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Ärende: Press Release (0605314) for Wed, 2006 May 31
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Press Briefing by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 31, 2006

Press Briefing by Tony Snow
James S. Brady Briefing Room

Press Briefing view


1:07 P.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: Good afternoon. One quick personnel announcement: The President
today is announcing he's going to name Raul Yanes to be Assistant to the
President and Staff Secretary. Mr. Yanes is now General Counsel at the
Office of Management and Budget, and previously served as Senior Counselor
to the Attorney General at the Department of Justice. He was also Associate
Counsel to the President at the White House from 2003 to 2005. A statement
will be published presently.

As I mentioned earlier in the day, Secretary Rice gave a speech and she was
outlining United States' continued efforts to persuade Iran to suspend any
enrichment and enrichment-related and reprocessing efforts when it comes to
nuclear programs of the Iranian government. And that has attracted a
certain amount of interest. And with that, I will turn it over for
questions. Terry.

Q Have Russia and China agreed to support sanctions against Iran if it
declines to stop its nuclear activities?

MR. SNOW: What's happened is that everybody has agreed at this point on the
fundamental, which is that Iran has to go ahead and suspend these
activities. And that is still the precursor to the United States joining
the talks. They are still finalizing both a series of inducements and
punishments to Iran if it fails to do that, and the United States is
continuing to work with its allies on those.

The President spoke yesterday, as I mentioned, directly with President
Putin. There have also been ministerial-level contacts with the government
of China.

Q So is there a general agreement, or how would you characterize where
China and Russia are?

MR. SNOW: I think at this point there's still attempts to work out the
package of incentives and to get that -- it is hoped that that will get
worked out in Vienna. Secretary Rice is on her way to Vienna where there is
going to be a ministerial meeting with the P5 plus Germany, and I'll let
her make any further announcements there.

Everybody is very close. And what's important I think to point out here is
that in many ways this represents the triumph of about 15 months of very
hard diplomacy on the part of the President. It began back in a speech he
delivered in March of 2005, where he said it was important for Iran to
suspend the nuclear activities that I've been talking about. In addition,
he was supporting the efforts of the EU 3.

At the very beginning, there weren't many nations signed on to this.
Subsequently, however, you've had a number of different nations joining on.
You've got all 25 members of the European Union; you've got the IAEA;
you've got the United Nations Security Council; you have Saudi Arabia; you
have Egypt. You have a number of nations now that have realized that
development of nuclear weapons by Iran could be a global crisis.

And what we want to do is to resolve this diplomatically. What started as,
sort of a group of four `-- the United States plus the EU 3 -- is now a
large and robust international coalition. And the President now is trying
-- as Secretary Rice said, we created a climate of opinion, now there's
also a climate for action. The action here is to try to get all of these
nations to work together with Iran diplomatically, not only to suspend
those activities, but if that happens, then there will be a series of
inducements to follow. And they are working out the particulars of the
inducements at this point.

Q Is there any reason the President hasn't called his Chinese counterpart?

MR. SNOW: I suspect, and I don't want to step too far, the answer is, I
don't think there is any particular reason. A lot of this, again, has been
done at the ministerial level. He has not called each and ever counterpart
who's been involved in recent months in going ahead and joining us in this
effort.

Q Any indications from the Swiss, when they delivered the initial package,
of any response from Iran or any --

MR. SNOW: No, we haven't. But one of the things -- it's a very good
question, Kelly, because there is a possibility that somebody may quickly
try to reject -- there's been history of sort of quick reactions. And what
we're hoping is that the Iranians will take a little bit of time to study
this and think about what's going on, because the United States, again, is
putting its weight behind these negotiations in the clear hope that they're
going to succeed.

We are now dealing with a situation where there are real timetables. In the
past when the Iranians have made threats about nuclear development, they've
followed through on them. When they said that by the end of the year they
want to have 3,000 centrifuges, that would give them, in essence, a fully
ramped-up nuclear capability. We can't have that happen. We don't want that
to happen. Therefore, you try to follow the proper series of inducements.
And the United States is going to be working very vigorously with the
allies to make sure we don't get to that point. That's why we're getting
started right now.

Jessica.

Q Why this change in tactics now?

