Jacky Rosen Presses Spec Ops Official About Continued Efforts To Prevent An ISIS Resurgence

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) questioned General Bryan P. Fenton, the Commander of the United States Special Operations Command, about U.S. military efforts in Syria.

Transcript

00:00Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator Shaheen. We'll move to Senator Rosen. Well, thank you, Chairwoman

00:05Ernst, Ranking Member Slotkin, for holding this hearing. It's very important. I'd also like to

00:09thank General Fenton and Mr. Jenkins for testifying today and for your service. Excuse me, I'm going

00:15to scoot in a little bit here. Service to our nation. I want to talk about special operations

00:21forces in Syria because the U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF, they share an

00:29interest in preventing an ISIS resurgence in northeastern Syria. Any escalation in the region,

00:36which is Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, and the central government in Damascus engage

00:40military with the SDF would lead to instability that we know ISIS could exploit. That is extremely

00:49concerning, as is the possibility that such instability, combined with destabilizing efforts

00:55from Iran and its proxies could cause SDF personnel guarding ISIS prisons and displaced persons

01:02camps to leave their posts in order to defend their territory. This would open the door to

01:07the possible escape of captured ISIS fighters and their families, as we saw that just play

01:12out in 2019. So, General Fenton, given our SOF partnership with the SDF and the Defeat ISIS campaign,

01:20including security training and assistance, what are SOF and the SDF doing to prevent breakouts

01:26from SDF-run prisons and displaced persons camps to ensure that captured ISIS fighters and their

01:32families do not return to the battle space? I know this is a question that geographically pertains

01:39to CENTCOM, but are troops performing these counterterrorism missions are special operation forces?

01:45Senator, I think the very first thing we do is partner with our SDF partners. It's almost

01:54a decade now, and I can get back and certainly provide written on the record how long we've

02:00done it, but I think it's about a decade, is disrupt, degrade, and work to defeat ISIS in Syria.

02:06It's a threat, certainly, to the United States, as we've laid out before, and many of the committees

02:12have come before you have talked about it. But I think the first thing we do is disrupt and degrade

02:17ISIS along with SDF counterparts. That certainly vectors into protecting the prisons and the camps.

02:25And I think that, you know, if you look at it, that's keeping improvised explosive ISIS bombers from

02:32attacking those, creating a level of, or opportunities for breakout. That is taking action in places that

02:42may not be close to the camps, but we know have planning going on in the camps. So I think there's

02:45many things your SOFT team is doing along with our SDF partners to, first and foremost, and that is the

02:51mission, disrupt and degrade and diminish ISIS as per the CENTCOM and SECDEF direction, and also protect

02:58those camps from a breakout and a prison as well. Thank you. And I'm going to direct this question

03:04to both of you, staying on the same topic, because how does a continued elimination of ISIS leadership,

03:09and which SOFT you have accomplished time and time again, impact ISIS ability to plan and carry out

03:16attacks on U.S. forces and SDF-front prisons and displaced persons camps? And what are we doing more

03:22specifically to degrade Iranian-aligned militias from attacking or attempting to attack U.S.

03:28and coalition forces? And Mr. Jenkins, we can start with you and go on to the general, please.

03:34Thank you, ma'am. And we see all those problems clear-eyed for sure, and thank you for sharing

03:40that concern with us. As General Fenton alluded to, looking at what SOFT can control, what we can do

03:46in this space, we take that very seriously. We are at the leading edge to make sure that our SDF

03:51partners can maintain control of those prisons, that they can repatriate where appropriate and when

03:57possible, so that we can decrease the population of potential breakout and under difficult situations.

04:04And then in terms of decreasing malign influence, we have to make sure that, similar to China,

04:09that we are deterring wherever possible, whether it's at the level of armed conflict or below with

04:15irregular warfare. We have the ability and lots of tools across the spectrum to make sure that we

04:20are deterring them from being in the battle space where they want to be and where they're trying to be.

04:25Thank you. General Fenton, anything to add?

04:27Senator, I would offer on the ISIS piece, I think is very important, as you've alluded to,

04:33to keep the pressure on ISIS by degrading their leadership, their operational, the operational

04:39experience personnel, the communicators, financiers, all these things come together for attacks not only

04:46in the Middle East, but also in Europe and against our homeland. ISIS is an ex-ops threat. So I think

04:58that is the multiple responsibility for your special operations teammates, not only ISIS,

05:06al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda, but getting after these layers is really important to keep any of those

05:11terrorist groups from being able to plan and execute a DACA on the homeland.

05:16Thank you. I'll yield back, but I'm going to actually ask a question for the record about the

05:21Houthi relations with al-Shabaab, so I'm glad you brought that up because it's critically important

05:25we discuss that as well. Thank you.

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