a senior U.S. military officer hereto give you an update on the U.S. military

support for the operation that is ongoing now in Liberia.

Briefer: Well, events have kept me from coming down here talking with you,I've been on the phone so much here lately. But it really is time to come andgive you, from our perspective, a little bit more information.

The information I've seen out so far that you all are reporting is factual, itall looks good. I don't see anything that I would want to correct in terms ofwhat the basic stories are. I'll just try to recount for you a few of thepieces here and then I'll take your questions.

Obviously, we're talking about Liberia here. In terms of what we moved downthere in terms of basic categories of forces. You know we put an assessmentteam in. It went in about three nights ago, very early in the morning. Thiswas at the Ambassador's request. And I might add, nothing has gone on here interms of the forces we have moved, and nothing's been accomplished that theAmbassador himself has not personally asked for.

We've had good communication with him. In fact we've had a number ofinteragency meetings with the Ambassador actually participating in the meeting.It's one of the first times I've seen this happen where we're getting a livereport directly into the interagency meeting as we discuss options and support.So I feel confident that I'm not getting this second or third hand because I'mhearing him say the words himself.

The assessment team went in. The purpose of the assessment team was to go inand make determinations about how we might remove American civilians on theground. American citizens, I should say. That's the whole purpose of theteam. It can help do other things, but that's the primary purpose.

About five people went in. Initial reports were six. We even though it wassix initially, but in fact what was put into Monrovia was five.

Security forces down here in Monrovia, they needed some additional support. Wehad about five or six Marine guards at the embassy. It wasn't sufficient, wedidn't think, to ensure integrity of the embassy compound, to ensure protectionof U.S. citizens during any attempt to remove them, so the feeling was that toprotect the embassy and to provide the additional security required if anoperation had been declared to remove people, that we needed to have additionalsecurity forces in there. So right off the bat, he asked for additionalsecurity forces.

Another thing he said was that food and water was, they had plenty, but theywere going to run low, so he might need to be resupplied with food and water.That was an initial request.

A fourth initial request was that we position forces to do a non-combatantevacuation if in fact that would be declared.

With those four basic pieces starting on Sunday, we looked at moving assets.Some came out of Mildenhall, some came out of the Ramstein/Stuttgart area, andsome out of Brindisi. In addition to that, we do have some forces moving fromthe United States as we speak.

The locations we're going into, as you all know, because a lot of you havepeople on the ground, Freetown here in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has beenextremely helpful in this particular crises. They've basically made everythingavailable to us that we could ask for with the facilities they have at theairport there at Freetown, and so we're using this as our primary operatinglocation. But because of the limitations at the airfield here, we're having toalso use Dakhar and Senegal, and they equally have been extremely helpful incarrying out the operation.

The other thing I'd like to say before we get into some of the details is thatin order to move these forces down into these two locations, we had to overflya number of countries. The countries themselves, nothing was held up. As youall have reported before in some other operations like this where we've haddiplomatic clearance problems, there was never a diplomatic clearance issueanywhere in this operation that delayed any part of the operation, which isgood news.

So this is the base of operation. This is the sort of backup location wherewe have a lot of our fixed wing aircraft located. Helicopters are operatingout of here as has been reported. Five MH-53 helicopters are up and runninghere now. The piece that's coming from the States are additional helicopters.MH-47s are coming from the States. I'm not going to get into numbers, but justto tell you there are some coming from the States and they will be coming toFreetown as well.

What we are doing, of course, is now that we have had a, let me make sure I'vegot the words right, the type of evacuation going on is an important set ofwords, so I don't want to give you the wrong words. Let me make sure I give itto you exactly as we should.

You've got it in your notes -- authorized departure. The other piece of it'san order departure. There is a difference. The order departure means everyAmerican citizen is ordered to leave. The authorized departure is people leavewho, it's like a voluntary departure, although they can't force any Americancitizen to leave who doesn't want to leave, but they're doing everything theycan to encourage people to get on these airplanes and leave while theconditions are as they are now, which I'll show you in just a minute.

Q: (Inaudible)

A: It's an authorized departure. That's why I wanted to make sure I got thewords right. That's what you all are reporting. It basically says thatAmerican citizens can leave on a voluntary basis at U.S. Government expense,and that's what's going on.

