General Petraeus in Front on Congress 9/10/07

"In the past six months we have also targeted Shia militia extremists, capturing a number of senior leaders and fighters, as well as the deputy commander of Lebanese Hezbollah Department 2800, the organization created to support the training, arming, funding, and, in some cases, direction of the militia extremists by the Iranian Republican Guard Corps’ Qods Force. These elements have assassinated and kidnapped Iraqi governmental leaders, killed and wounded our soldiers with advanced explosive devices provided by Iran, and indiscriminately rocketed civilians in the International Zone and elsewhere. It is increasingly apparent to both Coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Qods Force, seeks to turn the Iraqi Special Groups into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq". General Petraeus, September 10, 2007 

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EXCLUSIVE FULL TESTIMONY VIDEO HERE: [ WEBCAST ]

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Two Days - Full Agenda 

September 10, 2007

Welcome to the Web site for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

9/10/2007

Opening Statement by Chairman Lantos at hearing with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker
General Petraeus: Report to Congress on the Situation in Iraq
The Honorable Ryan C. Crocker: Prepared statement

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September 11, 2007

IRAQ: THE CROCKER-PETRAEUS REPORT

HEARING before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 216 Hart Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Biden
 
Senator Biden's Opening Statement    Witnesses:
    Panel 1
The Honorable Ryan C. Crocker
   Ambassador to Iraq
   Department of State
   Washington, DC 
General David H. Petraeus, USA
   Commander, Multi-National Force-Iraq
   Baghdad, Iraq

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September 11, 2007

UNITED STATES SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

There will be a meeting of the Committee on

ARMED SERVICES

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

2:00 PM

Room SH-216, Hart Senate Office Building

OPEN

To receive testimony on the situation in Iraq and progress made by
the Government of Iraq in meeting benchmarks.

Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker 
 
United States Ambassador to Iraq 
  
General David H. Petraeus, USA 
 
Commanding General
Multi-National Force - Iraq 
  

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FACTBOX-Key elements of Petraeus' Iraq testimony
Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:08PM BST
(Reuters) - Following are key statistics and statements given on Monday by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Petraeus was testifying before a joint session of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees of the U.S. House of Representatives.

SECURITY SITUATION

-- "The overall number of security incidents in Iraq has declined in eight of the past 12 weeks, with the numbers of incidents in the last two weeks at the lowest levels seen since June 2006."

-- Overall number of attacks this past week was the lowest since April 2006.

-- Civilian deaths, excluding those due to natural causes, are down by over 45 percent Iraq-wide since the height of sectarian violence in December. They are down by some 70 percent in Baghdad.

-- Ethno-sectarian deaths are down by over 55 percent since last December. In Baghdad, the number of ethno-sectarian deaths is down by some 80 percent since December.

-- Monthly attack levels in Anbar province are down to "a bit" over 200 in August of this year from some 1,350 in October 2006.

-- Number of car bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq is down in each of the past five months, from a high of some 175 in March to about 90 this past month. But "the number of high profile attacks is still too high."

AL QAEDA IN IRAQ

-- "Our operations have ... produced substantial progress against al Qaeda and its affiliates in Iraq ... We have also neutralized five media cells, detained the senior Iraqi leader of al Qaeda-Iraq, and killed or captured nearly 100 other key leaders and some 2,500 rank-and-file fighters."

IRAQI SECURITY FORCES

-- "There are now nearly 140 Iraqi Army, National Police, and Special Operations Forces Battalions in the fight, with about 95 of those capable of taking the lead in operations, albeit with some coalition support."

U.S. TROOP LEVELS

-- Marine Expeditionary Unit of some 2,200 troops, deployed as part of surge of forces this year, to leave Iraq this month as scheduled.

-- Petraeus recommends a brigade combat team -- normally somewhere around 4,000 troops -- leave in mid-December and four other brigade combat teams and two Marine battalions follow in the first seven months of 2008. That would take U.S. troop levels back to around 130,000, the level before the "surge".

http://uk.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=UKN1034889020070910

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Fox News Channel Brit Hume interviews General Petraeus with the latest details 

FNC Brit Hume Interviews Petraeus & Crocker Part 1

FNC Brit Hume Interviews Petraeus & Crocker Part 2

FNC Brit Hume Interviews Petraeus & Crocker Part 3

FNC Brit Hume Interviews Petraeus & Crocker Part 4

FNC Brit Hume Interviews Petraeus & Crocker Part 5

FNC Brit Hume Interviews Petraeus & Crocker Part 6

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Did the State Department Hear What General Petraeus Said About Iran?

The much-anticipated testimony of a most impressive man, General David Petraeus, underscores a fact that is essential but much overlooked. No matter how adept and heroic our military is -- and, as their commander observed, they are "very likely, the most professional force in our nation's history" -- the purpose of a military in a constitutional democracy such as ours is to effect policy, not create it.

