Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - The Defense Department's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget

Interview

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REP. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you both for your testimony today, and thank you for staying to the late hour for we freshmen. I appreciate it.

I'd like to address Pakistan and Afghanistan first. There was an article today in The New York Times that said there's growing al Qaeda presence and power and ability to recruit. And I know that there's significant concerns about Pakistan because -- the 3 million Afghanistan refugees on the border and in the FATA area.

The article today said that they are beginning to have more success in recruiting in America, and that obviously caused grave concern to me.

I would like to know your thoughts on what your plans for Pakistan, if we do continue investments in things like health care, education, economic development, to try to stave off the next generation of terrorists.

And second, the article mentions that we have been requesting to have a greater presence or commitment in the FATA area to do anti- terrorism work. I'd like your thoughts on that.

SEC. GATES: I'll go ahead -- I'll start and then the admiral can chime in.

First of all, I think the Pakistani government just in recent months has begun to realize that it had a major threat to its own existence on the North-West Frontier. And the assassination of Benazir Bhutto sort of underscored that for them, that all of a sudden what had been a nuisance was becoming a threat to the existence of the government.

Al Qaeda has threatened to kill Musharraf, their senior military leaders. They've threatened to overthrow the government. And in fact, we are wondering right now if the reduction in the number of people crossing the border into RC East -- al Qaeda, Taliban and others -- is because they are now facing the other direction and sending some resources to try and attack the Pakistani -- to try and undermine Pakistani stability.

The Pakistani army is an army that essentially has been trained and equipped to potentially fight India. They are now going to have to re-orient themselves and figure out how to do counterinsurgency. We have been very clear that we are ready, willing and able to help them do that, to help them in this training and to partner with them. They're very nervous about a significant American presence and visible -- a lot of American visibility. I understand that. But I think General Kiyani, the new chief of staff, is getting his arms around the new kind of problem facing Pakistan, and when he has had an opportunity to look at what he needs in order to do that, as I say, we are prepared to be helpful.

I am -- I'm not aware that there has been a significant increase in al Qaeda's ability to recruit Americans. There are always reports of a handful of Europeans and possibly Americans being trained in the FATA, but they're pretty scattered and sound like pretty small numbers. Most of the people are -- seem to be from the Middle East and from Europe.

ADM. MULLEN: I would only add that in addition to the al Qaeda threat up there that I think General Kiyani and others are now focused on, it's also the Taliban who are there, and Betula Massoud (sp) is the -- sort of the leader, at least the signature individual in that right now. So that -- we are willing to assist, but it really is -- and they've made it very clear they're a sovereign country and where we can we will.

Our contacts, our relationships with them are very good. They're a very proud military. They're a very capable military. They have a rich history. And we need to be mindful of that and respect it as we work with them to get at this challenge.

REP. GILLIBRAND: Have either of you recommended or considered a special envoy from the United States to address Pakistan and Afghanistan together? It was certainly one of the recommendations that we've had in the last two hearings before this committee on Afghanistan and Pakistan as a way to begin to improve our relationship.

SEC. GATES: I began recommending a special envoy representing NATO, the EU and the U.N. to try and coordinate Western government and -- well, not just Western, but the international assistance programs, particularly on the non-security side, the civil side and economic development and reconstruction side. I began proposing that almost a year ago. It led ultimately to approval. In NATO we made a big effort to do it. Unfortunately, the collapse of the effort to get Lord Ashdown to do the job has been a setback.

But I will tell you, I leave in three minutes for Vilnius, where we'll have a NATO Defense ministers' meeting, and moving forward with trying to identify a new person to do this coordinating role in Kabul I think is one of our highest-priority tasks.

REP. GILLIBRAND: Thank you.

May I ask a follow-up question? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Because this is a budget hearing particularly, I wanted to just address briefly your budget for the transition between active duty and veteran status. We had a report in Fort Drum, which is a base right near my district, that the Veterans Administration was told by the DOD that they could no longer assist our men and women filling out their disability paperwork because the rate of disability was so high coming from the Fort Drum area because of this assistance. Now, whether that report is true or not I don't know; it just was a report that NPR made. But that's highly concerning to me.

And looking at your budget, you've requested 41.6 billion (dollars) for health care, a decrease from '08 from 42.2 (billion dollars). The number of reports that I have from my returning men and women, particularly National Guard and Reserve, of PTSDs is so high, and that they're having to wait seven weeks to see a therapist for the first instance when these men and women are having difficulty in their jobs because they're having anxiety attacks, anger problems, and real inability to do what they are hoping to do. Can you just address that briefly? We really need a better transition system. We need to have the mental health services available.

And finally, I think the DOD should produce every year a manual for our veterans that the minute they come out that these are the services that are available to them. Right now the Wounded Warriors not-for-profit organization did it for free, and they had -- a New York City law firm spent about $2 million of free pro bono legal time to do this. I think it should be under the DOD's auspices to produce this manual for our men and women for that transition every year.

REP. SKELTON: I thank the gentlelady.

Any comments?

SEC. GATES: I would just very quickly say dealing with PTSD is very important to us. We have hired about 800 additional mental health professionals for the Department of Defense. We have -- we are -- we have a goal -- we have set a goal that any person who wants to see a mental health professional, that an appointment is guaranteed within, I think, seven days.

I will tell you that one of the concerns that we have had is that -- not a concern, it -- well, it is a concern, but it's a problem -- is hiring enough mental health professionals.

And we're -- we're trying to hire civilians, but it has been a real challenge, and -- it's been a very high priority for us. And I've told people to pay local fees -- local salaries and so on to be competitive. But it is a -- it is a hugely important -- we just trained -- something really important we did, we trained 800,000 soldiers in how to recognize PTSD. And our plan is that -- and what we are trying to achieve is that every returning soldier will be evaluated within 30 days of their return; they'll be evaluated again in another 90 to 120 days, since some of the symptoms don't show up for a while; and then if they re-deploy, they will be evaluated again before they --

REP. GILLIBRAND: All mandatory, for each servicemember.

SEC. GATES: Yes ma'am.

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