FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
Panetta Answers Mali Questions in Europe
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
MADRID, Jan. 15, 2013 - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta discussed U.S. assistance to the French in Mali during news conferences today in Lisbon, Portugal, and here in the Spanish capital.
On Jan. 10, France began airstrikes against forces in Mali affiliated with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
During a news conference in Lisbon this morning with Portuguese Defense Minister Jose Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Panetta expressed support for France's action.
"We have commended the French for this effort to ... stop the AQIM -- these terrorists and members of al-Qaida -- from being able to develop a base of operations in Mali, and we have always been concerned about efforts by al-Qaida to establish that kind of base," the secretary said. "And our commitment ever since 9/11 has been to go after al-Qaida wherever they are and to make sure that they have no place to hide."
Panetta also noted that the international community and the United Nations support the effort. A reporter asked whether U.S. officials are considering sending ground forces to Mali. "There is no consideration of putting any American boots on the ground at this time," the secretary replied.
Later, during his joint appearance here with Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenes Eulate, Panetta repeated the basic points he first made yesterday about U.S. support for the French action in Mali.
The U.S. and French governments are discussing a range of possible assistance the United States can offer, he said. Panetta yesterday told reporters the French had requested intelligence, logistics and airlift support.
"We are in discussions with the French, and we are discussing in Washington some of the requests that have been made, to determine exactly what assistance we can provide," the secretary said. "Our goal is to ... do what we can to provide whatever assistance is necessary."
Panetta told reporters he can't yet offer a likely timeline for French military action in Mali.
"[We are following] events, trying to get a read as to what efforts they're committed to taking there and what their objectives are. I can't really give a full analysis ... as of this moment," he said. "Any time you confront an enemy that is dispersed ... makes it challenging."
In Mali, stopping a scattered enemy advance across a large area is a difficult but necessary task, the secretary noted.
"For that reason, we've commended France for taking that step," he said. "And I believe the international community will do all we can to try to assist them in that effort."
Morenes, speaking through a translator, noted that Panetta's meetings with Spanish leaders "laid the foundations for significant cooperation in the future."
"We specifically talked about Afghanistan and Mali," he added.
European defense ministers have been monitoring the situation for more than a year, Morenes said, and in December they had reached preliminary agreements to train Malian and Economic Community of West African States forces. The movement of extremist forces toward Mali's southern regions was "sudden, in a way," he said, which meant that a new response had to develop quickly.
Talks he held with the French minister Jan. 11 and last night indicated the French plan is to prevent terrorist groups from reaching Mali's capital of Bamako, which would create chaos, Morenes said. "The French minister told us that they wanted to stop that offensive and to ... [proceed with] the Mali training mission," he added.
Morenes said that at a meeting of NATO's foreign ministers Jan. 18 in Brussels, "we had planned to get ahead of the offensive."
"Now, [we are] adjusting to a new situation, post-offensive," he noted.
The Spanish minister added that Spain already has agreed to a French request that Spain allow overflights of its maritime airspace. Panetta and Morenes agreed it is vital to world security to prevent terrorists fro developing a safe haven in Mali.
"[The] objective is to make sure AQIM never establishes a base for operations – in Mali, or for that matter, anyplace else," Panetta said.
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Panetta: U.S. Support to French in Mali Aimed at al-Qaida
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
LISBON, Portugal, Jan. 14, 2013 - U.S. and French defense leaders are hammering out details of intelligence, logistics and airlift assistance the United States will provide to French forces in Mali, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.
Speaking to reporters on the flight to the Portuguese capital, the secretary said such planned assistance demonstrates U.S. leaders' resolve that "we have a responsibility to go after al-Qaida wherever they are."
"We've gone after them in the FATA," Panetta said, referring to the federally administered tribal areas in Pakistan's northwest. "We're going after them in Yemen and Somalia. And we have a responsibility to make sure that al-Qaida does not establish a base for operations in North Africa and Mali."
French forces began airstrikes in Mali, a former French colony, four days ago. It has been widely reported France began its air campaign to halt the movement south of al-Qaida affiliated extremists, who have held Mali's northern area since April.
Panetta said the United States and its allies have been "very concerned" about AQIM, or al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, "and their efforts to establish a very strong base in that area."
The secretary said DOD officials have been working with regional partners to try to develop plans to confront that threat. "I commend France for taking the steps that it has," he added. "And what we have promised them is that we will work with them to ... provide whatever assistance we can to try to help them in that effort."
Officials from the Stuttgart, Germany-based U.S. Africa Command also are discussing military support with France, the secretary said. A senior official traveling with the secretary told reporters that specific U.S. support to French forces in Mali has not yet been defined, but that Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, Africom commander, spoke by phone earlier today from the African continent with the secretary, who was flying to Portugal at the time.
"We'll continue to work with [the French] to ensure that ultimately we do stop AQIM and that the responsibility for assuring security in that region will be passed to the African nations to provide a more permanent security for the sake of the world," Panetta said.
While that longer-term solution develops, the secretary said, he will consult with allies on shorter-term support in France's fight.
"One of the discussions I'll have in Spain regards their concern about what's happening with AQIM in Mali, as well," he said. "And I'll get a better idea of what these other countries may be doing to assist."
The secretary said while al-Qaida members in Mali do not appear to pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies, "we're concerned any time al-Qaida establishes a base of operations that, while they might not have any immediate plans for attacks in the United States and in Europe, that ultimately ... still remains their objective. And it's for that reason that we have to take steps now to ensure that AQIM does not get that kind of traction."
President Barack Obama yesterday notified Congress, as required by the War Powers Act, that United States troops "provided limited technical support to the French forces" engaged in the attempted rescue of a French hostage in Somalia. French forces reported Denis Allex, who had been a hostage of al-Qaida-affiliated al Shabaab since 2009, was killed in the raid.
U.S. forces took no direct part in the assault on the compound where planners had concluded the French citizen was held hostage, the president wrote. U.S. combat aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation if needed, but did not employ weapons, he added.
All U.S. forces who supported the operation had left Somalia by about 8 p.m. EST Jan. 11, the president wrote.
"I directed U.S. forces to support this rescue operation in furtherance of U.S. national security interests," the president wrote, "and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as commander in chief and chief executive."
Panetta landed here today for the first leg of a weeklong trip that will also take him to Madrid, Rome and London.
