Update: U.S. Government Relief Efforts in Asia

11:09 A.M. EST

Real Audio of Briefing

MR. DENIG: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. This is our first briefing of the new year, and you will not be surprised that we have scheduled this briefing because of the horrific natural catastrophe that has occurred in Asia with the earthquake and the tsunami. And I think you have seen or heard some of the concerned responses from both American citizens and the United States government.

We're pleased this morning to be able to present to you a briefing focusing on the American government assistance to Asia, to the victims of this catastrophe, and very pleased to be able to welcome to our podium, first, Mr. William Garvelink from the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is the senior deputy administrator in charge of both the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance Teams and the Disaster Assistance Response Teams who are on the ground in Asia and who are actually in concrete ways providing the relief. With him is General John Allen, the principal director, Asia and Pacific Affairs, from the Department of Defense.

Each one of our briefers will have an opening statement to make, and after that they'll be very glad to take your questions.

Mr. Garvelink.

MR. GARVELINK: Good morning.

I think most everyone here has seen the pictures and read the newspaper articles over the past week of what's gone on as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, so I won't go into a whole lot of those details. I think there are situation reports that we have that will give the details in terms of funding and numbers for each of the countries where we're working and where the assistance is provided.

As you know, the number of dead stands at just over 140,000, and that number will continue to grow, most likely. Three to 5 million people are displaced and affected by the tsunami that occurred after the earthquake. Some areas, largely in the Aceh area, are inaccessible and we're still trying to get into those.

When the earthquake happened on the 26th of December, USAID began operating within hours. We were informed by the U.S. Geological Survey of the earthquake. Our embassies were also informed. And we got disaster declarations in from each of those affected countries, in our embassies there, which allowed us to begin operations. So within six or seven hours of our awareness of the earthquake and tsunami, we provided funds to each of our embassies and aid missions so they could begin initial operations.

We began mobilizing teams in the region, in the countries, as well as here in Washington.

Our operations center here, a block away, has been operating 24 hours a day since then. And we have begun moving supplies or began moving supplies from Dubai and from Pisa, Italy into the region. So there was a rather immediate response. Funds were provided to each of the countries.

In the past week, a lot has developed. Our contributions have grown by tenfold. The president committed $350 million to the emergency phase of this operation. We are receiving assessments from all regions that have been the most affected regions in all the countries, in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and -- who am I missing? -- the Maldives and Thailand. Our teams have expanded dramatically. They're on the ground. Supplies are arriving and being distributed. We are even looking into rehabilitation activities at this time, meaning job creation so we can stimulate the local economy.

So there's been a dramatic increase in activities over the past two days in terms of supplies, people on the ground, assessments, coordination. We have disaster assistance response teams throughout the region with a coordination center in Thailand. We are working very closely with our colleagues in the military and with the United Nations to coordinate the rather enormous amount of relief supplies that are now coming into the area and have to be distributed to the most at-risk populations.

And I think, with that, I may stop and turn it over to the general, and then respond to questions.

MR. DENIG: Thank you, sir.

GEN. ALLEN: Good morning. My name is Brigadier General John Allen. I'm the principal director of Asia Pacific Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Within minutes of our notification of this disaster, we began military planning to assist in the U.S. governmental response to this crisis. Our relationship with the U.S. government in this regard is that the lead for this is the State Department with USAID and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance on the ground through Washington, responsible ultimately for the coordination, the distribution and the forward movement of supplies. So we are in direct support of that regard. We are also working very, very closely with those other states that are contributing to ensure that we have effective coordination of the resources that are moving to the theater. As I mentioned, within minutes we began the planning. Within hours, U.S. forces began to move to the affected area.

At this juncture, if I may, I'll just indicate some of the locations of the forces. Just north of the island of Sumatra, off of Banda Aceh, is a carrier group, the Abraham Lincoln carrier group, which contains a number of -- 19 medium helicopters, the H-60 model; various versions of it, but it's the H-60. Coming soon up through Molucca is the expeditionary group known as the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Group.

