Deadly Danger In Your Car; Pentagon Briefs On U.S. Troops Headed To Iraq
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We are now hearing from the Pentagon Spokesman Admiral John Kirby talking about the deployment of 1,500 additional troops to Iraq. Let's take a listen.</s>REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: -- I'd like to put out this afternoon as well and I'm sure we'll dive into whatever is on your minds. First, the Department of Defense issued today -- I'm sorry, issued supplemental civilian employee medical care guidance today for those employed to Ebola outbreak areas. Those employees deployed in support of operation united assistance who become ill, contract diseases or are injured are authorized to receive medical care at a military treatment facility at no cost to the civilian employee. Additionally those treated in theater will continue to be eligible for care in a military treatment facility or civilian medical facility upon their return at no cost to the employee. Second, as directed by Secretary Hagel, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued guidance today for the implementation of a 21- day controlled monitoring period. This was the implementation guidance that he asked the chiefs to come back and put into place while we continue to assess the efficacy of this controlled monitoring. This policy applies to all military services that are contributing personnel to the fight against Ebola at its source. In addition to providing guidance for how control monitoring will occur, the policy states which installations have been approved as controlled monitoring sites. And they are Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, joint base Langley in Hampton, Virginia, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, joint base Louis McCord out in Washington, and then overseas, the U.S. Army Garrison in Bumholder, Germany and U.S. Army Garrison in Italy. Selection criteria for these installations included proximity to medical facilities capable of treating Ebola and the ability to conduct twice daily temperature checks, medical screenings and the controlled movement and access. Third and last, General Trept Dekobi, the commander of U.S. Northern Command has requested 30 additional personnel be identified and trained in order to provide backup capability to our existing 30 person Ebola medical support team. This request is currently being sourced and we expect these 30 personnel will come from each of the services. I want to stress that this is not being driven by an anticipation of additional need and it is not a second team per se. It's rather an effort to establish additional cadre of personnel that will be given the same specialized training as the first group we trained last month. Training that focuses on helping them train civilian medical professionals on equipment while assisting with patient care. This additional group will begin their training in San Antonio around November 17th. With that, I'll take questions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Admiral. For the purpose of television it would actually be helpful if you did have a brief statement on what you've announced today in your paper statement and what the Pentagon has decided to do with regard to these troops and why.</s>KIRBY: Sure. The commander-in-chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional U.S. personnel over the coming months in a noncombat role, to expand our advice and assist mission, initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces. Secretary Hagel made this recommendation to the president based on the request of the government of Iraq, U.S. Central Command's assessment of Iraqi units, the progress Iraqi Security Forces have made in the field and in concert with the development of a coalition campaign plan to defend key areas and go on the offensive against ISIL. U.S. Central Command will establish two expeditionary advice and assist operation centers in locations outside of Baghdad and Erbil to provide support for the Iraqis at the brigade headquarters level and above. These centers will be supported by an appropriate array of force capabilities. U.S. Central Command will establish several sites across Iraq that will accommodate the training of 12 Iraqi brigades specifically nine Iraqi army and three Peshmerga brigades. These sites will be located in northern, western, and southern Iraq. Coalition partners will join U.S. personnel at these locations to help build Iraqi capacity and capability. The training will be funded through the request for an Iraqi train and equip fund that the administration will submit to Congress as well as from the government of Iraq. Over the coming weeks as we finalize the training site locations, the United States will work with coalition members to determine how many U.S. and coalition personnel will be required at each location for the training effort. Ultimately these Iraqi forces when fully trained will enable Iraq to better defend its citizens, its borders and its interest against the threat of ISIL and it is perfectly in keeping with the mission that we've been assigned there to assist ISIL from Peshmerga forces again as they improve their capability against</s>ISIL. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is helpful. Last week General Dempsey said, he hinted at this need. And he said the precondition for that is that the government of Iraq is willing to arm the tribes in Anbar. Do you have any assurances that the government of Iraq is going to work closely with these Sunni tribes and arm them? And is part of this plan to arm them yourselves or pay them or do anything akin to the awakening the previous strategy?</s>KIRBY: Well, through the Iraqi train and equip fund the department has requested funding to provide training to tribes that are operating under the auspices of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. Ultimately, we expect they will be able to conduct some of that training at the same locations where we will train Iraqi army and Peshmerga brigades. I would also add that the prime minister has made it very clear that he intends to continue outreach with the Sunni tribes. He was out in Anbar very recently doing exactly that. He's encouraged his Iraqi security force leadership to do the same, to continue that outreach. And while I can't put a fine point on exactly what all that cooperation will look like, we certainly, as I said at the outset of my answer, expect that there will be a role for Sunni tribes in this effort.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Admiral, can you tell us when the Iraqi government made this request for this additional deployment of troops?</s>KIRBY: I don't have an exact time and date on that. This is something that's been in discussion for several weeks, though.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On another question, has Secretary Hagel committed to staying for the final two years of the Obama administration?</s>KIRBY: The secretary is fully committed to his job as defense secretary and leading this department, and he looks forward to doing that for the remainder.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Different than ten years ago, they ran away.