Enable local, motivated forces to defeat isil and sustain the defeat and to do that enabling by providing on our part a clear plan, american leadership, a Global Coalition, and the wielding of the incredible sweep of capabilities we have, ranging from air power, special forces, cybertools, intelligence, equipment, mobility, logistics, training, advice and assistance. I described the Coalition MilitaryCampaign Plan at some length yesterday, but also the fact that it must be accompanied by equally strong and integrated efforts from the diplomatic, intelligence, Law Enforcement and Homeland Security and other parts of our government. These two are necessary too are necessary. I and the rest of the National Security team will be updating the president soon on the progress of the overall strategy to deal isil a lasting defeat. I also described yesterday the need for members of the Global Coalition to do more. And ill be traveling to paris next week to discuss that with my counterparts from france, australia, germany, italy, the netherlands and the united kingdom. Now, today were together discussing the details of the implementation of the campaign and specifically how we can accelerate it yet further. Its gathering momentum and were taking advantage of every opportunity we can. I want to thank each of these commanders for their dedication to this mission. And i particularly want to thank general austin for his exemplary work as centcom commander and throughout a long and remarkable career. Much of which has been spent defeating threats and developing solutions in centcoms area of responsibility. The epicenter for much of the worlds conflicts and tensions. He has spear headed our military efforts in iraq, syria, yemen, at sea, in the air, on the ground, in the cyberdomain, all with incredible skill, vision and talent. In 2003, general austin led the invasion of iraq and the capture of baghdad, earning the silver star for his personal valor. He showed extraordinary skill during the later surge in iraq, and in managing security in iraq during his years as overall commander there. He commanded at multiple levels in the armys 82nd Airborne Division and commanded the 10th mountain division, all with honor and distinction. Just listen to that. Listen to that roster of accomplishment. Few have brought that kind of depth and breadth of experience to this critical command. The level of experience that helped him lead centcom with distinction, skill and the confidence of the nations leadership during an extraordinary and complex period. It is this depth and breadth of experience that allowed joe and me to always i meant joe dunford in that case, ill get to the other joe in a moment, to all we safely rely on lloyd, including now when we face an enemy such as isil. The opportunities and challenges in afghanistan and iraq and throughout the region are always changing. But one thing hasnt changed. General austins limitless commitment to his troops and to his country. Now general austins long tour in this job will soon come to an end. The good news is, im supremely confident that the man the president will nominate to take general austins place when his work here at centcom is completed, very confident in that man and that is general joe votel. He has done a superb job as the commander of u. S. Special operations command. But thats only one part of the reason why he was my only recommendation to the president to succeed lloyd. In addition to his purely military experience, general votel has a wealth of in depth political military experience, that is working with foreign governments and militaries, and is therefore well equipped to handle the complex challenges of centcom. Additionally, his experience in the middle east region will serve him well, and that is extensive also. His background in every domain of warfare, air, land and sea, as well as special operations, give him the perspective and knowledge to lead the many soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen operating within this crucial command. So with that, i want to turn it over to general austin for his additional thoughts on the campaign. Mr. Austin thank you, mr. Secretary, for those kind words. And thanks to you and the chairman for coming here to centcom, to have spent a little time with the team at the headquarters. Joe, its always good to see my neighbor, i often joke that joe and i see more of each other in foreign lands than we do at home. Although we live next door to each other. Let me quickly say how proud i am to lead and work alongside the outstanding men and women of central command. They deal with tough challenges on a daily basis. In fact, there isnt a tougher set of challenges in the inventory, in my opinion. And over the past almost three years, weve been focused on afghanistan and pakistan and egypt, iran and lebanon, yemen, and of course iraq and syria. And a host of other countries that make up the central region. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coasts guardsmen and civilians of this command, along with our Coalition Partners have done and continue to do an absolutely outstanding job. Again, i could not be more proud of them. Theres a lot going on in the central region. And as the secretary just talked about, foremost on all of our minds is the fight against isil and the crisis in iraq and syria. It is an incredibly complex situation, arguably the most complex situation that any of us have ever witnessed. And what i would tell you and what you just heard the secretary say, not only here but certainly as he spoke at Fort Campbell yesterday, what you heard him say is that, as you look across the battle space, you see Real Progress being made by the coalition and principally the forces on the ground, in locations that include places like tikrit and bosnia and sinjar and ramadi and syria and along the line north of the city of aleppo in northern syria. And in a number of other locations. We are in fact doing what we set out to do and that is to put increased pressure on the enemy throughout the depth of the battle space. And he is feeling the effects of those efforts. Theres no doubt about it. A few days ago, we conducted a strike on a bulk cash Storage Facility in mosul. It was a good strike. And we estimate that it served to deprive isil of millions of dollars. It was not the first strike on a storage site. We struck several other cash storage sites in recent months and we will continue to go after the enemys finances. Combined with all of the other strikes that weve done on isils gas and Oil Production and distribution capabilities, and strikes against his economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, you can bet that he is feeling the strain on his checkbook. Isil needs those funds to pay their fighters, to recruit new fighters, and to conduct their various maligned activities. We said from the outset of this campaign that to defeat isil were going to have to take away his ability to resource himself and were going to have to curb the flow of foreign fighters coming into the theater. In addition to attacking fielding forces and taking background that he once held in iraq and syria. And together with our Coalition Partners, and in support of the indigenous forces operating on the ground in both countries, we have done and we continue to do all of these things. And were doing them with increasingly good effects. The momentum against this enemy continues to build. And again you heard the secretary talk about that yesterday as he spoke in Fort Campbell. More and more opportunities have developed over time and we have actively pursued each and every one of these opportunities. These opportunities are the result of increased movement on the ground, a better understanding of the battle space, and a better developed human intelligence network. As we gather more information and as we continuously refine our approach based upon that information, and based upon lessons learned, we are able to conduct more effective operations against this enemy. All together, our different efforts, targeting isils forces, targeting his leadership, targeting his infrastructure, his gas and Oil Production and distribution capabilities, his economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, altogether these efforts translate into devastating effects on the enemy. Indeed, isil has assumed a defensive posture in iraq and syria. And going forward, we can expect to see him rely increasingly on acts of terrorism such as we saw this week in baghdad and in turkey, and most recently in djakarta. We can expect to see more of this type of activity, in part because isil wants to draw attention away from the growing number of setbacks that he is experiencing. However, it is important to understand that these terrorist acts dont necessarily mean that isil is getting stronger. Isil by its nature is a terrorist organization. And by conducting these attacks, hes attempting to produce an image of invincibility in the wake of setbacks. So, overall we are making progress. That said, the fight against isil is far from over. As i tell my troops often, weve got to keep our dukes up. And we will. Were going to continue to do what weve been doing over the course of the campaign, were going to continue to work closely with our Coalition Partners, and support and enable the forces, the efforts of the forces on the ground. Were going to continue to pursue opportunities across the battle space, and i am confident that as we do this, we will be successful and we will defeat these this enemy. Mr. Secretary, thanks for the opportunity to provide a couple of comments. Mr. Carter i think we have time for a few questions. Reporter [inaudible] mr. Austin we do know that because we have greater activity along the syriaturkish border, by the turks and by our forces, the forces that are supporting us, that weve been able to slow down the flow of foreign fighters, foreign terrorist fupefighters coming into the theater. At the same time weve been able to increase the amount of pressure were putting on the enemy with great effect. And weve done that through increasing the activity of the maneuver forces. So, you see what just happened in ramadi, prior to that, near simultaneously, you saw what the peshmerga were doing in northern iraq, to take back the town of sinjar. You see up in the northeastern part of syria, the activity of the Syrian Democratic forces. That have continued to push down from north to south. And really placing a