Just a couple of other things off this slide before I get into some detailsabout Monrovia itself. You know that's the name of this operation, ASSUREDRESPONSE is what we are calling it. That name may look familiar to some of youfrom last week, Canavan's the guy who the guy on the ground at Dubrovnik withthe operation there. He did that whole thing, as terrible an incident as thatwas, and then quickly was moved home, not even knowing this was coming. He washome less than 24 hours; we had him on an airplane headed down to Freetown torun this operation.

General Canavan, where he is at this very moment I'm not positive, but he hasbeen into Monrovia, been with the Ambassador, and I suspect he's still on theground in Monrovia.

Just some things, we talked about where the forces came from. I told you someare coming from the States. Freetown. Dakhar is, I told you we have someassets there. Safe haven is a term that's used. It's important, becausethat's where we remove people to. From that point they take other air out.The air isn't available at Freetown, so we're taking them out by MH-53s intoFreetown, loading them on C-130-type aircraft, and flying them up to Dakharwhere they can proceed from there to other locations. That's especially truefor third country nationals, and you'll see some numbers here in just aminute.

I told you that everything the Ambassador and General Canavan needs at theembassy is there now in terms of security.

We've made 19 flights so far in terms of the shuffle. It's been 19 MH-53flights on this piece. There have been, I've forgotten the exact number ofC-130 flights. I can get that for you later, moving from Freetown up toDakhar.

That's the total number of people that have come out. About a fifth of themare U.S.; 412 are third country nationals. These are nations who have come tous for help in assisting the removal of their countrymen that are there.

You can see how many have been moved up to Dakhar of the 503. Some havestayed there for whatever reason they have.

This is something that's been reported too. That is the RPG rounds that havebeen fired. They have been fired. They've not landed on the embassy compound.One of the rounds yesterday was close enough that we waved the helicopters off.It didn't come within feet of the helicopter, I'm not trying to imply that inany stretch of the imagination, but to ensure the safety of this operation, wehad two helicopters that were inbound. Because of this RPG fire they turnedaround and went back and did not complete their mission.

As a result of that incident, we stopped daytime operations yesterday. Assoon as it got dark we conducted the rest of the operations at night and therewere no problems at all. Of course these helicopters, that's one of thereasons we've taken these helicopters and their crews in, because they're veryused to operating at night in a blacked-out condition, and it's not been aproblem for us. So we continued through the night. Many of these flights wenton during the course of last night.

Food and water, I talked to that as being one of the basic requirements forthe Ambassador.

We've had a lot of people show up at the embassy trying to seek refuge there,and also seek some type of help in departing Monrovia. The State Department,I'll have to have you deal with them on the categories of people that areauthorized to leave via U.S. military air. They have such a list. It coversall of the people that you think it would cover, but it also, as you wouldhope, does not provide a free ticket to everybody who would like to leave, sothey can just climb on this taxi service and fly up to Freetown. The StateDepartment can give you the details of what they have authorized inconversation with the Ambassador in terms of the classes of people that areauthorized to come in and be processed through and board the helicopters.

We are in the process of moving some amphibious ships in the direction ofLiberia. The size of this force is being determined by EUCOM. You allobviously know we have an Amphibious Readiness Group in the Mediterranean now.Some of these ships will come from that Amphibious Readiness Group. As I said,how many go on this operation remains to be seen. It's probably ten or elevendays to get down there from where they are now, but you need to know that theplan is to move some shipping in that direction.

Again, this is just a precaution. We have plenty of assets there. We see noproblem with the operation that's going on now. These particular ships come,we're going to have the same sort of basic capability we have in place now.What we're concerned about, of course, is if the situation gets bad at a timewhen we can provide additional assistance down there, over and above what wehave, these ships will give us that kind of capability. So this is aprecaution on the part of this government in response to this operation.

I think that's it. Why don't I stop there, and I'll take your questions.

Q: General, how bad has the ban on daylight operations hampered your abilityto get people out? And are there American citizens trapped in parts ofMonrovia that you just can't get to...

