do an internal look at it ourselves and find out what is it that we did, what could we do better and make changes based on what i would consider an after-action review. so i think that s fair. the other issue, there s some in african command and some here in the pentagon that think the special forces are taking too many risks over there. yeah that would be speculation. here s what i m clear on. i m clear on the frame work within which this operation took place. in other words, what do their orders say. i don t have any indication right now to believe or to know that they did anything other than operate within the orders that they were given. that s what the investigation is all about. so i think anyone that speculates about what special operation forces did or didn t do is doing an exactly that. they re speculating. in general, special operators in africom maybe taking too many risks. that s the sense of many in this building and africom. it s not my assessment
i don t have the details of that. you know, i don t know whether it was intended that they how long it would take or if they planned to stay overnight. just to be clear, a more accurate description than stayed overnight, they caught a couple hours of sleep after the 3rd and before they completed their mission on the 4th. is there an investigation into the troop deaths and what is the significance of the fbi being sure. on the first case, no. there s an investigation being conducted by a general officer at the united states africa command into the incident itself. so that s the only investigation u.s. military. with regard to the fbi, it s fairly normal in counter terrorism cases for them to conduct investigations to get intelligence that may be related to threats to the united states. i believe that s the capacity in which the fbi is conducted an investigation right now. quick follow up on whether or not the troops that were wearing
did the mirages play any role in disrupting the firefight? anything i would tell you about the mirages i ve seen some of it will be speculation. we ll get from the guys on the ground employing the mirages before i make a conclusion about what effect they had. the time of the firefight, do you have a general sense of how long it took place? only that it took several hours. well into the evening on october 3. one last october 4. thank you. could you let us know how many u.s. forces are serving in africom and east africa right now? maybe up in the break down. sure, i can. i can give you a range. we have on the order of 6,000, a little over 6,000 forces in 53 different countries. general dunford, on the
more in africom. can you do that without sending more equipment, isr over there? tom, fair question. i think i would distinguish between what does the commander of africom need to do the full range of missions that he believes need to be done and what missions are being done with the equipment available? i will tell you, the general may need more capability to do more missions or more expansive missions, the responsibility of the commander is to employ the force within the resources they have available. so we shouldn t confuse the need for more capability to expand the mission with what capabilities are provided to a particular unit at a particular time, if you understand the distinction i m trying to make. still need to be answered absolutely. i mean, look, there are two reasons to do the investigation. one reason is to make sure that we inform the families of the american people. and the congress, of course. the second is every time something like this happens, we
the second, every time something like this happens, we doon internal look at ourselves and find out what is it that we did? what could we do better? and then make changes based on what i would consider an after-action review. so that s fair. the other issue there are some in african command and some here in the pentagon that think the special forces are taking too many risks over there. yeah, tom, i think that would be speculation. here s what i m very clear on. i m very clear on the frahmwork within which this operation took place. what do their orders say? i don t have any indication right now to believe or to know that they did anything other than operate within the orders that they were given. that s what the investigation is all about. so i think anyone that speculates about what special operation forces did or didn t do is doing exactly that. they are speculating. in general, special operators in africa, are maybe taking too many risks. that s the sense of some in this buil