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Skriven 2006-04-06 23:34:10 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060406) for Thu, 2006 Apr 6
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Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 6, 2006

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En route Charlotte, North Carolina



9:34 A.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: All right. Good morning, everyone. The President had his
usual briefing this morning before we departed. And we will be going to
Charlotte, where the President will be speaking before members of the World
Affairs Council of Charlotte, which is a -- I think you all have
information on it; we'll make sure we get you the information on the group
-- but it's a non-profit, non-partisan organization.

And there will also be people there from the local community college, as
well. There's supposed to be around a thousand people, or nearly a thousand
people that will be there. From the college I think there are 250, 275,
from faculty, staff, administrators, students. And then the bulk of the
people there are World Affairs Council members.

Q Were tickets --

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, tickets they distributed. Those two groups passed out
the tickets.

This is more of a town hall-type setting, I think. The President does not
have formal remarks, but he will focus on Iraq. He'll talk about our
strategy for victory in Iraq, the progress we're making, and the
difficulties and challenges that lie ahead, as well. And that will kind of
be -- that's a general overview of what he'll talk about. And then he looks
forward to taking some questions from people in the audience.

Then we return back to the White House this afternoon. The President looks
forward to making remarks to the 2005 and 2006 NCAA sports champions. This
is 12 teams that won national titles in either 2005 or most recently, the
two basketball champions, men's and women's, who will be there as well,
2006 NCAA men's and women's basketball champions.

And then following that the President has some policy time on our Katrina
recovery and rebuilding efforts, which will include Don Powell and others
that are involved in those efforts. And I think that's all I've got to
begin with.

Q Do you know which of the two immigration bills that the Senate is
considering the President prefers?

MR. McCLELLAN: A couple of things. One, I expect you may hear more from the
President at this event; we'll see. It tends to be an issue that comes up
at some of these town hall-type meetings, and certainly an issue that is on
the minds of many Americans.

You've heard the President talk about how he wants a comprehensive bill to
get out of the Senate. And the President believes it's important that we
address the immigration problems in a comprehensive way. And that's what he
has proposed and that's what we're continuing to work with leaders in the
Senate to get done.

I mentioned to you yesterday that the President met with the bicameral
Republican leadership, and this was an issue that was discussed. And they
reiterated the importance of getting a comprehensive bill passed.

The President appreciates the efforts of Senator Frist and others in the
Senate to build broad support for a comprehensive piece of legislation. I
know Senator Hagel and Senator Martinez have been working to try to bring
people together around a compromise and build as broad a support as
possible to move the legislation forward. There is a lot of activity that
will be going on today in the Senate.

The President has laid out some very clear principles, and what we believe
what's important at this point is to find a vehicle that can build broad
support to move forward on a comprehensive piece of legislation. So we
appreciate the efforts of those Senate leaders that I mentioned and others
that are working to accomplish that objective.

Q Which one does he like better? Which vehicle? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, again,
we'll see if you hear more from the President later today. But we've
continued to stay in close contact with leaders in the Senate and talk
about how to get this moving forward.

Q Have you been lobbying any lawmakers on this?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes. As I mentioned, you know, yesterday he met with the
bicameral Republican leadership. And there are a lot of conversations going
on. We're remaining in close contact with Senate leaders. This is an
important priority. The Senate is continuing to debate it today and likely
through tomorrow. And the President wants to see them get a comprehensive
bill off the Senate floor and into conference committee.

Q Back to the war on terror, how frustrated is the President that there has
not been more movement toward getting that coalition government all formed?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I don't know if I agree with "there has been no
movement." There are a lot of discussions going on, and those discussions
continue. The Iraqi leaders are continuing to talk about how to move
forward on a government of national unity, that represents --

Q Bogged down --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that's the nature of democracy, the compromise. The
President is continuing to emphasize that we want to see it get done as
soon as possible, and that we're continuing to urge Iraqi leaders to move
forward as quickly as possible. And this may be something the President
touches on in his remarks. I wouldn't be surprised if he does.

The President sent Secretary Rice to Baghdad to emphasize the importance of
coming together and getting a unity government in place as quickly as
possible. There is a political vacuum that needs to be filled, and
particularly in this time when they had some sectarian violence taking
place it's important to move forward on a unity government quickly to
really disable those who are seeking to create that sectarian violence. So
that's what we're continuing to urge Iraqi leaders to do.