A: Again, I can't give you the numbers, but we have removed, to the best of myknowledge at this point, all of the Americans that want to leave, that are atthe embassy, have left. Again, you need to really go to the State Departmentto get the details of what the State people are doing, but again, myunderstanding is they have elected to keep the embassy staff there becausethat's the staff that's processing the people, and it's sort of like a captaindeserting the ship before the passengers get off as the ship's going down.They're not about to leave. Their job is to stay there and do this process.So this is sort of the difference between the authorized and the order. Theorder departure says those Americans get out too, down to whatever theAmbassador determines is his minimum essential staff. So they're staying toensure that people are processed as quickly...

We have American citizens who are out in the city and in some of the outlyingareas. One of the things the assessment team is doing is making determinationsabout how best to get these people together and get them evacuated, so that'swhat's going on right now. There are some number, and the number is not clearto me, so I wouldn't want to give you one because I might be off by a factor,but there are some Americans in the city of Monrovia, and in some areas outsideof Monrovia, and one of the things that is being done right now, between theembassy and the U.S. forces that are there, is determining the best way tocollect these people that want to leave, and to get them evacuated.

Q: I had a first part of my question that you didn't get to, was how thedaylight ban was hampering the efforts to get people out. The fact that youcan't fly during the day time.

A: If you can fly 24 hours a day you obviously have more capability to move.If you decide not to, and this is a call that has to be made by the commanderon the ground. The last thing we want to do is put people's lives in danger.We're trying to evacuate people here, and the last thing we want to do is puttheir lives in greater jeopardy. So if there's even a hint that we might havea problem, we're going to err on the conservative side.

We don't see a risk at this point to the people who are at the embassy thatwe're trying to evacuate. So the commanders on the ground are going to ensurethat this is done as safely as we can possibly do it and not put people's livesunnecessarily at risk. So if it means we've got to do it at night, that's whatwe'll do. But we need to leave this up to the commander on the ground.

This may not continue long. You may see daytime flights again, but this is adecision that needs to be made locally. Realizing that security and safety forall these people, and our crews that are flying aboard these helicopters, is ofreal importance to us.

Q: How about security personnel? You brought Navy SEALs in earlier. Are youmoving more security people in to protect the embassy?

A: Sure. There is a Special Forces unit that was brought down from Europe, Ishowed you from the Stuttgart, I think Ramstein was on the chart, as we movedsome forces down. There is a non-combatant evacuation plan, which is in place,and we are executing that plan. These forces were always part of that plan.The SEALs were moved out initially because that was something that theAmbassador asked for right off the bat. Before he ever did the authorizeddeparture of American citizens, he asked for additional security at theembassy, because he only had a handful of Marine guards. So the quickest groupwe could get down there were the Navy SEALs, realizing that if we'd had anextremist condition we could have air delivered them into the water right offthe coast there and they could have gotten up to the embassy, because theembassy sits right on the water. So that's why the SEALs were selected.Because they were not in an extremist condition, the decision was made to takethem to Freetown and bring them in by helicopter, so that's why the SEALs werethere.

Q: There were 19 of those, right?

A: It's in the 15 to 20 range is the number of SEALs.

Q: And you moved in additional security people, and are you moving in moresecurity people?

A: We have moved in additional security because now... That security wasasked for by the Ambassador as quickly as we could get it to him. Now once theauthorized departure has been ordered, now the non-combatant evacuation plankicks in and there is an additional security piece that comes with that. Thoseare the Special Operations Forces. I'm not going to give you numbers, again,for obvious reasons, but there are additional Special Operations Forces thathave been moved to the embassy to bolster security at the embassy.

Q: Just one follow-up. Are more being moved in from the States with thesehelicopters?

A: No additional what we would call security people are coming with thehelicopters. We're just bringing the helicopters from the States.

Q: How long do you expect this operation to continue? How long do you expectthis whole thing to go on?

A: This is part of what's being defined right now, is what is it that is, ifwe can call it the end state or the final, what is it we're trying toaccomplish here. We obviously know what we're trying to do in terms of theoperation. We're evacuating American citizens and those third countrynationals that are authorized by the State Department to travel aboard U.S.military aircraft. The scope of this is something that, because the situationis so fluid there, the interagency is defining that right now as to what thelength of the operation is. Of course this is partly going to come back fromthe embassy, that they think this group will be out by such and such a time,based on the flow going out, that we will have American citizens collected bysuch and such a time, and those dates are being determined. When it becomesclear to us, we'll let you know.