lot of pressure on isils capital, raqqa. We also see a change in techniques in terms of what the enemys doing on the ground. His ability to counterattack is diminished. And hes much, much less effective in those counterattacks than he would have been several months back. I hope i answered your question. Reporter the secretary talked a little bit about the forces on the ground. Theres obviously been a lot more emphasis on [inaudible] i was wondering if you could talk about how you foresee the next year and what role your forces will play over time. Mr. Votel i think special Operations Forces provide a unique capability in the way we do things. I think thats what you see us trying to leverage there. That said, i would just tell you that special Operations Forces, u. S. Or otherwise, arent in this by ourselves. We are very dependent on our conventional forces. We couldnt do anything without the conventional force support that we get from general austin and the rest of his components there that is absolutely vital to the things we do. We dont go out and do anything by ourselves. Were one part of a bigger team. Were glad to bring our capabilities. To the second part of your question, i think, yeah, i would anticipate, as weve tried to do in the past, we would continue to look to our partners and try to bring their capabilities to bear as well. Mr. Carter let me add to that, the last point that joe made, which is, this special Operations Forces, and the things that they bring, is one of the capabilities that were asking others to bring to the fight. Thats not just traditional soft partners. The united kingdom, australia and so forth that i mentioned earlier. But this is an area where weve asked some of the states that are in the region to become more active. And then with respect to the Expeditionary Targeting force, which is a very important tool, but i want to emphasize one of many tools. But we were just talking about that together. The four of us will be talking about that, among other things, in the coming hours. But thats a very flexible tool, ive spoken about that before. We wont be able to talk about everything that its doing but it has a very wide range of capabilities. Reporter [inaudible] mr. Carter i think this much is clear. There was a navigational error of some kind. All the contributing factors to that we dont know yet. And were still talking to those folks and well find out more what combination of factors led to that navigational error. But they were clearly out of the position that they tended intended to be in. Were very glad to have them back. Just add that. This is the kind of thing that, for all of us standing here, were very, very grad to have our sailors back. And were still talking to them, were still learning about exactly what happened. But this much we do know. As i said before. There was a navigational error. But what combination of factors, we just dont know yet. Well continue to inform you as we learn more. Reporter [inaudible] mr. Carter i dont know the particular circumstances, were still learning this from the indonesian Law Enforcement. So we dont know exactly what the conditions of it are. To me, the fact that were even talking about this shows that the me taft sis of isil metastasize of isil is a global concern. The countries of indonesia have expressed that to me personally. That tells us a couple of things about our campaign, that are essential. One is that we have to go after the metastases. But job one also has to be to destroy isil in iraq and syria. Thats not sufficient, but it is necessary. Because its necessary to show that this movement has no future and this movement is not something that should be attractive to somebody far away, who has a cause or somehow wants to link up with it. So both of those are important. Thats why our campaign encompasses both. To this specific event, i just cant add anything. Youll have to wait and see what the indonesian Law Enforcement people conclude about that to know. Next question from the local press. Hit the microphone button. Reporter mr. Secretary, couple of questions about intelligence. Some local, some down range. Are you confident that this point that youre receiving unvarnished intelligence from centcom, this is just one piece, and then, with the Expeditionary Targeting force, are you looking at what some of the successes were back in iraq and afghanistan, 2006, 2007, and 2010, where you have the flying fix finish, that kind of high tempo, you know, movement where you melded operational and intelligence cycles . Mr. Carter let me do the second part first. Absolutely we what we learned from our wars in iraq and afghanistan has been of operational value. So some of that trade craft you were talking about. The strikes and a rapid turn of the intelligence execution cycle. Absolutely, we have forces that are extremely good at that. And one of the reasons for that is they had some practice, some of them. Had that practice. Over time. And to intelligence, im very demanding of intelligence. I demand that we get it straight and know that everybody standing behind me is we cant win without good intelligence. Im not satisfied that i have all the intelligence id like, youre never satisfied you have all the intelligence