The central ship in this grouping of ships is something that looks like an aircraft carrier. It has aboard 24 Marine helicopters. Embarked in that grouping of ships is the Marine Expeditionary Unit 15; 15th MEU you'll hear it referred to as. So it is coming with its helicopters as well. Also flowing to the region by surface is another grouping of ships, six ships called the Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Three. It is normally positioned in the vicinity of Guam. Very large container ships that have a large numbers -- large numbers of military equipment and capability. In particular, for this particular relief mission, those ships are valuable because they can produce tens of thousands of gallons of water in each ship per day. They can store up to 90,000 gallons of water. That water can be delivered from the flight decks on each of those ships. It can be pumped over the side into barges and further distributed by surface. Tremendous capability. Six of those are coming.

All of these resources, these surface water resources, are converging on the region. And as assessments and needs are finalized, they'll be distributed throughout the region so they can be most effectively used to help reduce the suffering.

As well, the United States Air Force has been responding with strategic airlift. At this juncture, C-5 and C-17 strategic airlifters are converging to the region. A number of C-130 tactical airlift -- intratheater airlift aircraft have arrived as well. And that process has delivered more than 430,000 pounds of supplies into the major airheads -- the airports -- in the region. And as those supplies move forward and as they are consolidated, the helicopters from Abraham Lincoln and soon the helicopters from the Bonhomme Richard will join in the process of moving those supplies forward to those areas that have been isolated because of the damage that has occurred to the infrastructure, the road networks and bridges and means for communication and so on, in the region.

So we have a strategic convergence of assets. We have in the theater a manipulation of those assets to address the need. And at the tactical level, we're using our helicopters to push those resources forward as best we can.

In terms of the organization, on the ground in Utapao in Thailand is Joint Task Force 536, and Joint Task Force 536 is commanded by a Marine general, and that command element is tucked in very closely with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. And they're working together to collate all of the needs, all of the requirements, and then orchestrate the use of the resources, all the U.S. government resources, to include the military, in the movement of our supplies forward.

As well, there is something called a U.S. Support Group. There are three of them now that have been created in the last 24 hours: one in Indonesia and Sumatra, it's called USSGI, or USSG Indonesia; one in Thailand, which will be located in Phuket; and one in Sri Lanka. And they will be the central element of the U.S. government response on the ground, which will seek to receive the supplies, work very closely with the country team, the U.S. ambassador and the ambassador's team on the ground, work very closely with the host nation -- because in the end it is their relief and their responsibility and we want to be part of the solution for them, work very closely with the host nation, work very closely with international organizations which are converging on the scene.

We are in dialogue with the World Food Program right now. We are in very close liaison and discussions with the United Nations. So while there is a significant U.S. government response and a major U.S. military force that has moved into the area to assist in this regard, it is a part of a much larger international effort to ease the suffering in this terrible disaster.

So with that, I'll stop talking as well, and perhaps the two of us can answer any questions you may have.

MR. DENIG: Good. I'll ask both of you to come to the podium, if you would, please; and remind you to please use the microphone, identify yourself and your news organization. Let's start on the left there with the lady, and then we'll move back to the middle.

Q Hi. I'm Deborah Zabarenko. I work for Reuters. For the general, thank you so much for those specifics. That's really helpful. But, just to show no good deed goes unpunished, I need a few more. How many vessels are we talking about, total number of personnel throughout the region, would be two useful facts, and also some notion of cost.

GEN. ALLEN: I'm sorry. I'll just locate myself here.

About 12,000 or so at this juncture.

Q Twelve thousand -- ?

GEN. ALLEN: Troops. Twelve thousand U.S. military personnel is the way we'll put it, because many of them, in fact most of them right now, are afloat aboard the Abraham Lincoln and aboard the Bonhomme Richard. In terms of vessels, we'll have to get the exact numbers, but the Abraham Lincoln, I believe, is a five-ship ARG, or a five-ship grouping, and the Bonhomme Richard is six ships. The core of the Bonhomme Richard are three amphibious ships, and they have flat tops. They have helicopter landing spots.