MR. SNOW: For the reason I just mentioned -- the realities on the ground,
as Secretary Rice said earlier today, have made it clear -- there have been
a couple of things over the years that are worth thinking about. For
instance, the EU 3 spent two years in Paris working with the Iranians. At
the end of it, the Iranians jumped out of the talks and accelerated their
nuclear development. We can't have that happen again. And so the United
States is entering -- now there is no time to play rope-a-dope. We have
between now and the end of the year. The Iranians -- we have to take
seriously what they have said about the development of centrifuges. And so
this is a time to work very aggressively to reach out to the government of
Iran and say, the ball is in your court. There are two paths to follow. One
is going to be very good for you. It will offer on economic cooperation,
educational exchanges, cultural cooperation, trade -- all of those things
will be possible if, but only if, you suspend these nuclear activities.

On the other side is a path where there are also a series of options that
would begin with the United Nations Security Council in a Chapter 7
proceeding and continued financial pressure and other methods that could be
used against the government of Iran. We want to make it clear, as the
President said today, we have nothing, no fight with the people of Iran,
and, frankly, we don't want to have a fight with the government. We want to
be able to reach out with the international community -- and understand
this is not the United States and Iran; this is the global community and
Iran. And we want to make sure this thing works and we're adding the power
of prestige of the United States to the direct talks because -- a couple of
other things -- not only do we have the concerns about the centrifuges, but
also, as you know, the Iranians have been pinging us quite a bit lately.
They've been reaching out through third parties. They say that they want to
be serious about doing this. This is a time to measure that. We want to
find out if they are serious.

Steve.

Q Could you tell us a little bit about the decision-making process here?
Who did he talk to? When did he actually decide to make this change in
tactics?

MR. SNOW: Well, this has been under consideration for a considerable period
of time. The United States has been talking with the allies. We have been
following closely what has been going on with the EU 3, and we've been
trying to answer the question, how do you make diplomacy work? What is the
simplest, what's the most effective way to make diplomacy work?

The President has been in consultations, as he mentioned, today. It was
discussed last week in his conversation with Prime Minister Blair. He has
discussed it with a number of other leaders. There were those three
important phone calls yesterday with President Putin, President Chirac, and
Chancellor Merkel. And this is -- so it's become one of those things --

Q Was there a debate within the White House on whether to do this or not?
Were there some opposed, some for it?

MR. SNOW: No, this is -- and I'm glad you asked about that, because this is
one of those cases where everybody agreed. You don't have fights between
the Department of Defense, you don't have internal schisms, and at the same
time, you don't have any daylight between the allies.

The President has been working this for a time -- and I failed to finish
answering your prior question, which is that the final decision was made
after going through and reviewing all this and finally signing off last
night on the statement that Secretary Rice gave today, and then proceeding
with the notifications this morning of other governments, and particularly
through dual channels, the government of Iran.

Carl.

Q Insofar as this is a new getting-started period with the United States
bringing its power and prestige to a group of four, what does that say
about the efficacy of the EU 3 for the last two-and-a-half-years?

MR. SNOW: First, it's not a new getting-started period. This is an attempt,
really, to add momentum to what's going on. We have fully supported what
the EU 3 is doing. And let's face it, for the United States to get behind
the table adds extra weight to the proceedings. We think that what has
happened is that the principles have been laid out, and also the signals
that we've gotten from Iran -- keep in mind, Carl, that in recent days
there have been public and private statements by key players in Iran that
they want some way to reopen an avenue of conversation. We've always made
it clear that it's not going to be a one-on-one conversation because this
is not Iran versus the U.S., or Iran dealing with the U.S. It is the global
community talking with Iran about a matter of concern. So this is not
designed to impugn the efforts of the EU 3. What it's designed to do is to
assist it.

Q If the U.S. believes that the Iranian regime supports terrorists, how is
this different than, let's say, Hamas?

MR. SNOW: Well, actually, it's not. And keep in mind that there are a
number of things. Secretary Rice made it clear today that simply because
Iran suspends nuclear development does not mean that we cease putting
pressure on Iran for other things, for human rights and terrorism
activities. That still remains on the table, and we want the government of
Iran to cease on both sides.

So I'm glad you raised it, because it's not -- as she said, this is not a
grand bargain, this is not -- we're not going to sweep everything off the
table. We're talking about one thing, and one thing only, and that's the
nuclear program, when it comes to the negotiations with the EU 3.