</s>KIRBY: Well, they didn't all run away. We did spend a lot of money and effort training the Iraqi army. And when we left in 2011, we left them capable and competent to the threat that they faced. That opportunity they were given, the skills, the leadership were squandered by the Maliki government over the last three, three and a half years. They weren't properly led. They weren't properly resourced. They weren't kept properly trained and that led -- that and a lack of will, both political and military will at the top in some units --</s>TAPPER: You've been listening to Rear Admiral John Kirby, the spokesman for the Pentagon. He's been going into some of the details about the Obama administration's decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Iraq from 1,500 to 3,000. Let's talk about this now with CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto and global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott. Jim, I mean, it seems like, to me, this is a pretty big announcement.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: There's no question.</s>TAPPER: I mean, some of the Pentagon reporters might have been a little nonplussed because they're used to covering deployments all the time. But doubling the commitment in Iraq, a war President Obama campaigned on ending it seems rather --</s>SCIUTTO: Right. And frankly more than doubling, you know, we've talked about this earlier. It's double where the troops are now, but it's ten times as many advisers as the president initially sent in June this year describing a very limited mission at the time. That's the number of troops. And then it's also greatly expanding where those U.S. forces will be on the ground. To this point, they've been confined to Baghdad and Erbil, you know, as close as you can come in the Iraq space to relatively safe ground. So they are going to be at two additional operation centers outside of Baghdad and Irbil most likely we're told in Anbar Province, which is you know, very dangerous part of the country --</s>TAPPER: Very close to Baghdad, though.</s>SCIUTTO: Absolutely. Close to Baghdad and that's one reason it's important, right, because Anbar is so close and ISIS has gained so much ground there and also the possibility of Taji, just north of the capital. But then in addition to that, you have them at several other sites around the country where they can train these 12 Iraqi brigades in closer quarters, in effect. So this is greatly expanding their footprint on the ground, still not combat troops. But let's be frank here, they will be closer to combat by being outside of those two main population centers in Erbil and Baghdad.</s>TAPPER: Elise Labott at the State Department, what are your sources telling you about this announcement? She's not there, OK. Never mind. Jim, let's talk about this right now because the administration has these terms of no boots on the ground, no combat troops. But there are now going to be 3,000 U.S. troops wearing boots and --</s>SCIUTTO: The laws of gravity on the ground.</s>TAPPER: Armed and in the middle of combat in some cases whether they're there as advisers, whether they're there to gather human intelligence, do reconnaissance, whether they're there to train. The American people should be prepared for the fact that it's quite possible that there is going to be some combat and hopefully not but the worst might happen.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, if not combat, they will be closer to combat, but they will be facing danger. And the fact is U.S. pilots flying over the zone are facing danger today, even in jets. U.S. helicopter pilots, we've talked about this before, Apache aircraft, low flyers, slower flyers, they're facing danger. Now you're putting these advisers in more places around the country, which while not on the frontlines are not necessarily insulated from the kinds of attacks that ISIS is capable of carrying out.</s>TAPPER: Speaking of pilots flying jets in Iraq, joining us on the phone is Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Republican from Illinois, who flew for the Army in Iraq. Congressman, did I get that right? Are you Army or Air Force? I apologize if I got that --</s>REPRESENTATIVE ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS (via telephone): I'm Air Force.</s>TAPPER: You're Air Force, I'm sorry. So in any case, more importantly what is your reaction to the announcement today?</s>KINZINGER: Well, you know, it's not overly surprising to me. I said at the beginning few, maybe 1,000 troops as advisers and some airstrikes are not going to stop this explosion of ISIS in the Middle East. Frankly, the more success they get, the more they're able to recruit. Success leads to success. So you know, I support the president and what he's doing. I support him in understanding the needs there and we have to stop it. The problem is I do think he just needs to very much level with the American people and say, look, this is a threat that we have to defeat and we're going to use whatever force is necessary. I think where the concern is people are going to start hearing echoes of Vietnam where we advise and advise and we're in a full-blown war. The president needs to take the bull by the horn, explain to the American people what he's doing and the real issue. This is something we can't walk away from.</s>TAPPER: Congressman, do you think 3,000 troops is enough?</s>KINZINGER: Probably not. Look, I'm a believer -- I don't think we need 200,000 American troops in Iraq again. I do believe we have to have an option on the ground to head off movements where it's happening, to stop ISIS. I got back from Iraq a month ago and the Peshmerga themselves, the Kurds, have a 1,000 kilometer border with ISIS. On top of supposedly being the ground force or one of the ground forces that we're going to expect to liberate Iraq when it took us years to do it with the best Marines and Army in the world. I think this is going to be a long time war and it will take more troops. The president ought to level and say, this is a big deal. It's going to take a lot. I know you don't want to go back to Iraq, but here's what's at stake.</s>TAPPER: Congressman, where are our Arab allies? I understand the Emirates and Bahrain and Jordan and Saudi -- there's another country I'm forgetting -- have been flying missions and contributing to the coalition. But some of them have boots on the ground that they could send in. Why aren't they doing so?</s>KINZINGER: Well, look, I agree with you they need to step up. A lot of them have stepped up in a big way. Arab troops on the ground, it's very easy for us in the west to say they need to have the large force or whatever, but it has a very different ring. People have talked about this being a civil war. I think this is something different. But to the extent that you have a Sunni country that now puts troops in the middle of a Shia area or vice versa, it's a huge problem and that has the potential of exploding and not just in Iraq. Keep in mind each of these Arab partners have their own jihadist movement they're worried about, Jordan specifically and their refugee camps. They have their own borders that they have to defend. And the last thing in the world we want is to lose another Arab ally in the Middle East. That would be devastating.</s>TAPPER: All right, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate it. Coming up, brainwashing, hand-to-hand combat and unending loyalty, they were all just part of the job according to a former bodyguard for the late North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il. What he is revealing, this bodyguard, about his ten years of terror and why he says his old boss' son, the current dictator of North Korea, may be even worse.