They also have landing craft as well.

In terms of cost, we are unable to estimate the cost at this juncture. But I will tell you that we will stay in very close consultation with the Office of Management and Budget and we will stay in very close contact with the Hill to ensure that we're constantly talking about the proper resources for this event.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the lady in the middle, please.

Q My name is Joyce Karam. I'm from Al Hayat newspaper, published in London. I wanted to ask you, how is the financial support determined? We've seen it climbing from 15 (million dollars) to 35 (million dollars) and lately 350 (million dollars). Are we going to see it going up? And is it -- do you coordinate it with other nations or other groups? And how is the process goes to go into that?

MR. GARVELINK: Well, our calculation of the amount of money that's required for the emergency phase of this response is based on assessments. And initially when an emergency like this happens, we free up a small amount of funds to be used very quickly by our embassies and aid missions on the ground to get our disaster assistance response teams under way and moving, to hire logistical support, planes and vehicles, to start supplies moving. So that's always something we do very quickly. It's never a very large amount of money. As we understand the extent of the emergency and the kinds of needs that are going to have to be responded to, the number goes up. So over the past week we've had a better and better sense of the requirements that we're going to be facing and that we expect to be facing, so the number naturally increases.

We talk all the time to our colleagues in the United Nations, the various agencies. We're working very closely with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, OCHA and the World Food Program to work with them and determine how they see the needs as well. The funding requirements that will come online very quickly right now will be with the nongovernmental organizations. They are in place, they've done their own assessments now, and they're preparing their project proposals. So the numbers will climb very quickly as we respond to those. So the 350 million (dollars) is what we think we need at this point for the emergency phase of our response.

MR. DENIG: Okay. Let's go to Germany up front here.

Q Michael Backfisch, Germany's business daily, Handelsblatt. It's a tremendous effort you're conducting right now, and how far are there political considerations? You know, there has been high criticisms of the war in Iraq, and how far is it the attempt of the United States to present itself as the benevolent superpower and to decrease the criticism of the past, especially in countries like Indonesia, which is a very important Muslim country?

MR. GARVELINK: Well, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of Food for Peace, which respond to these disasters on behalf of the U.S. government, and the Agency for International Development, are charged to respond to humanitarian needs wherever they occur in the world without regard to politics. That sometimes may be a little hard to believe, but these offices respond to humanitarian needs.

So when this happens and our initial teams got on the ground and began their assessments, we were responding to the needs as we see them, as the requirements are as become known to us.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the back there and go to Finland.

Q (Name and affiliation inaudible.) I don't know if you are ideal persons to answer this, but I ask it anyhow, about the two (thousand) to 3,000 reported missing Americans. Did you have any extra efforts in finding them? And what explains the relative calm in this country concerning these 3,000? There are 3,000 missing Swedes, and the Swedish government seems to think that almost all of them are gone.

MR. GARVELINK: We are -- I can speak for AID. I'll let the general talk for the Defense Department. But this is usually the responsibility of the State Department and Consular Affairs, so we really are not the organizations that are focused on Americans and their condition over there.

GEN. ALLEN: I have nothing to add.

MR. DENIG: I'll just mention for the State Department, the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department is actively looking at this and will try to keep track of this and do what they can.

Let's go to Russia in the front.

Q Dimitri Kirsanov (ph) of Russian News Agency, TASS. Gentlemen, it seems that the world is pledging a lot of financial resources to cope with this process. You have provided -- you've got huge military force in the zone of catastrophe. What are the biggest challenges that you face right now? Is it the destruction of infrastructure made by nature, or let's say some kind of cultural differences? What are the huge -- the biggest problems and challenges?

