UNITED STATES
PACIFIC COMMAND

Gen. Zahidi: Firstly, I would like to say thank you to all of you for being here and the attention you have given over the last two days over Admiral Dennis C. Blair’s visit to Sabah, specifically to the Op Pasir area. Before I invite questions from the audience, I wish to inform you that his presence here is on the invitation of our Defence Minister made during his visit to Kuala Lumpur in November last year. The Minister invited Adm. Blair to view personally how Ops Pasir is being carried out in Sabah.

Since yesterday, he was not only given the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the 5th Infantry Brigade at Lok Kawi Camp but also given a detailed briefing on Op Pasir by the Commander of the 1st Infantry Division, Commander of the 5th Infantry Brigade, Naval Commander Region Two and Commander, 4th Air Division. During the briefing they discussed and exchanged ideas on the deployment of US troops in Zamboanga, Philippines. After that, Adm. Blair, myself and all commanders went to Tawau, Semporna and the islands involved in Op Pasir.

During the briefing at Lok Kawi Camp yesterday, the Sabah Police Chief, Dato’ Ramly was present and we had a closed door discussion on the present situation. That was briefly what took place yesterday.

So just to make our guest here, Admiral Dennis Blair, he is the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Command. He is based in Honolulu, Hawaii. And we are very fortunate that Admiral Dennis Blair was to find time in his very tight schedule to come and visit, to accept our invitation to come and visit us in Kota Kinabalu and in particular Op Pasir which is conducted on the island as well as the on the disposition of the coast of Sabah.

So with that I would like to invite my good friend here Admiral Dennis Blair to say his words.

Adm. Blair: Thank you very much, General Zahidi. It's been a wonderful visit, albeit it too short.

This is my fourth visit to Malaysia since becoming Commander in Chief of Pacific Command, and I am very happy to be able to come here to Sabah to talk to the soldiers and the sailors and the airmen and their commanders here in the field. My previous visits have been to Kuala Lumpur talking with officials, and I find that you don't really get to know one of your partners until you see the people in the field doing their work, so this was a wonderful visit from my point of view.

Receiving briefings on Operation Pasir and then going to, from here to Tawau then to Samporna then out to Danawan and Pandanam Islands and to see the soldiers on their posts, to be traveling in the helicopters and C-130s with the airmen doing their jobs, and then to ride on the boats with the sailors and the young officers who were patrolling was a very good opportunity. I can say that I'm very impressed by the operation, by the organization, the equipment, the skill and the dedication of the Malaysian servicemen and their officers that I saw and talked to.

I was also very impressed by the cooperation with the police forces, since this is clearly an effort in which all of the security forces are cooperating together, and that's so important to be successful.

It's clear that the Malaysian Armed forces and the other security forces take seriously the safety and security of the Sabah coast after those two incidents two years ago and are doing an extremely good job of protecting the coastline and keeping the citizens safe.

I was reminded when I was talking with these fine Malaysian service people of the recent movie that appeared in my country called Black Hawk Down which talks about a tough incident in the recent military history of my country. And I just want to say that we in the Pacific Command have the highest praise and appreciation for the role that the Malaysian Armed Forces played in rescuing our Rangers and Special Forces on that long night in Mogadishu. And in fact one of my predecessors, Admiral Larson, came here to Malaysia following that incident and presented awards to Malaysian soldiers who had been involved in that operation. So I think it's important, and I told my colleagues here, that movies are movies but those of us in uniform understand the ties that have been forged in blood between the armed forces of the United States and those of Malaysia.

Let me also say that in my previous visit to Malaysia at the end of last year that the support and the work that Malaysia itself has done in our common battle against international terrorism has been exemplary. The aggressive arrests and investigations of groups within Malaysia, the information that has been shared by the Malaysian security forces with our authorities so that we know what the situation is and we can take better measures to make our sailors safe when our ships visit, so that we can piece together this worldwide intelligence picture so that we can destroy these international terrorists who threaten us all is extremely important and the actions by Malaysia have been a very strong part of this region's response to the terrorist attacks. We look forward to continuing and increasing those in the future because the way that we're all going to win against these terrorists who attack our innocent countrymen is by unprecedented cooperation within our governments and between our security services in order to make our regions and our citizens safe.