Crafting policy is the business of our elected civilian leaders. Thus it was counterintuitive to hear Ryan C. Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq, frame of our policy only after General Petraeus's report of progress to achieve it. The counterintuitive, moreover, quickly lapsed into the contradictory. Ambassador Crocker averred:

[I]t is possible for the United States to see its goals realized in Iraq[.]… A secure, stable, democratic Iraq at peace with its neighbors is attainable. In my judgment, the cumulative trajectory of political, economic, and diplomatic developments in Iraq is upwards, although the slope of that line is not steep.

Today is the sixth anniversary -- if it is appropriate to mark an atrocity with that word -- of the 9/11 attacks. It is a good day to remember that the challenge to which we finally rose in the aftermath of that dark day was the protection of American national security. That goal was understood at the time as crushing terrorists and -- this is the important part -- the regimes that support them.

Having deposed Saddam Hussein's regime, forging a stable Iraq -- one that is an ally rather than an antagonist in the ongoing war -- is clearly a part of that. The question whether a democratic Iraq is either likely or necessary to our security is a controversy for another day. More worth our attention on this anniversary, as we consider the terror regimes, Iran in particular, that continue to facilitate radical Islam in Iraq and beyond, is Amb. Crocker's vision of an "Iraq at peace with its neighbors."

He contends the diplomatic trajectory is modestly upwards. In what sense? Iraq's neighbors prominently include Iran and Syria. What follows is all of what General Petraeus had to say about them before Amb. Crocker provided his rosy trajectory. The words are Gen. Petraeus's:

- We have also disrupted Shia militia extremists, capturing the head and numerous other leaders of the Iranian-supported Special Groups, along with a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative supporting Iran's activities in Iraq.

- Foreign and home-grown terrorists, insurgents, militia extremists, and criminals all push the ethno-sectarian competition toward violence. Malign actions by Syria and, especially, by Iran fuel that violence.

- In the ensuing months, our forces and our Iraqi counterparts have focused on improving security, especially in Baghdad and the areas around it, wresting sanctuaries from al Qaeda control, and disrupting the efforts of the Iranian-supported militia extremists.

- In the past six months we have also targeted Shia militia extremists, capturing a number of senior leaders and fighters, as well as the deputy commander of Lebanese Hezbollah Department 2800, the organization created to support the training, arming, funding, and, in some cases, direction of the militia extremists by the Iranian Republican Guard Corps' Qods Force. These elements have assassinated and kidnapped Iraqi governmental leaders, killed and wounded our soldiers with advanced explosive devices provided by Iran, and indiscriminately rocketed civilians in the International Zone and elsewhere. It is increasingly apparent to both Coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Qods Force, seeks to turn the Iraqi Special Groups into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq.

- The recommendations I provided were informed by operational and strategic considerations. The operational considerations include recognition that … success against Al Qaeda-Iraq and Iranian-supported militia extremists requires conventional forces as well as special operations forces[.]

- [O]n a less encouraging note, none of us earlier this year appreciated the extent of Iranian involvement in Iraq, something about which we and Iraq's leaders all now have greater concern.

- [Our] assessment is supported by the findings of a 16 August Defense Intelligence Agency report on the implications of a rapid withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Summarizing it in an unclassified fashion, it concludes that a rapid withdrawal would result in the further release of the strong centrifugal forces in Iraq and produce a number of dangerous results, including … exacerbation of already challenging regional dynamics, especially with respect to Iran.

So where Amb. Crocker sees an upward diplomatic trajectory, Gen. Petraeus finds it "increasingly apparent" that Iran, with all the mayhem it has already made, is trying to turn its Shiite proxies into another Hezbollah, something he now has a "greater concern" about than he did earlier this year.

The dissonance is familiar by now, but dizzying nonetheless.

Gen. Petraeus, nobody's tool and nobody's fool, laid out the Iranian challenge bluntly. He didn't lay out an Iranian policy -- not in his job description. That's what they are supposed to do over at Amb. Crocker's shop. At Foggy Bottom, however, there is no policy to speak of except to say, regardless of the evidence, that things are getting better.

Things are getting worse.

Gen. Petraeus succinctly told his congressional inquisitors: "We cannot win Iraq solely in Iraq." He's right, of course. And we surely cannot win the greater war against radical Islam in Iraq.

The war can't be won absent dealing with Tehran. Six years after 9/11, six years after President Bush's bold admonition to state sponsors of terror, it's worth asking, yet again: How do we plan to do that?

By Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review Online

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Key Documents:

September 10, 2007 - House Foreign Affairs Committee

1. Opening Statement Chairman Lantos

2. General Petraeus Statement

3. General Petraeus Charts

4. Ambassador to Iraq Crocker

September 11, 2007 Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

1. Opening Statement Biden

2. General Petraeus Statement

3. Ambassador Crocker Statement

September 11, 2007 Senate Armed Services Committee

1. General Petraeus Statement

2. General Petraeus Statement w/Slides

3. Ambassador Crocker Statement

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