youd like. Id like to have more in iraq and syria. You know some of the issues associated with that. This is a group thats very clever about using social media and hiding technologically and so forth. So were constantly pursuing that. And the Intelligence Community is all in with trying to get to the bottom of this, so were not surprised by isil, which weve been on a number of occasions. And so forth. But and i should say that for me in this, and im sure its true of the officers standing behind me as well, i count on intelligence, but i get lots of other kinds of information. We have forces on the ground there. They provide incredibly valuable information. We have diplomatic presence. A lot of this involves dealing with governments and the complex politicalmilitary aspects of whats going none iraq and syria. And then in todays world, the media is out there. So you learn things. I make sure i listen to all sources of information that might give me insight into how to conduct this campaign. Im shufere what im Say Something true of the folks behind me as well. Reporter mr. Secretary, thanks for your time today. I wanted to ask you, i guess on messaging standpoint, with the incident in the persian gulf with the sailors. Youve got video of sailors kneeling down on boatses with their hands behind their head. Thats been played over and over again over the last 36, 48 hours. From a messaging standpoint, from a propaganda standpoint, on the iranian side, whats your reaction to that . I guess from u. S. A. Point of view, how should we respond . Mr. Carter well, obviously i dont like to see our people being detained by a foreign military. Im very glad theyre released. Im very glad theyre safe. What we dont know is the full context. Remember, what youre looking through in those, the lens of the iranian media. So i think we need to give these guys the opportunity to tell us what was really going on and what the overall context is before we can really know. Reporter mr. Secretary, evan introduce yourself please. Reporter mr. Secretary, evan from fox 13 in tampa. Thanks for being here. One followup to his question. Is there any way of saying yet, are you able to say whether this is propaganda and whether that violates the Geneva Convention against that sort of propaganda . And then i do have one other question. Just to follow up. Mr. Carter i have said and ill see if general austin wants to add anything. Again, we dont know everything that was going on in the circumstances. We have every reason to learn it. Because we have our guys back , and we want to talk to them. But i want to give them a chance to describe what the overall circumstances are. Do you want to add anything . Mr. Austin thats the point i was going to make. It would not be a good thing to speculate on what may have happened or not happened at this point. Well know a lot more after we finish debriefing our sailors. And were in the process of doing that now. Again, this is going to take a bit more time, but i think its the right thing to do, to get the full context of the situation. Reporter then one question about the general kind of effort here. You see 500 troops next month headed to iraq and kuwait, another 1,000 or maybe more headed this spring. A lot of people just kind of, in military towns like this, who wonder if this is a steady drip of a larger ground operation that is coming down the line, if this isnt taken care of right away. How do you respond to people who just wonder whether were kind of in this . Mr. Carter i was just with folks at Fort Campbell yesterday who are deploying to this theater. Let me remind you that from postcamp stations, bases, air, naval around the world, all the time weve got people deploying. In the hundreds of thousands. General dunford had a previous assignment commanding our troops in afghanistan. Lets not forget, we have troops there in afghanistan. All throughout the middle east. Europe, where were putting more forces in because of the kinds of threats that russia has posed, as you saw in the issues with respect to ukraine. In the asiapacific region were deploying more because of what we call the rebalance, which is really a strengthening of our the in a region that isnt headquarters responsibility, but it has half the worlds people, half the worlds economy, so people are deploying all the time. With respect to particularly the particular centcom, particularly the counterisil campaign, we will be doing more. Our operational approach is not to try to substitute for local forces. But to enable them to win. And the reason for that is quite simple. Which is that somebody has to keep the victory after the victory is won. And that has to be people who live there. So part of the process of getting a sustainable victory has to be to work with them. Thats our overall strategic approach. Quick last question here. Michael of the new york times. Reporter you guys know there was a navigational issue. Can you provide us with any sort of timeline about what happened with the sailors . About sort of what we do know up to this point . Mr. Carter i think that well know a lot more when were finished talking to them. No, im not prepared. I want to give them the chance to tell us what they saw and make sure that were able