General, if there are any question --

Gen. Zahidi: Any questions for him?

Question: What is your impression of Operation Pasir?

Adm. Blair: I was very impressed by Operation Pasir but my Malaysian colleagues told me that they are not completely satisfied themselves, that there are additional measures that they are planning to implement. There are continuing improvements in both equipment and efficiencies which they anticipate even better cooperation with the Philippines and with Indonesia. So no military commander is satisfied.

I think the measure of success, though, has been that there no more hostages taken in this area since this operation was undertaken, and that certainly speaks for itself. But those of us in uniform are never satisfied with where we are. We always try to take it to a better and higher level and I certainly sense that same sort of professional approach by the Malaysian officers that I talked to.

Question: I am happy you saw what has been implemented on Sabah’s east coast. But at the same time the U.S. State Department I gather has renewed its travel warning. Will you report your finding?

Adm. Blair: I certainly will report what I saw to my government and that will be one of the factors that we consider. But I think we have an embassy representative here. I'm not familiar with the travel advisory in particular.

Mr. Whitaker, do you have that information?

Mr. Whitaker: A travel advisory is in effect for the islands we are speaking about. That advisory remains in effect.

Adm. Blair: That's a fact. But I certainly will report what I saw and the fine security measures being taken, and then we'll see how the process works after that.

Question: The timing of your visit is very, very interesting to us here simply because the Balikitan Exercise with the Philippines Armed Forces begins, I think today. So it is a very interesting timing. Sir, with respect to the presence of the American troops in Zamboanga and perhaps later in Basilan, what and who are the targets in this operations from coming and trying to make attempts to make use of the normal routes to escape.

Adm. Blair: Sure. We all know where the kidnappers came from back in 2000.

I can tell you that when I talk with our Philippine allies, and I visited Zamboanga last year and have talked with the Philippine leadership about it. Their objective is not to drive away the Abu Sayyaf Group but it is to destroy the Abu Sayyaf Group where it is. So they are very much looking to identify, surround and capture the group.

I think the days are past where we can simply sort of push threats from one area of our region to another area and think that we have solved the problem. The mobility of terrorists these days, the open nature of our societies, the freely available kind of information means that the terrorists can zip around the region and in fact the world.

So the key is making our own security within each of our own areas, but then coming together so that we work together to make the entire area safer for all of our people, and that's certainly the approach that we take in the United States. That's the approach that I've discussed with the officers we work with in the Philippines. I've also had the same discussions with officers in Singapore and in other regions. So I think we're all working together to capture these international criminals, not simply to dump our problem on a neighbor.

Question: You make the exercise in six months?

Adm. Blair: Our President has told us clearly that our effort against international terrorism will last for as long as it takes. I think the six month period that we have set for the current phase of our operations with the Philippines is a good start to get the programs in place, then we'll reevaluate it and see at that time. But from the American point of view the war against terrorism does not have an end date, it has an end state, From talking with our partners here in Malaysia that certainly seems the way that you are approaching it. It's not a time, it's a mission objective.

Gen. Zahidi: Just to reinforce what Admiral Dennis Blair mentioned about the exercise, the worry that they may be escaping, or rather the Abu Sayyaf may be running away and trying to escape into Malaysian waters. There is already an established link, a link between the Malaysian Armed Forces and the Philippines Armed Forces. Definitely if there is any information or intelligence of such a nature, it would definitely be sent to us while we are continuously implementing the roles as envisioned in Op Pasir. So that is one part.

The other part here is that we have already proposed to the government of the Republic of the Philippines on the safe routes.

