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Skriven 2005-06-06 23:33:02 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0506062) for Mon, 2005 Jun 6
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Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 6, 2005

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Ft. Lauderdale, Florida




10:34 A.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: All right, good morning, everybody. Let's see -- the
President had his usual briefing a short time ago aboard Air Force One.

I want to also make -- bring your attention to one announcement today.
Secretary Leavitt is going to be making an announcement on a new -- on some
new initiatives regarding health information technology. As you will
recall, the President made a commitment to make sure most Americans have
electronic health records within the next 10 years. And the Secretary will
be making an announcement about some initiatives that will advance our
efforts to meet that commitment.

We recently had a -- there's an inter-agency review process that was going
on to address these issues. The President met with Secretary Leavitt and
some of his policy advisors recently and directed the secretary to move
forward on this initiative. Health information technology is an important
part of making health care better, as well as making it more affordable.
And so I just wanted to point that out.

Other than that, we've got the remarks at the General Assembly of the
Organization of American States. I previewed those Friday, it still holds
as a pretty good preview for today. And then when we return, the President
will celebrate Black Music Month at the White House by delivering remarks
at a White House reception. And that's really what we've got on the
schedule for today.

Q Is he going to mention Chavez by name? Is there going to be specific
reference to Chavez, and also Fidel Castro? Is that something you expect?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, remember, on Friday I talked about how -- I think the
focus of his remarks will be on democracy in our hemisphere, and
strengthening democracy in our hemisphere. And one of the things I touched
on Friday that I expect he will talk about in his remarks is the dramatic
progress we've seen in our own hemisphere since the last time the United
States hosted the General Assembly. That was back in 1974, when you had 23
members participate in that General Assembly, only 10 of which were
representative democracies.

Today, all 34 members who are participating in the General Assembly are
representative democracies. There is one exception in our hemisphere, and
that is Cuba. And I expect the President will touch on that. The broader
message will focus, really, on the two competing visions we have before us
in our own hemisphere. There are some older democracies and younger
democracies, but all of us share a common goal of strengthening democracy
in our own hemisphere and making sure that all people have the ability to
live in freedom. And the President will talk about how one vision is based
-- one vision is one of hope, based on democracy and freedom, and the other
vision is the one based on rolling back the democratic progress we have
made by spreading fear and trying to pit neighboring countries against one
other. So that's really part of the focus of his remarks.

The President will talk about how elections are only the beginning of a
democracy, that to fulfill democracy's promise, you need to make sure that
you have transparency and rule of law and the institutions for -- to
sustain democracy. So that's really what he'll talk about in his remarks.

And one way that we can help support younger democracies in our own
hemisphere is to continue to advance trade. And the President will talk
about the importance of CAFTA in his remarks. CAFTA has great strategic
significance in our own hemisphere. It's not only about leveling the
playing field and making sure that our farmers and producers at home can
compete on an equal footing, it's also, in a much broader sense, about
supporting these younger democracies and helping them fulfill the promise
of democracy; we need to make sure that democracy delivers more than
promises. And so that's something the President will touch on in his
remarks.

Q But he asked if he's going to mention -- are you going to mention Chavez,
or --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm sorry, I don't -- I expect that he will point out
that there's only one country in our hemisphere that is not democratic,
when he talks about the 34 countries that are participating in the General
Assembly, and the one that is not. But I don't expect that he will
specifically bring up other countries in that regard.

Q Why wouldn't he take this opportunity to mention the concerns that the
U.S. has expressed about Chavez's administration?

MR. McCLELLAN: It's much larger than that. This is about the two competing
visions that are facing us in our own hemisphere. That's what the President
is going to focus on. This is about continuing to support democratic
progress in the region, continuing to advance the great achievements we
have made in the last three decades to advance democracy in our own
hemisphere.

Democracy is, as the President will point out in his remarks, democracy is
on the march around the world. And we need to make sure in our own
hemisphere that we are doing all we can to strengthen it here at home, as
well.

Q Some of the Latin American nations are being slow to embrace this idea of
a mechanism, some kind of a way that the OAS can track and monitor
democratic progress. Is the President going to continue to push for that
today, and is he upset that they're not embracing it more?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know that I would say, "not embracing." There are
discussions that are ongoing, and it's important that we have discussions
through the Organization of American States about how to strengthen
democracy and support democracy in our own hemisphere.

One of the core purposes of the Organization of American States is
promoting representative democracy. And the Inter-American Democratic
Charter is something that we believe we should look at -- we believe we
should look at it and discuss ways to strengthen it and continue to support
democracy in our own hemisphere.

Q Some nations think that --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think the fact that they're having discussions about it is
an important step, and let's let those discussions take place.

Q So he's not going to back off that idea; he's going to continue to push
for it, then.

MR. McCLELLAN: We're going to continue to work with other countries in the
hemisphere to advance and support democracy, sure. There's an important
discussion going on on that now, about ways we can do that. That's one of
the core missions of the Organization of American States.

Q Were you surprised by the strong showing of Hezbollah in the elections in
the south of Lebanon? Is that something that took you by surprise, since
you --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, our focus has been on making sure that there are free
and fair elections in Lebanon, without any outside intimidation or
interference. And that remains our focus. These elections are ongoing, and
in terms of Hezbollah, I think our views are well known, and they remain
unchanged.

Q Can you just tell us what those views are?

MR. McCLELLAN: You have a Security Council resolution which calls for the
disarming of groups like Hezbollah. And that remains our view. Hezbollah,
as you are well aware, is a terrorist organization, and we've made our
views known about that.

Q Do they need to be dismantled, or just disarmed? Is there the
possibility, if they do disarm, that they could be -- have a relationship
with the United States?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think our views on Hezbollah are well known. Again, our
focus, really, is on making sure that there are free and fair elections,
without any outside interference or intimidation. And those elections are
ongoing right now in Lebanon, and they're going to -- they continue on.