Q: Do you expect it to be long enough to make it worthwhile to wait 12 days tosend these ships?

A: Again, you know how we operate. We are going to ensure that we have theoptions covered. That's why we have a nation that has the kinds of forces thatit has. I can't predict what's going to happen in 12 days.

You could predict a situation there which is utter chaos. I'm not sayingthat's what anybody is predicting, don't misread me. I'm saying you couldpredict that. In which case, these ships might be of great use.

We have to plan on the contingency, so that's what you see going on.

Q: Total number of American military bodies in the region devoted to thistask? It was 600 and now it's growing.

A: It's about 900. It's in that ball park, or will grow to about that number.It's in that ball park, to do all the pieces that we're talking about.

Q: Secondly, the way you are describing this seems to fight somewhat theimpressions we're getting from talking to people on the ground. The number ofAmericans getting out is fewer and fewer as the hours go by. The remainingAmericans, which are still around 400, slightly under 400, are trapped by allthe different ways that we can measure that. The fact that you have nowdecided to send in ships is not a good sign, from my point of view. It lookslike you can't get the job done with the forces you now have because it isturning uglier than you thought.

A: I would tell you that's not the case. Don't read into this... I'm tryingto tell you factually why we're doing this. For planning for a contingency ina worst case situation. We do not have a situation which exists today whichsays we've got isolated pockets we can't get to. The embassy is doingeverything they can to contact the American citizens who are out in the city,and to gather them and to move them to the embassy. Or to gather them toplaces where we can, in fact, move them in an evacuation mode if they want toleave. So please don't make a tie between what we're doing with the amphibsto something that says we've got a real problem and we can't get this thingdone with what we have there.

The forces that are there are adequate to the task. We're planning oncontingencies that may or may not happen, and we just need, because of the timeinvolved, to get these ships down there. We need to start moving them.

So the embassy, as I said, based on the information I have, is doingeverything they can to collect, to contact and collect those Americans thatchoose to leave.

Q: Why would you not have started those ships on their way three days ago? Ifyou thought that there was a need for any sort of prudent backup, one wouldthink you would have prudently started moving them when you started movingeverything else. But you did not do it until it became apparent that youcouldn't get these Americans out of there.

A: Again, I will tell you as straight as I can. There were initialdiscussions about moving the ARG right off the bat. The fact was, we thoughtwe had a condition in which the amphibious ships could not respond to in thetiming in which we knew we were going to have to conduct the operation, so thefocus of the operation went to get forces down there to be able to conduct, ina very short order, the evacuation that the Ambassador has authorized.

The issue of moving the amphibious ships has been discussed each day. Thereason it hasn't appeared to us to be an urgent decision is that we have forcesin place to conduct what we think needs to be conducted. But as time isevolving, it looks like it might be a good idea to move ships so they'vedecided to do it, but it has nothing to do...

Q: (Inaudible)

A: Sure it is. It's going to take longer, but there are forces there, SOFforces now.

The other thing is, we don't have any idea what's going to happen. If thisthing wraps up in four or five days, then the ships will turn around and goback. If it doesn't wrap up in four or five days, based on some decisions thiscountry may make about what it's going to do or not do with the embassy, therecould be a longer-term requirement. So that's why this is... And we didn'tneed to make that decision the first day.

If we thought we had three or four weeks to make the decision on the orderedevacuation, we probably would never have moved the force down that we did, wewould have used ships to do it.

Q: So you are disagreeing with the question in the sense that you say theseAmericans are not isolated, you can get to them, they're not in pockets.

A: Well they are, sure. They're not all in one place. They live all over thecity. So the embassy is doing what they can, and they are out trying tocontact everybody they can get ahold of.

Q: Earlier you gave the impression that the number of Americans leaving wasdwindling off because those who wanted to leave had been, the number of thosewho had been wanting to leave had been exhausted. Now you're sort ofsuggesting that it's because some are isolated and physically simply cannot getinto the embassy.

A: We're not communicating on this issue.

There's a situation in Monrovia which says it's not safe to be out walkingaround the streets, so people are staying at home. The embassy's told them tostay at home. Don't get out on the streets where you might get into a problem,so they've done that.