MR. GARVELINK: Well, I think in any natural disaster of this size, one of the -- several challenges come up, and they're not unique to this emergency. They may just be exaggerated because of the breadth and magnitude of the response.

Coordination and logistics are always major concerns when you start up a very large operation. All of a sudden you have lots of resources coming from lots of countries at the same time, and the airports aren't big enough, the ramp space isn't large enough to take the supplies, the warehouses aren't adequate to meet the need. So sorting all of that out initially among the various governments and the United Nations agencies is always a bit of a challenge. This is complicated in this situation because there are so many countries that are affected. A lot of infrastructure has been destroyed. Roads, bridges have been damaged. So it's very difficult to get the supplies once they arrive in country and they get sorted out to the places where they're most urgently needed. I think what we've seen in the past three or four days is the pace of the relief supplies coming into the region and being distributed has increased dramatically, but I think some of the basic problems are logistics and coordination.

One of the more -- larger concerns that we're worried about throughout the region now is infectious diseases and what may happen. There are shortages of clean water, and because of the loss of houses there are people congregated in displaced persons camps, living in several of the countries in very small buildings that don't have adequate water and sanitation supplies. So water and sanitation has to be fixed in general. And in the place where the displaced people are living, if that's not tended to, we could see some -- the expansion of communicable diseases. But that hasn't happened yet; that's just one of our concerns.

And then, General, you might want to --

GEN. ALLEN: I'll add that -- he has expressed it directly and correctly as well. The onrush of assistance has been tremendous. The world's response has been significant in every respect. And as these materials flow to the region, they can only be received in certain places. So for us, for the U.S. government as it responds, our desire is to work very closely with the countries themselves; work very closely with our embassy teams, led by our ambassador; work very closely with our own teams on the ground to ensure that as quickly as we can, as we receive the needs, as we identify requirements, as we attempt to orchestrate the transportation resources that we have, that we're able to move this out, to make it relevant, and to relieve the suffering and to reduce the stress of the communities.

There was significant damage to the infrastructure, the transportation infrastructure. So in certain places, the northwest coast of Sumatra for example, there was dramatic reduction in mobility. Very little can travel by surface at this point. So the helicopters from Abraham Lincoln and soon the other helicopters which will join will try as best it can to reduce those large amounts of supplies that are moving into Banda Aceh and Medan to ensure that we get them out as fast as we possibly can. As I said, if you look at what's happening from a strategic standpoint, the world's response, all of that is coming in to an area where, in the end, it's a matter of airports, and airports that are relevant and close. And the operational level is taking it from those major airheads and distributing it to smaller airheads, smaller air facilities. And then at the tactical level for us, the inner circle, it is taking those resources, getting them on the helicopters, flying them to the place where, again, in consultation with the host nation and our embassy team and our team on the ground, where we can have the greatest impact as quickly as we possibly can. It's not a precise science, and we're doing the best that we can.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the gentleman almost all the way in the back, please.

Q Miroslav from Czech Radio. I would like to know -- the Los Angeles Times reported that the helicopters had some tough time because the people start to be aggressive/desperate. Are there any areas where you were asked to ensure also the security situation in some of these countries? Are you participating in this, or in the future do you plan to help with the security in some of these regions?

GEN. ALLEN: I'll take that.

Our intent is for the countries themselves to do that, and we'll work very closely with the countries in terms of the delivery of the supplies. When something like this happens, people's lives are changed instantaneously and the fabric of society as they know it is dramatically changed. So one of the challenges that these countries will face will be to attempt to restore the social norms that these people have expected. And as we work closely with them, we'll have helicopters that will move towards a village or towards a concentration of people, and some of them haven't seen any relief come, just simply because of the sheer numbers of helicopters that we have and the fact that we've just not been able to get to them yet. So we do see some people who have been reduced to an existence of desperation. They'll rush the landing zones.

