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Skriven 2006-06-08 23:34:34 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0606087) for Thu, 2006 Jun 8
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Press Briefing by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 8, 2006

Press Briefing by Tony Snow
James S. Brady Briefing Room

Press Briefing view


10:23 A.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: All right, welcome. Let me run through the President's schedule,
then we will get to a readout on events in Iraq.

First on the schedule today. The President right now is meeting with
governors in the Roosevelt Room, the topic of discussion the line-item
veto. He will be having a meeting after that with the President of Chile,
and he will be lunching with the President. There will also be a meeting
with the President of Latvia. The President and Mrs. Bush will be heading
to Camp David at about 3:00 p.m.

Let me give you a readout -- oh, I'm sorry, a couple of other things before
we proceed further. In addition, we are announcing -- and I think you've
probably already seen the announcement of a trip to Hungary. The President
will -- I'll just read it out.

President Bush will visit Budapest, Hungary, for a bilateral program on
June 22, 2006, following his participation in the U.S.-European Union
summit in Vienna, Austria. In Budapest the President will celebrate
Hungary's historic sacrifices in the name of freedom by commemorating the
50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, underscore the success
of the U.S.-European partnership in securing freedom in the region, and
highlight the lessons offered from Hungary's successful transition from
tyranny to free market democracy. And you can read the rest of the press
announcement elsewhere.

Jobless claims are down to 302,000. That's 35,000 down from the previous
week. But to put it in context, we have also noted in recent weeks that
that number was artificially inflated by a strike in Puerto Rico, so what
you have is a set of good economic numbers.

Let me now begin by -- for those of you who haven't heard -- giving you
sort of a time line of what happened yesterday. Yesterday at 3:30 p.m. or
so, right after Dirk Kempthorne was sworn in as the new Interior Secretary,
the President met in the Roosevelt Room with a large group of Democrats and
Republicans, members of five different congressional delegations who
traveled recently to Iraq. And the President was getting not only their
observations, but recommendations.

During the course of that meeting, Ray LaHood, Representative Ray LaHood
offered the helpful suggestion that things would be better if somebody
would get Zarqawi. There was a little snickering in the room at the time.
Little did we know.

Now, National Security Advisor Steve Hadley excused himself from the
meeting on a couple of occasions because he was getting a lot of phone
traffic from Iraq. As it turns out, at 3:45 p.m. he had a conversation --
that's Eastern time -- he had a conversation with Ambassador Khalilzad, who
informed him that there had been a strike in Baquba and they thought they
had Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. At 4:20 p.m., another phone call -- the President
was still in the meeting, by the way, with members of Congress. The
National Security Advisor thought it would not be well-served to come in
and make an announcement because at that time they were still -- they
weren't completely certain that Zarqaqi, in fact, was one of the victims in
the bombing raid.

At 4:20 p.m., the Defense Secretary also called -- again, the President was
still in the meeting with members of Congress. At 4:35 p.m., at the
conclusion with the meeting with members of Congress, the President was in
the Oval Office, along with Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice,
National Security Advisor Hadley, and the Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. At
that time, the National Security Advisor informed the President of two
things, first that Prime Minister Maliki had completed his cabinet, and
secondly, that there had been a strike in Baquba and they thought that they
had gotten al-Zarqawi, to which the President responded, "That would be a
good thing." According to those in the room, he received the news with
pleasure -- or he was pleased by it. I think "with pleasure" is probably
not the right way to say it. He was pleased by the news.

At 9:10 p.m., Steve Hadley received a phone call from the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff who informed him that they had, in fact, done some
forensic reviews and that the fingerprints, tattoos and scars on the body
did, in fact, match those of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Ten minutes later, at
the conclusion of that conversation, the National Security Advisor called
the President and informed him.

This morning, upon reaching the Oval Office, the President did have a
couple of conversations. At about 6:45 a.m. he and Prime Minister Tony
Blair had a brief conversation, the President informing the Prime Minister
of what had happened and the Prime Minister passing on congratulations.

Then at about 7:00 a.m. began a phone call with Prime Minister Maliki. And
I'm just going to grab my notes and give you a couple of readouts on that.
It was about a 25-minute conversation. It lasted until about five or six
minutes before the President actually commenced speaking in the Rose
Garden. The President congratulated the Prime Minister on a new cabinet,
and he said that he had shown strong leadership by making decisions and
standing by them. They talked about the chief objectives of the new
government in Iraq, which are reconstruction, reconciliation, and security;
in particular developing professional, well-trained and disciplined police
and military forces.

The President said that, "You're going to have our help, you've got my
confidence because you've shown you can lead." He issued an invitation for
the Prime Minister to join on Tuesday by teleconference his cabinet -- that
is the Iraqi cabinet -- with key members of the U.S. Cabinet, who, as you
know, will be at Camp David. As the President announced in the Rose Garden
this morning, there will be a session in Camp David on Monday and Tuesday
involving Cabinet officials -- in some cases some outside experts, as well
as joining us by teleconference will be Generals Abizaid and Casey and
Ambassador Khalilzad. Two-day working session looking forward in Iraq.

