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Skriven 2006-01-11 23:33:28 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0601115) for Wed, 2006 Jan 11
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Interview of the Vice President by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
January 11, 2006

Interview of the Vice President by Tony Snow
Via Telephone
The Tony Snow Show



11:35 A.M. EST

Q Mr. Vice President, it's an honor. Welcome.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Tony. How are you?

Q I'm doing fine. First thing I want to ask you about is Sam Alito. The
hearings continue at a torturous pace, and for those who are watching, I
pass on my condolences. However, it's been interesting to me -- there have
been a series of attempts to try to chip away at him, but maybe the most
interesting comes from Senator Kennedy, who has one focus and one focus
only.

(Sound bite is played.)

Q Is the United States torturing anybody?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, we're not. I hadn't heard that quite presented in
that way, Tony. But, no, we're --

Q -- cut out all the irrelevant stuff and get to the -- cut to the chase.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right. Right, well, the -- there's been a debate
obviously as to the McCain Amendment that was adopted in the Defense
Appropriations Bill. But the United States does not torture. That's not our
policy. It never has been.

Q Do you think Senator Kennedy understands the legal basis for what takes
place in U.S. detention facilities?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't know. Sometimes I think people get caught up in
the -- trying to make a political argument so that they don't spend a lot
of time on the facts with respect to any particular situation.

Q Do you think that applies to the criticism of Judge Alito?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think it does. I think if you look at Sam Alito --
and I'm -- the process we went through to pick, to recommend to the
President Judge Alito for the Supreme Court has been an exhaustive one. We
really started on this shortly after we got elected. And of course, a lot
of effort has gone into it. We've looked at all of the members currently
sitting on the federal bench, and so forth, as well as state courts. Judge
Alito, like John Roberts, emerged as really a preeminent jurist of his era,
a man who has already got 15 years of experience in the Third Circuit Court
of Appeals, who has got an outstanding judicial record, who has written
extensively, who has written, I guess, thousands of opinions at this point,
but a man, who by any standard, including the Bar Association, has been
deemed to be highly qualified for the court, probably has as much
experience as anybody who has ever had, in modern times, been nominated for
that post. So I think you need to look at that broad record and make
judgments. And what I see happening now, unfortunately, is some of the
groups on the other side trying hard to find some way to shoot him down.
And so far I don't think they've been successful at doing that. But in the
course of doing it they sometimes distort his record.

Q Talking today with Senator Mike DeWine, he said, yes, it's over. And
that's kind of my view. Judge Alito has comported himself with composure
and grace. You would be happy to perhaps hear that yesterday in the
conversations, Senator Joe Biden had 78 percent of the words in the
interviews with Judge Alito. Judge Alito only got to get in 22 percent just
because the Senator was holding forth at great length. But do you see any
real bumps here? Do you think Sam Alito is going to get confirmed?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm confident he'll get confirmed. I think -- the way
he's handled himself in these hearings is evidence for anybody who hadn't
been able to look at the case before that this man is eminently qualified
for the post he's been appointed to. And I think he'll get a very positive
vote. I venture to guess he'll get more than 60 votes.

Q Do you -- I gather also you've just talked about the exhaustive process
that went through, that there are others "on the bench"? In other words,
should another vacancy arise, there is a series of names already ready to
be vetted once again.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think it would be safe to say that if there's another
vacancy, the President is prepared to do his duty, and to pick an nominee
that will be an effective member of the Supreme Court.

Q In hindsight, how do you assess the Harriet Miers choice?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, the -- I think -- know all the arguments that
went into that, and the decision ultimately made for Harriet to step down
when she decided to withdraw her nomination, which is too bad. I really --
I've known Harriet now and worked closely with her for the last five years.
She's a very able, capable woman. I think she would have made a good
justice.

In the end, obviously, it generated a fair amount of controversy, and so
she decided to step aside rather than to continue to pursue it. But she's
still serving very ably and in a very important position as the President's
Counsel here in the White House. And so she's earning her pay.

Q Mr. Vice President, you have been spending a lot of time in recent days
talking about the war on terror and how important it is to take it
seriously. The Weekly Standard over the weekend published a long piece by
Steve Hayes, who talked about emerging evidence of longstanding ties
between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. You've heard it said many times
there's no linkage between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. You've heard
Democrats beat you and the President about the head and shoulders with
this. Were there links to -- between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think Steve Hayes has done an effective job in
his article of laying out a lot of those connections. I hark back to
testimony by George Tenet when he was Director of the CIA. He went up
before the Senate Intel Committee in open session -- this is on public
record -- and said there was a relationship there that went back 10 years.
What was never established was that there was -- that -- a link between
Iraq and the attacks of 9/11.