Q On the Katrina meeting, do you think they'll talk about the issue with
the levees and the fact that Powell said that there's going to be more
money than they initially thought -- billions more needed to get the levees
up to category three?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that is an issue that we're staying in close contact
with congressional leaders from the Louisiana delegation about. And our
federal coordinator, Don Powell, has spoken about that in recent days. This
is an issue that came up late last week, as well. Yes, I expect it will.
That's a high priority for the President; the levees are a high priority
for the President and making sure that we're on track to rebuild those
levees to the pre-Katrina levels, and even strengthen in some areas, to fix
some of the construction flaws in the system.

The President went down to New Orleans and highlighted those efforts just
recently with the Army Corps of Engineers and others who are working to
repair those levees. Ultimately, we're moving forward to make sure that
those levees are stronger and better than before. But I think right now
that Don Powell's office will tell you that they don't have the precise
estimates on some of these numbers, and they want to make sure that they
have those.

But they felt it was important to reach out to the Louisiana congressional
delegation and leaders in Louisiana to make sure that they had the most
up-to-date information that they were getting. And I know Chairman Powell
is committed to staying in close contact and working very closely with
leaders in Louisiana and leaders in Congress from Louisiana to move forward
and make sure that we meet this important priority.

Q Is it still likely that it can be done before the start of the hurricane
season?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think that -- I haven't heard anything - again, I'll
let this briefing take place and see what additional updates there are. But
I think Chairman Powell stressed that they're still all on track when it
comes to meeting their objectives for this hurricane season. But it's also
important that Congress continue to move forward and make sure that the
funding is there as we move forward on this.

Q Is the White House going to make another formal request?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't have any updates at this point, beyond what I just
told you. I think right now Chairman Powell wants to make sure that they
have precise estimates on what may be needed in the future. But the Army
Corps of Engineers is continuing to work to get those levees back to the
pre-Katrina levels before this hurricane season, and as they do so, to fix
some of the flaws in the design, originally. I think they talked about,
instead of the I-shaped levees, going to the T-shape. And when we went down
to New Orleans you all saw some of the charts about how they're
strengthening some of those levees.

Q Scott, Secretary Rumsfeld disputed remarks by Secretary Rice that the
United States made tactical errors in Iraq. Who does the President think is
correct on that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, actually, I think if you look at what they've talked
about, everybody has essentially been saying the same thing, which is that
the strategic decisions have been the right ones, we have the right
strategy in place. But when you are at war, you're going to have to adapt
and adjust to circumstances on the ground. And so all of us -- the
President, Secretary Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld -- have been talking about
the lessons that we have learned and how we've adapted and adjusted to
circumstances on the ground. And I think that's what everybody is talking
about in the remarks.

I know Secretary Rice talked about how she was speaking figuratively, not
literally, in some of the remarks that she made. But if you look at
Secretary Rumsfeld's whole transcript, he talked about how the enemy is
constantly adapting, and that's the nature of warfare, and we have to be
able to adapt and adjust to circumstances on the ground, as well. And the
President has talked at length about some of the difficulties we face and
how we've had to learn from experience and then apply those lessons as we
move forward. Reconstruction is a great example.

Some of our initial reconstruction efforts focused on larger projects, when
we realized that we needed to move to some of the smaller projects, it
would have a more immediate impact on people's lives. And that's what we've
done. He's talked about how we've -- the President has talked about how
we've adjusted the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces and in
the political arena, as well.

Q So you don't see this as a disagreement between the two?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I think if you look at what both were talking about,
they were talking about how we've had to adapt and adjust to circumstances
on the ground. And the President has talked about that at length in his
remarks, particularly over the last few months.

Q Any reaction to the op-ed piece in The Times by the Iranian ambassador to
the U.N.?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know if I read that.

Q The headline, "We Do Not Have A Nuclear Weapons Program."

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know if I read that whole -- oh, the op-ed in The
New York Times?

Q Op-ed piece in The Times.

MR. McCLELLAN: The international community has made it very clear what the
regime in Iran needs to do and what is expected of the regime. It's time
for the regime to come clean and commit to complying with its international
obligations. The Security Council passed a very clear and united statement
just last week, and the regime has 30 days to make that commitment to come
clean and comply, or we're going to be back at the Security Council talking
about next steps to take.

I think you can understand why we are skeptical about the regime, that it
will actually change its behavior. But the regime is only further isolating
itself and the Iranian people from the rest of the world by its own
behavior. And the international community is united in our objective of
preventing the regime from developing a nuclear weapons capability. And
what's important is that the regime needs to build confidence with the
international community, to show that it's not developing nuclear weapons
under the cover of a civilian program. They hid their activities from the
international community for some two decades. They have continued to
conceal their activities when it comes to their nuclear program. And that's
why the international community is united in its concern when it comes to
the regime.

Thank you.

END 9:47 A.M. EDT

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