to absorb that and to understand all the factors and all the information we have. Of course, the lion share will come from them because they were there and theyll tell us what happened. But there are other sources of information too. We have the two vessels and were looking at them. And so forth. Let me ask general austin, if theres anything he wants to add. Mr. Austin i absolutely agree with what the secretary said. I think in order to get that detailed information, we really do need to talk to or debrief all 10 sailors and then lay out the sequence of events as things transpired. I think well have a much better, much clearer picture once weve done that. It would be ill advised for us to publish a timeline prior to having completed that process. Reporter was anything removed from the boats . Mr. Austin again, theyre going through inventories right now. For the most part, the gear that we deployed with was largely there when we got the boats back. Whether or not there is singular pieces of equipment missing, well determine that once weve completed the inventories. Thank you, mr. Secretaries. Generals. Mr. Carter good. Thank you all very much. I cant do it if the teacher doesnt let me. One more quick question from the local media, please. Just about the refuelers. Thank you. K. C. 46, on the short list for that. Eric, 10 news. Reporter do you have any insight as to where we stand with that in our area . And the importance of the refuel mission to the Current Mission . Mr. Carter i cant say much more about the first part. That will be an air force decision and theyre looking actually nationwide for what the optimal locationses are. Locations are for the kc46 and obviously this is one of the candidates for that. I certainly can speak to the importance of the kc46. That is our replacement tanker for the kc 135 that you see on the ramp here, the workhorse of our refueling fleet. That is one of the ways that america has tremendous global reach that we have. We alone can get anywhere within hours. The reason is that we can carry ourselves through those tankers. Its a very important program. Its generally proceeding very well. Im pleased about that. Its a very important program. Up next, a look at the role of u. S. Imposed sanctions. Then, the Business Outlook for 2016. Opv has 48 hours of Nonfiction Book tv has 48 hours of nonfiction authors. Eastern,at 1 30 p. M. Watch coverage of the Second Annual bill of rights book festival in philadelphia. Then, the Pulitzer Prize winner discusses her book, the story of policy. A age of wrote, ambition. China should grow economically and of course, it is a wonderful idea. You see everybody go from aspirations for a bicycle to much farther. If the one child policy helped people get to that stage, i would be all for it. It really did not have that much to do with Economic Growth that china has had. At 7 15 p. M. Eastern, professor Courtney Young discusses her book in the impactiscusses of breastfeeding on american society. Breastfeeding fits into an American Health paradigm that blames individuals themselves for Poor Health Outcomes and for the soaring cost of American Health care. Ooktv all weekend, every weekend on cspan2. Up next, a coordinator for the u. S. Sanctions policy talking about the role of sanctions and the role on russia, iran, and north korea. Welcome, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. We are at american university. It is a great pleasure to continue our discussion series this year with ambassador daniel fried, who i was thinking as we walked up. , it was 20 years ago we worked together in my brief stint in the government. He has had a distinguished. Areer in the Foreign Service he is the state Department Coordinator for sanctions, policy, prior to that ambassador fried was assigned to the Guantanamo Bay facility, which we will discuss briefly. The main focus of the conversation will be on sanctions. He also had additional responsibilities. Previously as assistant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs, senior director of the National Security council, universe u. S. Ambassador to poland. It is wonderful to welcome you. Thanks for being here. Mr. Fried thank you. I appreciated. One of the interesting things about Foreign Policy is, as people have gotten, grown disillusioned with the effectiveness of military force, as an instrument of version in american Foreign Policy, a lot of attention has focused on sanctions. As a way to get others to do what we want, and not have to use military force but use a financial instrument to try and get others to do what we want. First thing, i want to ask you, since you have been involved in many different policy positions over the recent decades, how much of a change do you feel thee is in thinking about effectiveness of these different instruments, and it sanctions becoming more permanent as a tool for u. S. Foreign policy, is , the nature of the policy conversation, since those who implement sanctions are different than those who implement the use of military force . Well, clearly, sanctions are a kind of Foreign Policy tool of the month. Right now, and i dont mean that sarcastically, it is what i do. Asy have been seen relatively successful in a number of cases. And they are a