Secretary Mattis Press Gaggle en Route to Buenos Aires

Q: -- you used, we'll not stand idly by, we'll defend ourselves in
space.  Should one interpret that as meaning that you would respond in kind?
In other words, with military force? 

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES N. MATTIS:  No, no. I don't -- I don't
tell adversaries in advance what we will do or what we will not do.  We will
not stand idly by if someone tried to deny us the use of space; we will
protect that just like in any other domain. 

Q:  Okay.  So as I was writing that, I was thinking it sounds like
he's saying we would respond (inaudible).

SEC MATTIS:  (Inaudible) not stand idly by, but we -- there's a lot
of things you do in this world.  You've seen the way we have reacted to
North Korea's provocative missile shoots in order to react to it in such a
way that it went back into the diplomats' corner.  We reacted with
diplomacy, United Nations, economics sanctions -- economic sanctions -- you
saw all of that in use.

We did not stand idly by when we saw someone violating the United
Nations Security Council Resolutions office but I wouldn't read anything
more into it.

Q:  Okay.  Good.  I'm glad I asked.

SEC MATTIS:  Yes, yes, yes.  Really.  Yes, good.

Q:  Last night in the hotel, do you hear the shots near the favela?


SEC MATTIS:  I was not out, if that's what you're asking.

Q:  Was that you?

SEC MATTIS:  No, it -- remember, every time you hear one of those
shots somebody's life could be changing and so I didn't make light of it.  I
was sad to hear it, frankly, but the Brazilians are dealing with this.
They're trying to stop this, OK?

Q:  A lot of time you don't hear shots like this in no traditional
area or not in a -- that...

SEC MATTIS:  We have some cities in America that we know are
tragically having this problem as well.  This is -- this is what happens if
we don't keep -- I would call it, consensual policing, where the whole
community is helping police and able to keep the lawless elements at arm's
length.  This is not unique to Brazil; Brazil knows it has a problem.  It
came up in my discussions and we have the problem in cities in the United
States; we've seen the problem in London today.  I don't have any more
details on it than what I've seen from you all.

The military reporting's come in but we, too, don't have any
additional details.  But just look at this as how you hold civilization
together and -- and I don't, you know --

Q:  -- what were you told happened?  What were you told happened at
the hotel?

SEC MATTIS:  In where?

Q:  At the hotel?  Or outside the hotel...

SEC MATTIS:  Oh, I -- I -- I wasn't -- no, no, that's...

Q:  -- I know you weren't there, but I just wondered what you were
told.

Q:  Did you hear it real-time, sir?

SEC MATTIS:  Pardon?

Q:  Did you hear it real-time?

SEC MATTIS:  Yes.  

Q:  Me too.

Q:  May I ask you, Secretary, you were -- well, if you want to add
anything, sorry?

Q:  Yes, I just wondered -- I was just wondering what you were told
actually happened?

SEC MATTIS:  I didn't ask about it.  It was a local law enforcement
issue and I try to stay in my portfolio, you know, about it.  I -- it would
have been -- probably not a professional courtesy to ask about something
like that.  

Q: ... OK, OK.

Q:  ... you were quite tough today with regime of Nicolas Maduro and
you were talking about the leadership of Brazil on this issue.  What do you
expect Brazil to do exactly?  What's -- what do you want to see from Brazil?

SEC MATTIS:  From who?

Q:  From Brazil.

Q:  Brazil.

Q:  Yes, what -- when you talk about their leadership, what do you
expect to see from Brazil in this issue?

Q:  In the case of Venezuela.

SEC MATTIS:  Oh, Maduro?

Q:  Yes.

Q:  Yes.

SEC MATTIS:  Maduro.  You know, I don't want to -- I'd prefer not to
comment on this at this point and leave that in the diplomats' hands.
That's who's working this issue right now; it's not a military matter.

Q:  But you have talk about this issue with, like, your counterparts
during this trip?

SEC MATTIS:  Yes.  About how -- how to at an international group,
the Lima Group and the others who are working together, how to
diplomatically address this.