And I think that gets us up to date. Questions. David.

Q Could I just pick up on that last point? How does the President approach
this working session, and specifically, does he think it's time to meet
with the Iraqi leadership for a reassessment on our security posture?

MR. SNOW: This meeting has actually been sort of in the planning stages for
a while, and it's been timed to coincide with the full development of an
Iraqi government and cabinet. Now there will be discussions of security,
absolutely. And we've already seen the United States responding to some of
the expressed needs of the Maliki government, for instance taking some
forces out of Kuwait and putting them in al-Anbar province.

What we're really going to be talking about is how to support this new
government. As I've said before, the Maliki government gives the United
States a partner in developing peace in Iraq. You now have a defense
minister, you now have an interior minister, you now have a security
apparatus in place. And that is going to enable not only the President, but
also key officials in this administration to work directly with their
counterparts.

But the meeting -- it would be a mistake to categorize this, David, as a
war cabinet meeting, because it's not. The topics not only will include
military matters, but it will include economic development, it will include
energy -- including getting electricity supplies up -- it will include
cultural matters. It will include a broad range of things.

But what the United States is going to be doing, rather than resetting --
the question now is, how do we help the Iraqis? To use the formulation the
President has used many times, how do we help them stand up? And that is
going to be one of the key items for discussion. The other thing that's
going to go on is that there will be discussion about this new Iraqi
government, because we do have people who have had the opportunity to work
with them, and we're going to be speaking with them, obviously, by
teleconference.

Go ahead.

Q What impact does the killing of Zarqawi have on violence in Iraq, does
the President think?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think there are two things. Actually more than two
things. It's an interesting situation. You can anticipate, and I think
we've seen already, that some of the first reaction is going to be for
terrorist and insurgent forces to try to demonstrate that they haven't been
weakened by committing acts of violence. And we've seen some of that in
Baghdad today.

The second thing, I think, is that you are going to see that terrorist
leaders have received a message, which is, you can't hide. Zarqawi,
obviously, somebody who was much wanted, and it is worth, I think, praising
the U.S. forces who were engaged in this operation. It was a tough and
difficult operation, but they've succeeded in it.

This also gives us an opportunity to look at the war in a different way.
Quite often it's very easy to measure what's gone on in Iraq in terms of
explosions and IEDs. We have been crushing the opposition, but what happens
is the opposition has been controlling the airwaves with scattered,
fragmentary acts of violence. The President made the point this morning in
the Oval Office, after he spoke with the Prime Minister: he said, "You
know, previous wars you'd win a battle and you'd know you'd won a battle;
in this war we can win on the ground every day, but as long as terrorists
continue to have isolated acts of violence that capture attention, and in
some cases capture fears, they win."

In this case, this is the equivalent of winning a battle, because it allows
people to focus on the kind of activities that are going on. In the
briefing earlier today we learned that this was not one, but there were 17
follow-on operations. This was not sort of a one-off operation, get
Zarqawi, dust off your hands and walk away. Instead there has been a
concerted effort to go after terrorists. And maybe one of the most
important things to understand is that Iraqis are now cooperating. They're
providing intelligence. And that sends a message to terrorists that safe
havens are going away. If you saw, for instance -- and it was striking --
when the Prime Minister today announced the death of Zarqawi at a press
conference, what you had was applause followed by rhythmic applause. We saw
scenes of celebration in Iraq.

Does this mean that happy days are here again? Of course not. The President
and everybody else have counseled that this is -- the war is still on and
there are serious security challenges ahead. But on the other hand, I think
this was a moment where the Iraqi people realized, again, that they can be
effective also in helping the battle against those who have been killing
them.

Terry.

Q The President has said that any decision on U.S. troops in Iraq will be
based on the recommendation of commanders. He's going to have commanders at
Camp David and be talking to them --

MR. SNOW: The commanders actually will not be at Camp David. They'll still
be in Iraq, but they'll be joining us by teleconference.

Q All right, participating in the meeting. So will that be part of the
discussion?

MR. SNOW: No. This is not -- again, the facts on the ground, we know we
have killed a terror leader, but we also know that there are many other
people committed to preventing democracy from taking root. The death of
Zarqawi does not change overnight the situation, but I think in the long
run it can have ramifications, because it does send messages to the
terrorists, and it does send messages to the Iraqi people that they can
play a role, as well.

But nobody expects a snap change. But there will absolutely be discussions
of what lies ahead and how we can best support the Iraqi forces. But in
terms of a war council where we say, on this date we're going to withdraw,
as the President has always said, the conditions on the ground will
determine what happens in terms of the deployment of troops, and those
conditions obviously, as reported and assessed by the generals involved.

Jim.