Now the embassy is in the process of contacting them to say if you want toleave, we need to get you together in one place so we can move you to theembassy, or move you to a place where you can be picked up. That is what'sgoing on. It's no more complicated than that.

Don't read anything into this now, because...

Q: But they're trapped...

A: Yeah. We've just said we don't want them on the streets. If you want tosay they're trapped, they're trapped. You can use, that's your word, though,it's not mine.

Q: Is that their word?

A: No, it's not their word. I've told you what the situation is, folks. Ican see you're going to try to read something into this that isn't here.

We have a condition in Monrovia which it's not safe to go out on the streets.Does that mean they're trapped? That's your word. That's what the situationis.

Q: A simple yes or no question just to clarify it. In your opinion, in yourassessment, are these Americans who are in these pockets, are they trapped?

A: In my opinion, we have told the Americans not to move. Wait until we cancontact you, and then we will come out, the U.S. Government, in a way in whichwe can collect you and bring you to the embassy as safely as we can in workingwith the factions, or we will take you to a collection point and we will cometo that collection point with assets and pick you up. That's what's goingon.

Q: With all due respect, though, it wasn't a yes or no answer.

A: But you want me to say are they trapped or not.

Q: In your assessment, are they trapped? Yes or no. If we can use that term,it's up to us.

A: I wouldn't use the term trapped. We have told them to stay put for theirown safety. I've told you the streets are not safe to go out on, so we've toldthem to stay put. I don't know how to frame it any other way.

Q: Are there any APCs or hard cars to safely get people through on theground?

A: I don't know what the embassy has. But they are out talking to people,they've done it via telephone. They have somebody out there with them rightnow talking to them, in various areas where Americans live. They have gottenout, in whatever vehicle they have, and they have worked with the factions thathave gotten our people out safely in terms of the discussions. Now they needto get them back safely. So that's what's going on.

Q: Do the amphibious ships that are coming, how many Marines will be comingwith them, and will they be bringing LCACs with light armored vehicles...

A: I can't tell you because that's what's being decided now by EUCOM is whatthey need to take down there, what's the best thing to do.

One of the problems is, if we use the GUAM, which we're going to use that ARG,it's configured to do the mission it was sent over there to do, so it's gotdifferent things on different ships. It wasn't configured for this NEOmission. So that's part of what they're trying to sort out. Do they need togo reconfigure very quickly, or do they just go ahead and take what they havein the way it's laid out on the ships that they have or how are we doing to dothat. That's an issue that hasn't been decided.

Q: The GUAM is among the ships?

A: The GUAM is one of the ships... It's in the ARG. It's in the AmphibiousReadiness Group because it is the GUAM ARG. It's one of the four ships in theARG and they're deciding which ones of those ships.

Q: Are there any injuries to Americans, or any Americans held against theirwill?

A: We know one, of no injuries to any Americans. And at this point I have notheard one report of an American being held against their will.

Q: How about Americans looted? Robbed or looted?

A: Again, I'm not saying it hasn't happened. I know of no reports, in all thediscussions that I've heard, about Americans encountering any of the factionsso far or of anybody being looted or anybody being injured. I haven't heard ofany.

Q: What are communications like there? Are they able to freely call back andforth? Are their phone lines down?

A: No, no. We've got great communications with the military and with theembassy.

Q: I mean calling the people, the Americans living...

A: The telephones are up. The power is working and the telephone systems areworking.

Q: ...forces are out bringing Americans back to the embassy?

Q: The British ship that is coming in, what's the feasibility of using it...

A: There is a British ship that's in the area. Contact has been made. TheBrits have agreed to allow us to use the ship any way that might be useful inthis thing. So they're looking at that possibility.

Q: ...any way starting to collect these Americans?

A: Special Forces have not left the compound of the embassy at this point.

Q: So there's been no collection of Americans yet.

A: I'm not saying that. You asked me if Special Forces had gone outcollecting Americans. They haven't.

Q: Have any Americans been collected?

A: I can't tell you what the embassy's done with their people. SpecialForces, though, have not left the embassy compound, at least the last time Icame down here.

Q: Can we follow you back to your office, and ask questions all the way?[Laughter]

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