Now, as Secretary Rice also said, once they get to the table, then they can
discuss anything. But we are going to have the same approach, which is
there will be carrots for good behavior, and there will be sticks for bad
behavior. But what we're hoping to do right now is to create a climate
where we can work diplomatically with the government of Iran to solve this.

Q -- you still send a mixed message just by virtue of being at the table?

MR. SNOW: No. It doesn't send a mixed message because what you're
suggesting is we have to solve everything at once, and I don't think
anybody is arguing that that's possible. I think what you have to do is to
deal with the most immediately urgent issue, which is the nuclear issue,
and you deal with that. And once you've done that also, let's face it,
there have been problems of confidence in these negotiations. I just
mentioned what happened in Paris. If you build a basis for confidence and
trust, I think it's going to be easier to deal with the other issues in the
future. So, again, don't look for a grand bargain here. We're tackling one
issue at a time, and issue number one is the nuclear issue.

Q Do you happen to know when or whether Donald Rumsfeld first spoke with
the President about Haditha?

MR. SNOW: Hang on a second. I've got a timetable and I will try to get you
a date here. Let me -- if you'll permit. Or do I?

Q And also, when the Secretary of Defense first knew.

MR. SNOW: I think, again -- I will get back to you because I do have a
tick-tock on Haditha. And the characterization I've received -- obviously,
there was a report, I believe on November 19th -- was that the date? There
was a follow-on sort of account on the 20th or the 21st. So in that sense,
people knew about Haditha. But I think the concern about subsequent reports
of people being massacred or people being killed, that really was
stimulated by reporters' inquiries, which came, I believe in January.

Q There have already been serious allegations of, at best, foot dragging,
and at worst, a coverup. Why not get out ahead of the curve, go on the
offense, and just appoint an independent inquiry?

MR. SNOW: Because the Marines are actually conducting an inquiry and it's a
very vigorous one. I would ask you to suspend any judgment about what
happens.

I mentioned this morning that there are two tracks. Number one is what
happened with the reporting of the incident, and what happened. And the
Marines are taking both of those very seriously and they're proceeding very
aggressively. So I think rather than trying to prejudge it -- the second
thing, and this is equally important, is that when you have an ongoing
criminal proceeding, to try to characterize it on my part or anybody within
the chain of command within the Department of Defense could very well
prejudice and injure any attempts to engage in a prosecution should it be
necessary. So you've got to be very careful about how you do this.

What I've been assured by the Department of Defense and what I fully expect
to see and you expect to see, as well, is when the report is released,
we're going to see it. We're going to see everything. And we'll have an
opportunity not merely to gauge the conclusions in the investigation by the
Marines into all areas of conduct, on the ground and afterward, but also
the subsequent measures that may or may not be taken in response.

Jim.

Q Tony, the President has been very open about what he thinks about Abu
Ghraib and how that affected the world's view of Iraq. So what was his
personal reaction to the reports initially?

MR. SNOW: Well, again, you take a look at the initial reports and,
obviously, these are disturbing, but this is where I want to be careful,
Jim, because, again, if we start characterizing a reaction to a report, it
could be construed as trying to intervene in an ongoing investigation. So
we have to be very careful. It's very inviting to say, we've heard these
things, it's terrible -- to express full outrage. But the President has an
obligation to make sure that the people who are conducting a criminal
investigation within the Department of Defense have an opportunity to do
that in a way that is consistent with the rule of law and with the military
-- the Code of Military Justice.

Q Is he satisfied that that investigation started quickly enough?

MR. SNOW: Again, keep in mind, there are two parts in this investigation. I
can't even answer that question because it may prejudice something that's
ongoing, as well.

Lester.

Q Yes, Tony, two questions. According to researcher Deborah Sherman
Coughlin (phonetic), of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta, 240,000
illegal alien sex offenders in the United States have had an average of
four victims each, making nearly 1 million sex crimes perpetrated by
illegals. My question: Is the President aware of this research? And would
it make him more likely to make border security the cornerstone of his
immigration reform?

MR. SNOW: Lester, what you have got to -- what you've got to do is you've
got to send me advance -- let's do an early warning system for Lester so
that when you come up with these fairly obscure stories and studies, that I
have an opportunity to look into it. Because that one, I've got no clue.
I'm serious --

Q You will pursue it, though?

MR. SNOW: Of course. One of things you have to do is to figure out whether
these are legitimate pieces of research or whether they're -- and I can't
characterize it.