Q Right, and I've heard you and the President say that many times.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.

Q And you correct it any time somebody tries to raise it.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right. And so what some people have done is
gotten very sloppy and said, well, there was no link between Saddam Hussein
and 9/11, and then jumped to the conclusion that there was no relationship
at all with respect to al Qaeda.

And the Iraqis -- the fact is we know that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were
heavily involved with terror. They were carried as a terror-sponsoring
state by our State Department for many, many years. Abu Nidal operated out
of there; Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Saddam Hussein was making payments to
families of suicide bombers. All of this is very well established. And
Steve Hayes is of the view -- and I think he's correct -- that a lot of
those documents that were captured over there that have not yet been
evaluated offer additional evidence that, in fact, there was a relationship
that stretched over many years between Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda
organization.

Q Meanwhile we have the spectacle of Iran, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who
continues to poke his thumb in the eye of the West. Mohamed ElBaradei, now
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says he's fed up. It appears now
that Iran is in the process of starting up nuclear reactors that have been
shut for some period of time. He had -- he has now vowed to press ahead. He
said today, "We think that nuclear energy is our right and is permitted in
the framework of law, unfortunately some cruel people want to deprive Iran
from achieving this goal." Do you have any doubt that they're trying to
build up a nuclear weapons program?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I think it's pretty clear that that's their
objective. If what they're really interested in is generating nuclear
power, generating electricity from running reactors, they've been offered
that opportunity, a guaranteed source of fuel that would be enriched only
to the level necessary to run a civilian reactor.

The Russians would then take back the spent fuel so that it couldn't be
reprocessed for the plutonium in it. And the Iranians could achieve their
objective of having nuclear energy.

They've not been satisfied with that. What they want is the ability to
enrich the uranium themselves, and that would allow them to take it up to a
much higher level and purity that is required for nuclear weapons. The
effort we've made to date through the EU, the European Union, working with
the Brits and the French and the Germans has been to reach a diplomatic
solution to this problem. But so far they've been unsuccessful. And given
the track record there, as well as given some of the more outrageous
statements that the new President has made, Ahmadinejad, doesn't inspire
confidence, I don't think, in anyone. It obviously is an increasingly
significant problem that the world is going to have to address.

Q Should the world be considering a serious economic embargo of Iran?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the next step will be probably to go
before the U.N. Security Council. And that would be probably the number one
item on the agenda would be the resolution that could be enforced by
sanctions, were they to fail to comply with it.

Now, that's speculative at this point. No decision has been made on that,
but that will be next step once the Board of Governors of the International
Atomic Energy Agency meets and concludes that the diplomatic track they've
been on isn't going to work, then the next step would be for the Board of
Governors to vote to refer the entire matter to the Security Council.

Q Pretty well established that the vast majority of Iranians hate their
government and like the United States. Would it be fair to say that at
least in the abstract we would like a regime change there?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think it would be fair to say we'd like the Iranian
government to operate in a way that is consistent with the standards that
we expect of members of the international community. Not only do they
appear to be on the path to develop nuclear weapons, but this also has been
one of the prime terror-sponsoring states in world. They've been the prime
mover behind Hezbollah. They have got a track record with respect to
supporting terror that is a very bad one, if I can put it in those terms.

So this is a nation, whose government I don't believe serves them well at
this point. I think you're right that there are a lot of Iranians who would
like to see the policies changed. And we'll see what happens. They have --
occasionally hold elections, but they're very special kinds of elections.
They're really not free and fair elections. The old guard controls who
actually gets on the ballot, and so we have not seen, say, them produce
what I would think of as a responsible government.

Q Two quick questions everybody wants me to ask you: number one, would you
please reconsider and think about running for President? (Laughter.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, Tony, I appreciate the interest, but no when I
finish this tour, that's going to be it.

Q Second, your health: They were beating Scott McClellan to death the other
day asking about gout and everything else. How you doing?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm doing fine. I'm back at work, have been for some
time. Of course, I've got a history of coronary artery disease that goes
back nearly 30 years. But the wonders of modern medicine have kept me going
and let me live a full, normal and active life in spite of all that. And
I'm fortunate today to have good doctors who take good care of me, so when
I do have one of these episodes everything always comes out all right.

Q Now, did you walk through the doors of the Dick Cheney Center when you
went in the other day?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I didn't. (Laughter.) You mean at the hospital over
there?

Q Yes.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, we went in the regular entrance, the emergency
room.

Q Well, Mr. Vice President, glad to have you in good health. As you know,
I'm a big believer in medical technology, as well. And thanks so much for
joining us today.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: All right, Tony, good to talk to you.

END 11:46 A.M. EST

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