MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI)

SUBJECTS: ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE, AFGHANISTAN

INTERVIEWER: ANDREA MITCHELL

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MS. MITCHELL: Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who serves on the Senate Banking Committee and on Armed Services as well, thanks for joining us, a lot to get into today.

First of all, let's talk about the stimulus bill. Do you have any indications on the Senate side that there may be some push backs from the House because you have no margin of error in the Senate in terms of the votes to get this passed.

SEN. REED: Well, I think, Andrea, it's always difficult trying to resolve agreements into writing detailed legislative language and I think that's what's going on now. There is still a pervading sense of confidence that the legislation will be completed, that we'll be able to move on it this week and hopefully the president, rather, will sign it as soon as he can and probably, hopefully, no later than Monday.

MS. MITCHELL: Let me turn to some of the really tough issues in Afghanistan. We had in the last 24 hours; we just now heard that a coalition service member was killed today. We had those attacks, the Taliban attacks, 20 dead in Kabul and real penetration, fighting penetration into the actual ministries, the ministries of government.

What does that tell you about the outlook in Afghanistan? The Senate Intelligence Committee is going to hear the threat warnings later today from Admiral Blair, the head of National Intelligence. What level of concern do you have about decisions going forward in Afghanistan?

SEN. REED: There are significant issues in Afghanistan; there is no way to avoid it. What we've seen over the last several years is a resurgence of the Taliban and we've also seen the inability of the government of Afghanistan to effectively spread its authority and its support for the Afghani people. The first step is to increase the size of our forces there and not to the sense of the surge in Iraq, but in order to just deal with the larger country in a very difficult terrain. But the second step is to coordinate all of our different agencies and also to get the government of Afghanistan to begin to be much more creative and much more effective.

It's a daunting challenge and we're seeing every day the signs of difficulty, operations in Kabul, attacks against our forces, Afghani forces, the diversion of weapons. Those are not good signs. But we have to, I think, sort of refocus our efforts and concentrate our efforts and get the cooperation of the government of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

MS. MITCHELL: Don't we have to define what the mission is? We hear from Secretary Gates that there could be an imminent decision on sending more brigades, some sort of surge similar to what worked so far, at least successfully in Iraq. But what is the mission? Do we expect democracy? Do we expect a central government, perhaps not the Karzai government, to be able to extend its reach beyond Kabul? What is the end goal for American forces and American policy in Afghanistan?

SEN. REED: Well, we have to prioritize our interests in Afghanistan, first, what we have to be able to effectively counter those radical elements, and frankly, they are along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we have to go after al Qaeda, we have to go after their supporters and the Taliban. I think we also have to increase the protection of the population and the availability of basic services of the population.

So this is a combined effort at the first level of trying to stabilize the country. The issue of whether or not Afghanistan will evolve very quickly into a democracy, I think is less important than making sure that people feel they're protected and they have access to basic services.

So my sense is we build on modest objectives initially, stability, countering terrorism and I think that will lead to, I think, in the future and not immediately, but in the future, to the ability to provide a better political framework for the people of Afghanistan.

MS. MITCHELL: Well, the GAO, the General Accountability Office has come out with a report saying that tens of thousands of weapons may now be in Taliban hands from U.S. forces. Are lost weapons going to be used against us and other NATO troops?

SEN. REED: I think it underscores the fact that while we have focused on major military forces, brigade combat teams, that some of other areas -- the training effort, the accountability effort, those very important but less obvious details have not been accomplished. I sense that some of it was the attention that was being paid in Iraq, and indeed, in Iraq we saw the same situation where weapons were unaccounted for. But that's no excuse. Giving unwittingly weapons to our opponents is not going to lead to success.

So it underscores what we have to do, it's not just more troops, it's better systems of accountability, it's better training of Afghani forces, better vetting of Afghani leaders, all of this has to be done and the other thing has to be done is we have to, once again, reengage our NATO allies. This is a NATO operation, as well as an American operation and part of Vice President Biden's message to our European allies was, we intend to do more, but you must do more and I think that message has to be accepted and acted upon by our European allies.

MS. MITCHELL: And finally, senator, it is somewhat surprising to some people, two-thirds of those polled by USA Today saying that there should be investigations into torture under the Bush administration and I know the president said he doesn't want to look back, he wants to look forward. He, obviously, has to worry about his relationship with the military and the CIA, but Senator Leahy and others are suggesting that there should be a truth commission and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of support for that in the White House.

Where do you stand?

SEN. REED: Well, I think we have to seriously investigate allegations of torture. I don't know if we require a formal, new commission to do that. We have the Department of Justice. We have federal attorneys. But we cannot simply ignore credible allegations. They have to be investigated and I think our political system and our political system, as well as our judicial system is strong enough to conduct these investigations fairly and then to bring those people who might have violated the law of justice. I don't think we should be afraid of that, but I think that should be in response to specific allegations of specific evidence and not simply setting up a new commission.

MS. MITCHELL: All right, Senator Jack Reed. Thank you very much.

SEN. REED: Thanks, Andrea.

MS. MITCHELL: Always good to see you.

END.

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