Q Okay. The President's recent statement: "The Palestinians want to live in
peace. Our beef is not with the Palestinian people, but with the
government." And my question: Since the overwhelming majority of these
allegedly peace-loving Palestinian people voted for Hamas, which the
President recognizes as a terrorist organization, how can he claim they are
peace lovers when polls also report 75 percent of Palestinians support
attacks on Israel?

MR. SNOW: A couple of points to make. Number one, there were many reasons
for the election of Hamas; one of them was corruption in the previous
regime. And Hamas, you may recall, ran on an anti-corruption platform. Also
it is worth noting that the President is -- well, that there is still an
ongoing debate within the Palestinian Authority, and President Abbas has
said to Hamas that they need, within a very short span of time, to go ahead
and recognize Israel. So rather --

Q -- they aren't about to recognize Israel, are they?

MR. SNOW: Well, it means that it gets to dissolve the government. And then
you get back to having -- yes. So then you get back --

Q Do you think the Palestinians will then vote the other way?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I don't know. Look, if you're -- I don't want to
speak on behalf of the Palestinian people, but I think it is safe to say
that people there have gotten just as tired of war as anybody else and they
would like to have a peaceful, successful society.

Q How does the White House characterize this recent escalation of violent
activity both in Afghanistan and Iraq? Is it part of a pattern, or just
some that --

MR. SNOW: I think it could probably be both. For instance, take the case of
Afghanistan. We have recently had the turnover from U.S. forces to some
coalition forces, especially in the south, and you could interpret some of
what's going on as testing. This happens.

The other thing is we have just had a successful transfer of government --
or the inauguration of the government of Prime Minister Maliki in Iraq, and
again, as we've said at many junctures, when you get these key points,
what's going to happen is the people who do not have a vested interest in a
free democracy in Iraq are going to do everything they can to test it. And
we have seen terrorist spikes around elections, around the announcement of
elections, and around a formation of government.

So I think in some ways -- I hate to say that they are predictable, but
these are things that do happen in a time of war, and especially in a time
when you're seeing the Taliban trying to assert itself in the southern
regions of Afghanistan.

Kelly.

Q Going back to Haditha for a moment, today and in some of your earlier
comments, you've said when the investigations are complete you expect that
we'll see everything. Will that include some of the photographic evidence
--

MR. SNOW: I think so, yes. Yes, I do. I mean, the stuff is going to come
out.

Q When is it coming out?

MR. SNOW: I don't have -- we don't have a direct answer on that. We've been
given vague time lines. I don't want to get into speculating on it, but
there is no firm release date at this point. But I expect it to be in a
matter of weeks, not a matter of months.

Q Have you been given assurances by the Pentagon that they'll release
photographic evidence?

MR. SNOW: I have not asked specifically, but the characterization is it
will all come out, something to that effect.

Q Tony, when you say it will all come out, do you mean it will all come out
from the Pentagon to the White House, or it will all come out from the
Pentagon to the White House to the public?

MR. SNOW: There's going to be a public release I think of substantial
portions of the report, or all of the report. I mean, I would --

Q -- substantial versus all of it --

MR. SNOW: I don't have that answer. And unfortunately, the Secretary of --
well, actually, we've got a couple of hours -- we could talk with the
Department of Defense. I don't know if there are going to be any parts
that, for reasons of criminal prosecution or classification, may be
withheld. There is that possibility, so I don't want to be completely
categorical about it.

Q Thank you, Tony. I have two questions, please. Is immigration reform
stalemated in the conference committee? Or has the President gotten any
encouragement from the House and Senate leadership that there will be a
bill passed before --

MR. SNOW: First, there's no conference committee, so we're not even to that
point. You've got a House bill, and you have a Senate bill. There is still
the business of appointing conferees. The President will continue working
with the House and the Senate to try to achieve comprehensive immigration
reform. But to talk about anything that may be happening in conference,
it's very premature.

Q I have another one, please.

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q Will General Hayden resume the practice of the former CIA Director by
personally giving the daily intelligence briefings to the President?

MR. SNOW: Well, the CIA Director now answers to the Director of National
Intelligence who, each day, has that responsibility. So Director Negroponte
will continue to deliver the daily briefings.

Victoria, I think you had a follow-up?

Q The follow-up was substantial portions, question mark -- which you just
answered.