There are seven designated groups for our friends the other side, from the Philippines to come down, formally to come down to visit us, so they should be these designated routes. While saying that they would be in a location where some of our friends may not be using the routes. So this is where the patrols by our navy,around the various islands that's almost across the Malaysian and Philippine waters would be concentrating on this likely group to be able to nab any elements of Abu Sayyaf who have escaped from the operations that are conducted with the United States and the Philippines you mentioned.

Adm. Blair: Let me give you a good example of the sort of international cooperation that's necessary which occurred in the last couple of weeks. There was a terrorist of Indonesian nationality who was identified in Singapore. He was in Singapore to attack American targets. He fled to the Philippines. The government of Singapore gained information it passed to the Philippines. The Philippines arrested him, found explosives and weapons that he had purchased in the Philippines. The Indonesians sent a detective team to further interrogate them and develop more information.

And this is the way I think we're going to have to operate against these groups in the future. They move around, they have connections throughout the region and throughout the world. They attack all of us. It's by this sort of police, military, intelligence, diplomatic, relentless pursuit of individuals and cells that we're going to make all of our citizens safer.

I think we have examples in this region involving all of the countries who are here that show us the way that we can be effective.

One thing we haven't talked enough about in this campaign against the Abu Sayyaf Group is the economic development aspects of it that are important for a long term solution. In fact I talked here in Sabah with my Malaysian colleagues about the importance of that.

When you hear Mrs. Arroyo talk, President Arroyo, she talks about the war on terrorism and the war on poverty and realizes that they are both part of the same war. There is a very strong economic development package, both by the Philippine government and supported by my government which will be directed towards the southern Philippines.

So the important thing is to remove these criminal elements who are -- They're taking more Philippines hostages than any other kind of hostage if you look at the numbers. They're terrorizing their own people. They must be taken care of from a security point of view and then there must be economic development in the southern Philippines so that the people have a reason to stay in their country and feel that the government is providing them not only security but also a livelihood. This is going to be the long term solution in the southern Philippines, and it's what I've heard President Arroyo talking about very eloquently.

Question: Admiral, do you plan on establishing bases in the Philippines?

Adm. Blair: I think it's important to say what we are doing in the Philippines and what we're not doing in the Philippines. What we're not doing is establishing permanent bases. We have no need, intention or desire to have permanent bases in the Philippines as we had in the past.

What we are doing is providing various forms of support and assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines so that they can accomplish their mission of security in the region and success against the Abu Sayyaf Group. This includes equipment, training, provision of advisors operating with Philippine forces, but in support of Philippine forces -- not as separate units.

It's this provision of support and assistance that will enable the Philippine forces to be successful. That's really what it's all about from our point of view.

I think that is our last question.

Gen. Zahidi: We’ll take on last question at this time.

Question: About civilians running to the neighboring countries. So what action is to be taken?

Gen. Zahidi: What has been said by Adm Blair just now is what is possible, but they would try to contain or limit their operations on Abu Sayyaf to the specific areas occupied by Abu Sayyaf. But even then, most probably, the elements of Abu Sayyaf may run out or the civilians may come out. This is where we will guard ad tighten our patrolling to make sure hat those without letters of consent are prohimbited from entering our waters. This will be checked through patrolling by our Army, Navy, the Air Force and Police continuously to carry out the respnsibilities based on the operatioins carried out.

I think that is specifically all.

I would like to say here once again, thank you very much to Admiral Dennis Blair for coming over. I would like to assure the Malaysian government supports fully all the steps taken by the United States in fighting terrorism. Therefore we will in whatever way we can help in exchanging intelligence, in exchanging information, working together, we will continue ensuring that terrorism throughout the world today will be destroyed once and for all.

With that, once again Admiral Blair, thank you very much for your very enlightening responses to the questions by the media, and once again thank you very much for coming over to visit us.

Adm. Blair: Thank you for your hospitality, General. A wonderful visit. Thank you.