There is no intent on our part -- we are very, very careful about this -- that anyone else be harmed as a result of the delivery of these supplies. So we'll try to land in the landing zone, but if we can't we'll try to land nearby. And if we can't, we'll find a place where we can drop the supplies, but that's the last option that we typically explore, where the people can go and get those supplies. But once again, we rely very much on the nation itself that we are attempting to assist. We rely on them to assist us in that process.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the gentleman in the middle, please.

Q Roger Mitton, Singapore Straits-Times. I'm still not sure why your response to the disaster was so slow, particularly in Aceh. It seemed to take you three or four days to appreciate the magnitude of it. Did you not have overflights or satellite pictures? I mean, how come the U.S. took so long to appreciate this?

MR. GARVELINK: Well, first of all, I guess I would disagree with that. I don't think it took us very long to appreciate the extent of the problem. It took us a while to get there because it's a long way for people and resources to fly.

We hear of any earthquake and tsunami very quickly from the U.S. Geological Survey. That's reported to us. It's reported to our embassies around the world. So we were aware within hours of when the event happened of what had happened.

Now the extent of it took a little longer. We got people from our embassies out in the field as soon as possible to see the situation.

Aceh is a very difficult place to get to. It's very far away from the capital. It was heavily damaged, so you couldn't fly in there regularly, you couldn't get around, so it took a little bit longer than normal to get on the ground and begin assessments, because you really do have to be on the ground to see what happened to the structures and what happened to the people to get a clear sense of what the medical needs are, the health requirements, public health requirements are, the shelter requirements and that sort of thing.

So within 24 hours we had operations set up -- operation centers set up here in Washington as well as in the field. We had initial Disaster Response Teams on the ground and reporting back to us. We started supplies moving from our warehouses in Dubai and Pisa, Italy, into the region. And over a few days, we increased those teams in size and in terms of expertise to get a better understanding of what's going on on the ground. The U.N. agencies and our colleagues in the military were doing exactly the same thing to get a better handle on the situation.

So I don't think the response was slow. It's complicated, it's difficult, it's a long ways away, it covered a number of countries, which is unusual, and the devastation was quite dramatic.

GEN. ALLEN: And I would simply add that the forces that we had that were available were immediately put to work. They were sent in that direction, the carrier Abraham Lincoln and her supporting ships, the Bonhomme Richard was immediately sortied in that direction, the Maritime Prepositioning Ship squadron is en route still. It received orders to sail within hours. So there was an immediate response, but the distances that these ships have to travel and you're only making 20 knots at best speed in many cases is significant.

And I will tell you that within 24 hours of Abraham Lincoln coming on line, her helicopters were in the air picking up supplies and delivering supplies to the needy people that were on the beach elsewhere. So as soon as our forces were made available, they were able to.

And of course we do this in conjunction with the host nations themselves. And I know that our embassy was -- in Indonesia and in other places our embassy staffs were working very closely with the host nations to try to get an assessment, but as you know, the assessment coming out of northern Sumatra was difficult to grasp; I mean the sheer magnitude of it. And having grasped that magnitude, the forces that we put in motion the moment they had become available, the Abraham Lincoln and the other groups that are coming in, those forces -- the capabilities and the capacity of those forces are being brought to bear.

C-130 aircraft -- United States Air Force C-130 aircraft were loading almost immediately and heading into the area, bringing in the kinds of equipment that they would need. Units that were stationed in the region were given a warning order almost immediately to pack up and get ready to go.

So it was within minutes we were planning, and it was within hours that we were moving. And the moment that our forces were able to begin to have their capabilities be felt, they were playing in the process. But again, it's a collaborative process, it's not a unilateral process. It's a collaborative process.

MR. DENIG: All right, let's go to Canada in the middle, please.

Q It's Tim Harper from the Toronto Star of Canada. Just so I'm clear, on the ground who ultimately has the final say in making some of these logistical decisions, where the aid goes? Is this a United Nations decision or is it a U.S. decision by dint of sheer numbers and size of the relief effort?

