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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2019)
NATION/WORLD Saturday, January 12, 2019 East Oregonian A9 U.S. starts withdrawing supplies, but not troops, from Syria By ROBERT BURNS AP National Security Writer WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said Friday it has started pulling equip- ment, but not troops, out of Syria as a first step in meeting President Donald Trump’s demand for a com- plete military withdrawal. The announcement fueled concern about how quickly the U.S. will abandon its Kurdish allies, amid contra- dictory statements recently by administration officials on an exit timetable. The withdrawal began with shipments of military equipment, U.S. defense officials said. But in com- ing weeks, the contingent of about 2,000 troops is expected to depart even as the White House vows to keep pressure on the Islamic State group. Once the troops are gone, the U.S. will have ended three years of orga- nizing, arming, advising and providing air cover for Syr- ian, Kurdish and Arab fight- ers in an open-ended cam- paign devised by the Obama administration to deal the IS group a lasting defeat. Uncertainty over the tim- ing and terms of the Syria pullout have raised questions about the Trump administra- tion’s broader strategy for fighting Islamic extremism, including Trump’s stated intention to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan this summer. U.S. airstrikes against IS in Syria began in Septem- ber 2014, and ground troops moved in the following year in small numbers. The U.S. military has a limited network of bases inside Syria. Troops work mostly out of small camps in remote parts of the coun- try’s northeast. Also, U.S. troops are among 200 to 300 coalition troops at a garri- son in southern Syria known as al-Tanf, where they train and accompany local Syrian opposition forces on patrols Governor: No sign of security crisis at border with Mexico SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she saw no immediate evidence Fri- day at the U.S. border with Mexico of the security crisis described by President Don- ald Trump, as she pressed U.S. officials there for more information about conditions inside a short-term detention facility for immigrants. Lujan Grisham visited the border community of Sun- land Park and the Santa Teresa port of entry on a fact-finding mission before making fur- ther decisions about the ongo- ing deployment of New Mex- ico National Guard troops to reinforce border security. She was briefed by the National Guard and U.S. Cus- toms and Border Protection, but she asked for more exten- sive information, according to governor’s office spokes- man Tripp Stelnicki. “I wanted to see the sit- uation for myself,” said Lujan Grisham, relaying her impressions through a series of Twitter posts. “I still have questions, and I’m going to work through the data I’ve requested, so the deci- sions we make about the issues at our border are evi- dence-based, not political.” The governor repeatedly has expressed skepticism about Trump’s portrayal of immigration and border secu- rity situations amid the stand- off over federal funding for a border wall. That’s a sharp shift in out- look from the preceding gov- ernor of New Mexico, Repub- lican Susana Martinez, who deployed nearly 200 troops to the border in April and this week defended Trump’s call for a border wall as part of a deal to end the partial govern- ment shutdown. AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File In this Nov. 6, 2018, file photo, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, greets supporters in Honolulu. Democratic Hawaii Rep. Gabbard running for president in 2020 AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File In this April 4, 2018, file photo, a U.S. soldier sits on an armored vehicle behind a sand barrier at a newly installed position near the front line between the U.S-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council and the Turkish-backed fighters in Manbij, north Syria. to counter the IS group. Al-Tanf is on a vital road linking Iranian-backed forces from Tehran all the way to southern Lebanon — and Israel’s doorstep. Trump’s decision to leave Syria, which he initially said would be rapid but later slowed down, shocked U.S. allies and angered the Kurds in Syria, who are vulnera- ble to attack by Turkey. It also prompted the resigna- tion of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and drew criti- cism in Congress. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Dem- ocrat, called the decision a “betrayal of our Kurdish partners.” The U.S. military com- mand in Baghdad, which is managing the counter-IS campaign in Iraq and Syria, said Friday that it “has begun the process of our deliber- ate withdrawal from Syria,” adding that, for security rea- sons, it would not reveal timetables, locations or troop movements. Other U.S. offi- cials later made clear that the pullout did not yet include troops. The withdrawal plan, whose details are classified, includes bringing hundreds of additional troops into Syria temporarily to facilitate the pullout. These include troops to provide extra secu- rity for those who are prepar- ing to leave. The full with- drawal is expected to take several months. The USS Kearsarge amphibious assault ship is now in the region and could provide troops and equipment to support the withdrawal. U.S. troops are still work- ing with a partner known as the Syrian Democratic Forces to stamp out the last IS holdouts in the Middle Euphrates River Valley near the Iraqi border. Trump has asserted that the IS group in Syria is defeated, but others have said a continued U.S. military presence is neces- sary to prevent a resurgence of the group. Two weeks before Trump announced he was ordering a pullout, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. still had a long way to go in training local Syrian forces to stabilize areas rid- den of the IS group. He said it R ATE EW E R -F TON MIL would take 35,000 to 40,000 local forces in northeastern Syria to maintain security, but only about 20 percent had been trained. Another complication is the fate of hundreds of for- eign IS fighters being held in Syria. The U.S. doesn’t want these prisoners to be released once U.S. forces are gone, since they could rejoin the militant cause in Syria or elsewhere. There has been confu- sion over plans to implement Trump’s pullout order amid threats from Turkey to attack the Kurdish fighters, who are seen by Ankara as terrorists because of their ties to insur- gents within Turkey. On a visit to Turkish troops stationed near the Syrian bor- der Friday, Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, reit- erated that Ankara is “deter- mined” to fight Kurdish mili- tias it considers terrorists and said military preparations were ongoing. “When the time and place comes, the terrorists here will also be buried in the ditches and trenches they have dug,” he said. WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has announced that she is run- ning for president in 2020. Gabbard said in a CNN interview slated to air Sat- urday night that she will be formally announcing her candidacy within the next week. The 37-year-old Iraq War veteran is the first Hindu elected to Congress and the first member born in the U.S. territory of Ameri- can Samoa. She has visited early primary and caucus states New Hampshire and Iowa in recent months and has written a memoir that’s due to be published in May. Gabbard is joining what is expected to be a crowded Democratic field. Sen. Eliz- abeth Warren of Massachu- setts has already formed an exploratory commit- tee and is moving quickly with trips across early pri- mary states. California Sen. Kamala Harris, New Jer- sey Sen. Cory Booker and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sand- ers are all weighing their own presidential bids and are expected to announce decisions in the upcom- ing weeks. Former Obama administration housing chief Julian Castro plans to announce his run for the presidency on Saturday. Gabbard’s run would not be without controversy. In 2016, she alarmed fellow TER WA E E -FR TON MIL Democrats when she met with Donald Trump during his transition to president and later when she took a secret trip to Syria and met with President Bashar Assad, who has been accused of war crimes and genocide. She questioned whether he was responsi- ble for a chemical attack on civilians that killed dozens and led the U.S. to attack a Syrian air base. She said she doesn’t regret the trip and considers it important to meet with adversaries if “you are seri- ous about pursuing peace.” She also noted that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and said that she wanted to understand the evidence of the Syria attack. Gabbard was one of the most prominent lawmak- ers to back Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Her endorsement came in dramatic fashion, with her resigning as a vice chairwoman of the Demo- cratic National Committee to express her support. Asked last year whether she would still consider running if Sanders ran, Gabbard said Sanders is a friend and she didn’t know what his plans were. “I’m thinking through how I can best be of service and I’ll make my decision based on that,” she said. 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