Senator Clinton: Thank you very much for your service and your patience and I'm grateful to each and every one of you for the work you do.

It seems to me, Mr. Chairman that we have a number of extremely important issues before the committee that have been highlighted by various members. We have the budget, which is going to deserve and need a lot more scrutiny. We've heard a lot of talk about the percentage of GDP it is in comparison to the percentage of GDP in other wars and conflicts. I might also add the taxation rates were considerably different during those conflicts as well. We are not paying for the military that we want nor are we paying adequately for the global war on terrorism. So this budget is going to have to be scrutinized, but we're going to be faced with the dilemma of whether we are adequately funding our troops and whether we will pay for adequately funding our troops.

Secondly, we continue to have questions about how we ensure American troops are trained and equipped, something that I've raised in a series of our hearings with General Petraeus, Admiral Fallon and others, General Casey most recently, and I think you can hear Secretary Gates, we're still not satisfied. Both you and General Pace have responded to questions, starting with the Chairman's from the very beginning of this hearing, but there remains a considerable amount of anecdotal evidence about shortages. And I will be reading the Inspector General's Report later this afternoon, but from the reports that we have received, it appears that there was a lack of corporation, perhaps with appropriate officials in DOD and the chain of command, and trying to get to the bottom of whether or not we have adequate training and equipping of our troops. So this will continue to be an issue that I and others will pursue.

We also have heard about the need to enlist the entire government to participate effectively in the War on Terrorism and, as Senator Warner has said--I remember when he was on the floor introducing his bill and speaking about it--we actually have made a stab at this. I think it's fair to say none of us are either fully aware of or satisfied with what direction it has taken us and I think Senator Sessions suggestions are really serious ones and should be carefully considered by the Administration. We also, yes Sir.

Senator Warner: Senator, if you'd yield, I have here the reference to the legislation, and you co-sponsored that legislation together with Senator Lugar and myself.

Senator Clinton: Yes I did. That's exactly right. And we did under Senator Warner's leadership, passed that legislation, but it's clear that none of us has a handle on what, if anything has been done to implement it. So we really do wish to have some additional information and feed back on that.

We've also begun to examine--and I appreciate very much Senator McCaskill's lead on this--examine the way our government has outsourced so much of the work of preparing and defending our nation to private contractors, who may be, neither cost effective nor free of conflict. I think this will be a very important issue for this Congress that we will be exploring and again looking for assistance from you.

And finally, your words Secretary Gates. How we best incentivize the Iraqi Government? There are those who think that the era of carrots has got to end. That we've been, in effect, ignored by giving them a blank check and the blood and treasure of our nation, especially the lives of our young men and women and the injured that have come home with such grievous wounds and we don't believe that is an effective way to get their attention. This part of the world, which you have studied-- you're certainly part of the Iraq Study Group before being asked to be Secretary of Defense--you know very well-- I'm not sure carrots are part of the diet. So I think that many of us have been searching for more effective ways that can get the attention, not only of the nominal Iraqi Government, but of the sources that support it. And to that end, in addition to our concerns about the attack on Karbala and what that meant, and I appreciate General Pace referencing the likelihood that it was well-organized insurgents, which I translate to be Sunni elements. We also are concerned about the Madi Army Militia obtaining not only trained men, who we have trained, but also equipment. A recent article on February 2, McClatchy Newspapers entitled, 'Madi Army Gains Strength Through Unwitting Aid of US, The US Military Drive to Train and Equip Iraq Security Forces has Unwittingly Strengthened Sadr and His Militia.' So, these are deep concerns to us and we don't believe that we, at least speaking for myself, see much change in the testimony we hear, in the plans that are being implemented as to how we're going to get a handle on these very serious challenges.

But Mr. Secretary, I want to change direction just somewhat abruptly, because I want to ask you about a letter that on January 16, I and along with 21 of my colleagues, including several members of this committee, sent to President Bush asking for an explanation of what "Plan B" steps he was considering with respect to Darfur, including possible punitive military action, such as a no fly zone or blockade of Port Sudan. Obviously, we are facing, once again, the repeated and blatant violations of numerous cease fire peace agreements and UN obligations by the Government of President Bashir. It is worth noting, I think, that this does not need to be a no fly zone on the scale of what we formally ran over Iraq, but could be accomplished with a significantly smaller outlay of resources by directing punitive strikes against Sudanese planes known to have taken part in illegal bombing missions in Darfur. I've made this suggestion on several occasions to our NATO Commander in the past, and to others within the Administration, and I'd like to ask you if you have been instructed by the President to begin planning or preparing any such measure and whether or not you would look into that if you have not yet been asked to do so?

Secretary Gates: I have not been asked to. I would defer to General Pace in terms of whether the Joint Chiefs have done any contingency planning along those lines and I'm certainly willing to pursue it.

Senator Clinton: General Pace.

General Pace: I have not been asked to do that, Ma'am.

Senator Clinton: Well, I think that obviously from the perspective of many of us, the ongoing genocide in Darfur and the blatant refusal by the Sudanese government to act has been deeply concerning. We have about seven thousand African Union troops there. They are the sole line of defense for the hundreds of thousands civilians facing genocide. Twenty million dollars was included in the '07 Defense Appropriations bill to provide assistance to these troops. They are obliviously woefully under-funded, they don't have logistic support, they have no airlift capacity. I understand that the State Department, which has been administering all US funding going to the African Union troops, has requested that this new $20 million be transferred to them. Is your office considering that request and do you have an opinion, as the Secretary of Defense, whether that meets our desire having put this in the Department of Defense Appropriations rather than State Department Appropriations?

Secretary Gates: This is the first I've heard it Senator. I'll have to look into it.

Senator Clinton: Thank you. And finally Mr. Secretary, the FY '07 Defense Appropriation bill contains a provision I sponsored requiring the Department of Defense to submit a detailed report on the Department's role in assisting the parties to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement of May 5, 2006. The report is envisioned to contain information on issues of critical importance to stabilizing Darfur, such as an assessment of assets that the US Military and NATO are able offer the African Union mission in Sudan and any efforts made by the Department of Defense to leverage troop contributions from other countries to serve in the proposed hybrid AU-UN peace keeping mission for Darfur. This report was supposed to be available no later than January 15, 2007, that was 90 days after enactment of the bill, as of October 17, 2006. May I ask you Mr. Secretary, if you know the status of this report?

Secretary Gates: No Ma'am, but I'll find out.

Senator Clinton: And I would appreciate it being promptly delivered to me and to this committee. Thank you very much.