Q:  And are you -- and are you going...

Q:  But that's why I -- that's why I'm a little bit (facile ?);
Brazil one month ago said they were in favor of helping or -- against Maduro
but that they would refuse or reject any kind of military intervention.  So
I understand that's -- so I don't quite understand what is the Secretary of
Defense doing talking to the Ministry of Defense in this issue?

SEC MATTIS:  Yes, sure.  So, why were we talking about it?  Security
for their people is directly impacted by the refuge flows, by the violence
in one country.  It doesn't stop at the border.   We've all seen this in the
world.  So the resolution of this, and trying to get the -- back to
Democratic principles inside Venezuela, so people have a future, they have
economic stability and that sort of thing, is in the interest of all the
countries of the hemisphere, so that's why we were talking about.

Q:  Are you going...

SEC. MATTIS:  You've been patient.

Q:  Yes.  Are you going to talk about that issue in Argentina, too?
What's (inaudible) role for Argentina in the in Venezuela situation.

SEC. MATTIS:  Thank you.  Yes, the regime's actions in Cararacas are
of concern all across the hemisphere, from Ottowa to Buenos Aires.  This is
not what we stand for in -- in the Americas.   We stand for -- all of the
things I spoke about this morning, democracy, freedom.

We've all been through periods, some of us long, some of us more
recently, where people didn't have the personal freedoms at all, so we don't
take it cheaply.  So this is a matter of a lot of concern, of big concern
from the tip of South America all the way up to Canada.

Q:  Mr. Secretary, would you meet with Nicholas Maduro if -- if
there was an opportunity.  

SEC. MATTIS:  Yes, I'd prefer not to -- that's -- that situation is
firmly in the diplomats' hands right now.

Q:  Are you going to sign any kind of agreement in Argentina,
cybersecurity or something like that?

SEC. MATTIS:  Sergio, I don't think we -- no, what I want to do in
Argentina principally is do a lot of listening, find out what we can do to
help them as far as any G-20 issues as they prepare security for all of the
world's leaders that are coming, make certain that I know where their
military is looking, what direction they're looking in, I should say, for
their future transformation, the kinds of things that military to military
talk about, and we've not been working closely together for some time.  So
it's kind of an opening opportunity here.

Q:  You say the transformation that now the army is allowed to fight
with -- against terrorism and...

SEC. MATTIS:  This is why I need to go and talk with them. 

I mean, at one time we had worked closely together, as you know, and
you -- I don't want to be frozen in time thinking about these times in the
past.  I want to know where they're at today, and again, the kind of -- many
of the same issues, as you heard today at the War College in Rio.

Q:  Thank you, sir.  So... 

Q:  Anything on Afghanistan you can update us on, the Ghazni
situation?

SEC. MATTIS:  Yes, the fighting continues.  It looks like many of
the enemy have run.  But some are in the town in homes, fighting from inside
homes, with all the danger and the slowness that requires in order to get
them out without hurting innocent people.

Q:  Does it say anything too about their -- the Taliban's either
their capabilities or their intentions, having launched these attacks?

SEC. MATTIS:  Yes, it -- to me it's simply a continuation of their
willingness to put innocent people in harm's way; nothing new.  It's the
usual endangering civilians that's part and parcel of what they've done for
the last 20 years.

Q:  They used Apache helicopters apparently as part of the response.
Does that suggest they needed more help than usual, the Afghan forces?

SEC. MATTIS:  We'll -- we work together and -- you know, we bring in
NATO air support when it's -- there's nothing unusual about it, yes.  It's
more anytime you're fighting around innocent people -- I used the term this
morning, a battlefield when you're fighting among the people.  What British
(inaudible) generals called wars among the people.  Every battlefield is a
humanitarian field.

It is sometime -- often time a conventional war, too, but especially
so on counterterrorism when you have people who lack any kind of manhood,
would fight among innocent people, and use them for protection.

OK, I've got to go back to working you guys.  Good to see you.

Q:  Well, thank you for swinging by.  Thank you.  We really
appreciate that, sir.