MR. GARVELINK: I think if we're talking about U.S. resources, it is ultimately a U.S. government decision, in coordination with the country team, which is the embassy and the AID mission and the other parts of the U.S. government, with the United Nations, who also has a team on the ground, and then the host government is very involved in where the resources go, what kinds of resources are required and that sort of thing. So it's a collaborative effort. We want to make sure that we're not duplicating activities, and the only way to do that is to coordinate very closely with the host government, the NGOs, the U.N. agencies and other donors.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to Japan, the far left gentleman.

Q Thanks. My name is Owada (sp). I am with Japan's Mainichi Newspaper. General, I think you've said that two additional ship groups are approaching the affected area, and I want to know approximately when that will be. And my second question is about the earthquake warning you said you received from USGS immediately after the earthquake. After receiving the earthquake warning, did you disseminate any warning related to possible tsunami threat to, for example, American diplomatic and military personnel in the region, and did you contact with local governments in the affected countries in the same regard? Thanks.

MR. GARVELINK: Well, in general the way -- we have an arrangement with the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanographic and -- NOAA agency, and when there are natural events like earthquakes and tsunamis, there is a reporting system that once they're alerted, they have their network where they alert everybody in the network to what they know, and that worked normally and we were informed as events transpired, as were our embassies in the region.

GEN. ALLEN: With respect to the effect of the ships that are coming, we hope that the Bonhomme Richard will begin to be able to provide assistance, the Abraham Lincoln, within about the next 48 hours. And the Maritime Prepositioning Ship squadron is still several days out.

MR. DENIG: Okay. The lady on the left there, in the pink. The lady in the pink.

Q Daya Lin (ph) of the World Journal. The general mentioned about U.S. had -- or you had moved within hours, and I'd like to know whether U.S. has conducted any S&R mission over this -- search and rescue?

GEN. ALLEN: We deployed immediately several different kinds of airplanes or several versions of the same airplane, the P-3, which is a long duration -- what we call a maritime patrol aircraft. It's a four-engine prop-driven airplane that has many, many hours of duration on station. In conjunction or in coordination with the host nations, we began to fly disaster assessment missions in conjunction with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand and Indonesia, and the idea was to get aircraft up over the area to provide information back so that we could make a more accurate assessment. So those were the kinds of resources that were made available, and those aircraft moved to the region very quickly and they began flying missions very quickly.

Q U.S. wasn't conducting search-and-rescue mission at all?

GEN. ALLEN: I can't address that specifically. If we were asked, we would certainly, you know, consider responding to that. But again, forces immediately available was the problem. We just had no forces there. And so as quickly as we could -- clearly those that can get there most quickly are particularly our aircraft and the long- range aircraft, so that's why the C-130s were flowing and that's why the P-3s were flowing very, very quickly, to get there so that they could be relevant. The P-3s, the unique capabilities that the P-3s bring, is that they can provide queuing -- they can provide information back where search and rescue might be required. And that was the intent, that they would do two things. One is disaster assessment -- picking up information, sending it back so that assessments could be done -- and the other would be search and rescue in the sense that providing information on those people that may be in distress, where host nation or local capabilities could be brought to bear for rescue purposes. So that was the intent. I cannot tell you specifically whether any of that information was used.

MR. DENIG: Bill can address the on-the-ground -- (off mike) -- Fairfax and L.A. County -- (off mike).

MR. GARVELINK: Yeah. In part of our disaster assistance response teams, our groups who have arrived in the area from the Los Angeles County Fire Department search and rescue and from the Fairfax County Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue Team. So we have six people from each in the region, and they're looking at the structural problems and the search-and-rescue requirements on the ground in the countries. I think one team is in Sri Lanka and the other team is in Indonesia.

MR. DENIG: I think we have time for just one or two more. Let's take the lady in the blue sweater here, please.

Q Denya Rahim (ph) from Voice of America Indonesian Service. I have two questions. First, you mention about a huge amount of troops down in the field right now in Aceh.