Q You've asked the Europeans to add Hezbollah to their terrorism list. Is
that something that you still support, and is that something you're pushing
for?

MR. McCLELLAN: Look, I appreciate you trying to -- our views on Hezbollah
are unchanged. Our views on terrorist organizations are unchanged. We've
made those views very clear, and our belief that terrorist organizations
need to be dismantled.

But what you have in Lebanon is an election process that is ongoing right
now. And we want to make sure that that election process is free and fair.
And there are people observing those elections. We continue to have
concerns about outside interference inside Lebanon. The recent
assassination of Mr. Kassir kind of underscores the environment that has
been created by Syria's long presence in that country. And that's something
that needs to be -- his assassination is something that needs to be fully
investigated. We continue to call on Syria to make sure that all
intelligence operatives are out of Lebanon.

Q When you say you have concerns about interference, you're talking in the
current elections that are taking place?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm just saying that about -- the United Nations was
unable to confirm that Syria had withdrawn all its intelligence operatives.
So I was making a general statement about that -- the recent assassination.

Q Has North Korea indicated any -- any indication that they're going to
return to the talks?

MR. McCLELLAN: There is a New York channel, which they can communicate with
us if they need to. I'm not aware of any response from North Korea at this
point. We are hopeful that North Korea will be responding soon. We continue
to urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks at an early date
without precondition.

Q Was there a phone call that took place? This Japanese report and also in
The Times today that there was some contact made that might suggest that
they were going to make some additional contacts through the New York
channel. Did that actually take place?

MR. McCLELLAN: As I said, I'm not aware of any response through the New
York channel from North Korea. Now in terms of --

Q The news story --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I know. Now in terms of that channel, that is used
simply to communicate messages. It's not used to negotiate by any means.
And we -- there recently was some discussion through that channel, but we
reiterated our message that we want North Korea to come back to the
six-party talks. And what I'd tell you at this point is that they have not
responded through that channel to that message. And I wouldn't go beyond
that at this point.

Q You had the meeting with -- you had the contact in May through that
channel, New York channel, and there have been reports in the last few days
of an additional contact.

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm aware of those reports. I would just leave it where I
did, though, for now. We have not had a response from North Korea through
that New York channel.

Q You may have been going over this --

MR. McCLELLAN: I said we are hopeful that we will receive a response soon.

Q That doesn't mean that the other communication didn't happen.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I didn't say that at all.

Q But you're not confirming that it did, right?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are waiting to hear back from North Korea -- waiting to
hear back on a response from North Korea. I'm not going to go beyond what I
said at this point.

Q Are you hopeful that you will receive the response soon? What makes you
confident of that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'd just leave it there.

Q Secretary Rumsfeld said that China should do more. Is that the White
House's position?

MR. McCLELLAN: What does that mean, more. More on what?

Q I think the word that he used was, China could be more effective. I
forget exactly what it was in the transcript, when he spoke to the
International Institute for Strategic Studies.

MR. McCLELLAN: Look, I mean, the President talked about our relationship
with China. It's a complex relationship. And when it comes to North Korea
and the six-party talks, China is someone we consider to be a partner in
those talks. They're one of the other -- one of five countries who have
joined together to say to North Korea, we want a nuclear weapons-free
Peninsula. We believe the six-party talks are the way forward to achieving
that objective. And, you know, there's always more that could be done, but
we appreciate China's involvement in the six-party talks.

Q Scott, you said you're hopeful for a response from North Korea soon. You
have a better sense of how soon you want a response before you --

MR. McCLELLAN: Those are questions for North Korea, so --

Q That would be a response through the New York channel, that's what you're
referring to?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, because we had had some contact through that channel.
We reiterated our message that we wanted to see them return to the talks
without precondition. And there are no preconditions for returning to the
six-party talks. We want to move forward on those talks and discuss, in a
serious way, how to move forward on the proposal we outlined.

Q And your reaction to the 9/11 Commission's new attempts to get back to
work, although without subpoena power, and they're requesting some
information from you all with regards to how you handled --

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know that they have requested anything from us at
this point. I mean, I've seen the media reports that there may be a letter
coming. That may have been communicated to the media. I'm not aware, as of
this morning, of any communication they have had with us regarding some of
those reports.

In terms of the work that they did, we greatly appreciated the work that
they did. It was very important in our efforts to make sure that we're
doing all we can to protect the American people and prevent an attack from
happening in the first place. We have acted, in one way or another, on the
vast majority of their recommendations. One of the most important
recommendations that the commission made was the establishment of a
director of national intelligence. We now have a director of national
intelligence in place who is the President's principal intelligence
advisor. And so we are continuing to move forward on those recommendations.
We welcome their continued involvement, and we look forward to receiving
any letter that they want to send us.

Q You already picked up --

MR. McCLELLAN: Most -- you can go back and look at that fact sheet we put
back out at the time, but we pointed out how we had acted on the vast
majority of the recommendations that they had made, one way or another. And
we're continuing to move forward on those recommendations, as well. It's
not something that ever stops, I don't think. We always want to make sure
we're doing all we can to protect the American people.

There are a couple recommendations, for instance, that weren't ones we
could act on, that required congressional action.

Q Do you have any issue, Scott, though, with supplying them with additional
information from you all? And they left open the possibility of
interviewing again Secretary Rumsfeld or others.

MR. McCLELLAN: They know our door is open, if they want to communicate with
us and send us a letter. And if there's any more to update once we've
received the letter, then I'll do so at that point. I don't want to respond
to something when we haven't received any such request at this point.

Anything else? Okay, thanks.

END 10:53 A.M. EDT

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