Text 2610, 163 rader
Skriven 2006-05-11 23:33:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0605112) for Thu, 2006 May 11
====================================================
===========================================================================
Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 11, 2006

Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
Aboard Air Force One
En route Biloxi, Mississippi



1:31 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Good morning, everybody. We're on our way to Mississippi, where
the President will give a commencement address at the Mississippi Gulf
Coast Community College. He is the first President to give a commencement
address at a community college, and you have the embargoed copy, right?
Okay.

This morning, just going through the President's day, he had his regular
briefing this morning. He also met with several Chinese human rights
activists in the Yellow Oval; we will have a photo release of that meeting.

After the speech today, the President will meet with several families of
fallen soldiers.

A couple other things to put on your radar screen. Brett Kavanaugh, the
President's judicial nominee for the D.C. circuit was voted out of
committee today and we expect a floor vote in the coming weeks, before
Memorial Day. Also, the Senate is going to pass tax relief this afternoon,
and the President looks forward to signing that bill into law.

One other thing to put on your radar screen, Secretary Bodman is in Indiana
today with Governor Daniels.* He is talking about ethanol. And one of the
things he is doing is going over to the Indy Motor Speedway, he's promoting
Ethanol Day in the Speedway. Ethanol has been used for the Indy 500 for
years, but next year's car race will be fueled 100 percent with ethanol.

With that, I'll take your questions.

Q What bothers you about this USA Today story today? What bothers the White
House about the USA Today story?

MS. PERINO: Well, you heard from the President. He is not confirming or
denying existence of the details of that story. What he felt it was
important to do today was tell the American people what the federal
government is and is not doing to protect them from possible terror
attacks. He wanted to tell them that the government is acting responsibly
and lawfully in all of our intelligence activities.

No more questions?

Q Should the FCC look at whether they should fine these telephone companies
for turning over these records?

MS. PERINO: I'd have to refer you to the FCC; I don't have a comment on
that at this point.

Q Is Hayden having any more meetings today up on the Hill? Or did they
cancel those because of the story?

MS. PERINO: No, I think that was a wild rumor. General Hayden has several
meetings scheduled for this afternoon; I think they were trying to
reschedule some from this morning to this afternoon.

Q Today --

MS. PERINO: Absolutely, General Hayden is seeing people today.

Q Do you guys feel like the story is going to impede the progress of the
confirmation of Hayden on the Hill?

MS. PERINO: I think General Hayden has had a really good start to his
confirmation process. He's met with several members, the feedback has been
positive and we're full steam ahead on his nomination.

Q Without confirming or denying the story, there is adequate congressional
oversight for all of these intelligence-gathering operations?

MS. PERINO: Yes. As the President has said -- I refer you to his statement
today -- he made it clear that all appropriate members of Congress are
briefed appropriately on the government's intelligence activities. And just
to reiterate, the President was talking about today how we fiercely protect
the privacy rights of the American people. The government is doing
everything that it can, in a lawful way, to protect innocent Americans from
probable terrorist attack.

There is no listening-in on domestic phone calls without court approval.

Q Does the President think that the timing of this story is related to
General Hayden's pending confirmation hearing?

MS. PERINO: I would not question whether or not there were any motivations
on behalf of a media organization that published the story, no.

Q The story is causing a bit of an uproar on Capitol Hill. Is this an
over-reaction, if the appropriate members have been briefed?

MS. PERINO: It is true that the appropriate members have been briefed. And
if you'll recall that with the terrorist surveillance program, we expanded
on the Intelligence Committee, additional members of the Intelligence
Committee through two sub-committees on both the House and the Senate side
so that additional members would be fully briefed on that program. And that
includes Republicans and Democrats. And they have been fully briefed. I
can't speak for other senators and their reactions, but, of course, we'll
be able to provide them as much information as possible, as we're providing
to you.

Q If you're fiercely protecting Americans' rights to privacy, why would you
need a database of tens of millions of American phone call records?

MS. PERINO: Well, not confirming or denying or acknowledging the substance
of the story this morning in USA Today, what the President said today, all
intelligence activities of the United States are limited and targeted and
focused solely on al Qaeda and al Qaeda's affiliates. They are the enemy.

The government has no interest in knowing what innocent Americans are
talking about on their domestic phone calls. So if you are calling to make
reservations at a restaurant, and if you are calling your daughter at
college, or if you are calling to plan your wedding, the government has no
interest in knowing about those calls. The government is interested in
finding out if al Qaeda is planning an attack in America -- you can bet
that we want to make sure that we get ahead of that to prevent that and to
save lives.

Q Was there any effort to get USA Today to not run the story?

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment on that.

Q Is the reason why you're not confirming or denying for national security
reasons? Or why?

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to go beyond -- we don't comment on intelligence
matters of the United States. If you look at the statement by the National
Security Agency spokesperson, he reiterates the same. We don't comment on
the intelligence operations or sources or methods. And that's for the
protection of the American people. We have classified intelligence programs
-- again, not confirming or denying any of these -- for a reason.

And the President talked again today in his statement about how the leaking
of classified information in general can be harmful to national security.

No questions on the commencement address?

Q I have a question about Mississippi. Will the President still veto the
supplemental if it includes that $700 million for the Mississippi railroad?

MS. PERINO: I believe I'd have to refer you back to the President's
statement and to the statement of administration policy that was released
by OMB. But I believe that the veto threat was on the total amount of the
-- it was $92.2 billion, I believe; the President said nothing over that,
or he would veto.

END 1:39 P.M. EDT

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060511-2.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)