My question is, is there any specific reservation toward this huge amount, given Aceh used to be -- there was martial law, and it was just revoked two days after the disaster? That's my first question.

My second: How long do you think the disaster -- the OFDA handle this before you transfer to other office under AID, like (counseling ?) -- you know, OTI or something? Thank you.

GEN. ALLEN: I'll take the first one. Perhaps I wasn't specific enough. Most of those forces -- I said about 12,000 or so -- most of those are afloat. They are not on the ground.

There are some forces that are on the ground, and they are specifically and generally at airheads. And they're responsible for loading, unloading aircraft, to ensure that the -- in a small command post in Medan -- to ensure that those elements go forward, those disaster relief supplies go forward.

But the preponderance of American service members that are in supporting the relief in Indonesia right now are afloat aboard Abraham Lincoln. And as Bonhomme Richard closes, we'll -- that number includes -- the 12,000 includes that number as well -- they'll be afloat aboard Bonhomme Richard as well.

We don't help anyone if we put a lot of people on the ground, in terms of numbers of just compiled -- piling up. What we try to do -- and this is one of the unique advantages of having so much afloat -- is that we don't make it -- make the infrastructure even more congested. So the helicopters that would come in and be moving supplies forward -- they'll go back to their ships, as opposed to having to land at airports. So that leaves parking areas at the airports. That leaves other areas -- they can refuel out at their ships -- that leaves other areas open.

So we'll put some service members on the ground for the command element that's at Medan, the U.S. support group. And there will be service members that ride along on the aircraft to provide crew and additional distribution of supplies, needed supplies.

But we will not see a large signature of American service members on the ground, because in this case, we're able to keep most of them afloat. And that's a good thing, because it reduces the congestion and the impact on the infrastructure.

(You got it ?)?

MR. GARVELINK: It's hard to say how long OFDA will stay active in the region. Right now OFDA is the focal point of our response to provide emergency life-saving assistance. But at the same time, our folks who think about rehabilitation assistance and long-term development assistance are engaged in planning. We're working very closely, again, with the country team, the aid mission, the host country, the U.N., and we're all -- even though we're all responding at this particular moment to the emergency needs, you can't do that independent of your planning for transitional assistance or for longer-term development assistance.

We're already talking to people about job creation, the restoration of livelihood so that we can get people back to work and get the economy going again, and helping clean up the place. We can hire people for that, and that will get money into people's pockets, even though their normal jobs may have been lost for the time being.

So while we're doing the emergency response -- and that may be the most visible thing we're doing at the moment -- we're also very engaged in planning for transitional assistance and for the long-term development assistance with all the players who would normally be involved in those sorts of activity.

MR. DENIG: Okay, one last quick one from Reuters here -- excuse me, from Russia.

Q From Tass. General Allen, I wanted to clarify one point. If, God forbid, the situation in one of those affected countries would become even worse, if desperate people would start storming food depots, looting would start, the taking of U.N. personnel, things like that, is there a possibility of U.S. military personnel actively engaging in this situation to, you know, calm it down? I assume you must have discussed these issues with host governments.

GEN. ALLEN: Well, we're there to help; in every respect we're there to help. And we take our lead in so many of the issues associated with the society and the people from the country itself. And in all of the cases where we have begun to provide assistance, we have worked very, very closely with the host nation to ensure that the effectiveness of the delivery is ensured, but also to ensure the security of the delivery. So we're there to help, and to the maximum extent we can, we're going to be a factor for success and not a factor to complicate the situation.

And I cannot emphasize enough how closely we will be working with our country team, under the leadership of the U.S. ambassador that is on the ground, and the ambassador working closely with the host nation to ensure that everything we do is closely coordinated, and everything we do helps to support the needs of that country. That's very important to us that the countries are tied in at every level with us to ensure that this is an effective evolution.

MR. DENIG: Mr. Garvelink, General Allen, thank you very much.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

END.