Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - U.S. Africa Command

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Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - U.S. Africa Command

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REP. MAC THORNBERRY (R-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Secretary Henry, let me just clarify. You talked about some of the intelligence assets, in follow to Chairman Reyes' question, coming from EUCOM, Molesworth and so forth, are intelligence assets being transferred from CENTCOM as well?

MR. HENRY: I am not aware of any specific ones. B but let me take that, for the record, to be able to get back to you. Obviously, that -- we do have the activities going on in the Horn of Africa. I know those responsibilities and resources will be transferred over. I don't -- we haven't made that transfer of the Horn of Africa to the sub-unified command of Africa yet. So those haven't taken place yet, and I will have to get back to you on exactly what the plan is for doing that.

REP. THORNBERRY: Well, it obviously may be worth attention if you've got intelligence analysts, expert in that region, and now it's going to be under General Ward, obviously they need to go --

MR. HENRY: Yeah, and I would just differentiate between those at the command level of Central Command, and the intelligence assets and that, that we're using, both at Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa, and then those that are part of Special Operation Forces too.

REP. THORNBERRY: Of course.

General Ward, it seems to me you have a tremendous opportunity, building this command from the ground up without a crisis. Secretary Ryan said the watchword was going to be "adaptability." You've had numbers of questions about the interagency piece, how this can be an example for others about the agencies actually working together.

But the other side of it is, if you're successful in really leading the way on interagency, you're going to meet resistance. I mean, one of two things is going to happen, you're either really going to do it, and the folks whose interests are threatened are going to complain about it and try to stop it. Or it's going to be lip-service and there won't really be change at all.

I guess what I'm most curious about is how are you going to overcome that resistance when it comes? Because I believe when there is real change, there is inevitably resistance from the institutional interests that are threatened by that.

GEN. WARD: Thank you, Mr. Congressman, I think we're going to overcome it because -- by demonstrating, on the ground, through the execution of programs, that we will bring value-added. And right now we have examples of that. We have the work that's going on, quite frankly, in OEFTS, and CJTF, Horn of Africa, where we've brought together an interagency, a multi-disciplinary team of folk to cause results to be enhanced because of our collective efforts, as opposed to doing it in separate, independent, stove-pipe ways.

The more that we do, sir, the more all will be seeing that this construct works to their advantage as well, and being a part of that construct enhances the work that they do. The Africans will see it, and I believe our international -- and interagency departments likewise, will see that, that it makes sense.

REP. THORNBERRY: Well, I think you're right. It was suggested to me last week, for example, a -- CSIS issued a report that called for a major global health initiative, and it was suggested to me this would be an excellent opportunity for the AFRICOM to take that as -- in a supporting fashion, but to prove that this is not a militarization, or to dispel all the myths that you laid out at the beginning, that this could -- that could be an opportunity to prove it with more -- with more than words.

But I hope, as you try to do that, that you will be willing and able to go however high you need to go -- including coming to his committee, to overcome the obstacles to make you effective.

I yield back. Thank you.

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