Gates Q&A Iraq

Study on use of civilian contractors…use of contractors grew "willy nilly" in Iraq after 2003…all of a sudden we had a very large # of people over there…inadequate capacity to monitor them…elements of training had been contracted out...parts can be done properly and less expensively with private contractors but again it had grown without any supervision or coherent strategy on how we were going to do it and without conscious decisions about what we will allow contractors to do and what we won't…didn't think holistically or coherently about use of contractors particularly when it comes to combat environments or combat training…those are area's need to focus on first.

Draw down plan by Gen. Ray Odeirno….doesn't for see needing to add troops/go back in…sites in Iraq where not only our military forces would be consolidated but also our contractors would be focused as well so we can provide them protection…expects plan to be satisfactory to transfer 15,000 prisoners from Camp Booka(sp).

President Obama will hear directly from senior commanders -ground commanders.
Hear from all ground commanders directly to inform his opinion.