MR. SNOW: Okay.

Q Mr. Snow, two questions on Turkey. Do you have anything to say about the
upcoming meeting between President Bush and the Turkish Prime Minister,
Recep Erdogan? Do you have any idea of when the meeting is going to take
place, since there are a lot of reports of this event?

MR. SNOW: No, I don't. By the way, what we do is when those meetings are
fully confirmed, we do announce those at the beginning of press conferences
or gaggles. So we will have a formal announcement if and when the time
should come.

Q A follow-up. The New York Times reported yesterday, "Washington can help
promote Turkish democracy by using its longstanding ties with the Turkish
General." I'm wondering, Mr. Spokesman, if the President is concerned about
democracy in Turkey, since the Turkish General, according to reports, is
planning a coup d'etat in Turkey?

MR. SNOW: I don't want to comment on The New York Times report, which I
haven't seen. I think the United States has talked often and supportively.
You just -- you're out of my brief here. I don't have any response to it,
but I'll try to find out.

Q -- democracy in Turkey.

MR. SNOW: Well, we support democracy in Turkey and we've said that many
times. And we support the peaceful transition of power as we did when Prime
Minister Erdogan took power.

Q Will a temporary suspension of enrichment of Iranian -- the kind that
Iran has done in the past, satisfy the U.S. conditions to hold talks with
Iran?

MR. SNOW: It's not the U.S. conditions. It's the IAEA conditions, which are
not temporary, but permanent. So it's -- what the United States is doing is
not setting out its own conditions for negotiation. What we're doing is
restating the positions that have been laid out by the IAEA in the
additional protocol, which not only -- which make it permanent, verifiable,
and subject to inspection at any time by IAEA inspectors. So those
conditions remain.

But let me be very clear: As I've said many times, it's not between the
United States and Iran. This is between the international community and
Iran. And the United States is adding its weight to those talks and not
changing the preconditions that have been in place.

Q But just for the United States to go ahead with the statement that was
announced by the Secretary of State today, would it need a permanent pledge
from Iranians to suspend all enrichment activities --

MR. SNOW: Again, the conditions have been laid out. Yes, the conditions
have been laid out. That's right, the suspension of enrichment and
reprocessing activities -- enrichment-related and reprocessing activities,
pursuant to the agreement with the IAEA.

Q Can I take another stab at China?

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q The President had spoken about this Iran policy with Merkel, Putin,
Chirac, and -- who else?

Q Blair.

Q Blair.

MR. SNOW: Blair, Merkel, yes.

Q So why not Hu?

MR. SNOW: Jessica, unfortunately, we now get into the status of my time
prior to coming here, which is when President Hu was here, and I just don't
-- I don't have a readout on what the two talked about at the time.

This does not mean -- again, governments talk to one another and it's not
always necessary -- it's not necessary at all times for leaders to talk
with one another. I do -- I have been assured that conversations have been
taking place at a ministerial level.

Q So it doesn't signify any dissension by China?

MR. SNOW: That's just -- no, no, no, no. It doesn't signal dissension or
discomfort on the American side, no.

Q Tony, can I ask you about Iraq? It was a year ago today that Vice
President Cheney said that the insurgency there was in its last throes, and
now we have this latest Pentagon assessment saying that the insurgency is
going to remain steady, the strength will remain steady through the rest of
this year. How does the administration reconcile --

MR. SNOW: Well, there was a time when -- and I don't want to try to
back-interpret what the Vice President said, but let me just offer at least
one view on it, which is, for a long time, when we talked about insurgency
-- that is, "we," generally, Americans -- we thought of al Qaeda. And I
think it's pretty safe to say that the al Qaeda and the foreign fighters
remnant presence in Iraq has been dramatically reduced, such that, at
least, in the opinions of people there, it is no longer the major factor
when it comes to what's going on. Now you do have former members of the
Saddam regime and you do have Iraqi citizens who are in entrenched
opposition and are using terror and other tactics to try to derail
democracy.

Again, I don't want to try to back-interpret what the Vice President said.
But I do think that one of the significant changes from the weeks and
months after the end of major combat activities in Iraq and today is that
that al Qaeda presence has been dramatically, very dramatically reduced --
but it does mean that we still do have opposition within former elements.

Q Thank you.

MR. SNOW: Thank you.

END 1:32 P.M. EDT

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