Q Is this "the" most positive day in the war in Iraq, overshadowing even
the capture of Saddam?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I really don't. I mean, the President, at the very
-- right after September 11th, cautioned people that this was going to be a
long war and that the American people would need to maintain their will and
maintain their desire to win the war on terror. It is a day where a lot of
people can say, okay, we killed a very bad man.

Just to give you a little bit of context on this, Zarqawi moves into
Baquba, into an area called HibHib, and what happens -- over the weekend,
they found nine heads in a box. They beheaded people and left the heads in
a box. They hijack a bus full of students and they slaughter the students.
That's what Zarqawi brought to Baquba. So for people in Iraq, I think this
sends a powerful signal. Whether it's the most important day or the most
positive day, I don't know, but it's certainly a positive development.

Q Let me ask you this, because I suppose another way of looking at this is
if somebody hadn't flipped, if somebody hadn't tipped off everybody,
Zarqawi would not have been targeted. So a lot of this is dependent on
another terrorist, perhaps, wanting to see Zarqawi dead so that they could
move into the created vacuum.

MR. SNOW: That would be a really stupid terrorist, because the life
expectancy of people who have been succeeding these guys, and the life
expectancy of being Zarqawi's number two has not been very good. So if
somebody was trying to tip off Zarqawi in sort of a Machiavellian attempt
to re-jigger things, I think they ought to think twice because what is
happening -- and we've seen this and we've heard reports of it, but I think
this dramatizes it -- the Iraqi people are saying, we've had it with these
guys. We've had it. We're not going to take it anymore. And that is an
important step. And this is the kind of thing that can reinforce those who
want to go ahead and stand up against terror in their midst.

Q One follow. Does the administration have a number two, a natural
successor that you have your eye on as the inheritor of the vacuum?

MR. SNOW: General Caldwell was talking about that earlier today. Boy, I'll
tell you what -- it was al-Masri, I believe.* If somebody can look that up,
pull it up. But General Caldwell, in his briefing, was talking about it,
and I'm not going to try to fake it for you. What we'll do is I'll have
these guys look it up and I'll go through it here in just a couple of
minutes. But he did have what he thought was sort of a logical follow-on,
somebody who would be the logical successor, somebody who has been involved
in IED operations and so on. Whether that's the logical successor, I don't
know. But that's -- his word is a lot better than mine.

Q To follow up on this, Tony, can you walk us through, if you can, the
actual way this tip came down? Was it --

MR. SNOW: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. No operational details.

Q Can you tell us, though, was it in any way based on the fact that Zarqawi
went public and showed his face on television recently?

MR. SNOW: Again, I'm not going to tell you anything in terms of operational
details. It would be irresponsible.

Q Tony, can we expect that political and civil rights of the Russian
"un-citizens" will be raised in the meeting with the Latvian President?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I'll give you a readout after the meeting.

Q You've talked about the PR effect of this -- you talked that it sends a
signal and a message --

MR. SNOW: Let me -- I want to be careful. This is not PR. PR is selling
soap. This is trying to build a basis for democracy. I really wouldn't want
to dismiss what has happened -- this was not a PR move. This was an
important security move going after the guy who amounted to the top field
general for terror in Iraq. Go ahead.

Q Okay, so when we've asked what the facts on the ground are, how this will
affect the circumstances in Iraq, and your response has been, it sends an
important signal.

MR. SNOW: Right.

Q How does it affect the actual daily violence in Iraq?

MR. SNOW: We're going to find out. As I said, I think at least part of the
fear is that in the next few days there may be an attempt on the part of
terrorists to say, look, we're still strong, and to commit flashy acts of
violence. That would be something that one might anticipate. But I don't
know. And I think it takes a sort of prescience that none of us in this
room have.

Q But the President said this will turn the tide, he hopes this turns the
tide for the Iraqi government.

MR. SNOW: Yes, of course.

Q So in what way?

MR. SNOW: That's a good question. Okay, in what way does it turn the tide?
Several ways, really. First, you have a brand new government; you have a
defense minister and you have an interior minister. Both of them are going
to have to work together in fighting violence, in fighting terrorists
within their midst. A police force is going to have to be able to keep the
peace while also observing and respecting human rights. And that kind of a
signal -- if people believe they can trust the police to turn over the
terrorists in their midst, that's an important breakthrough.

In addition, the military is going to be mounting operations in a number of
places. You saw the Prime Minister go down the other day to Basra. That
really impressed the President. As a matter of fact, one of the
congressional delegations, I believe it was the one with Roy Blunt and
Steny Hoyer, had gone to meet with Prime Minister Maliki and they were
told, sorry, he's not here today, and it was because he went down to Basra.
And he said, we're going to fight terrorists and we're going to make a
stand here.

To the extent that it helps build the determination and confidence in the
new Iraqi government and of Iraqi forces, who will be working with the
United States and eventually taking full command of what goes on in Iraq --
to the extent that it builds their confidence and their professionalism,
it's an important thing. But we don't want -- I don't want people to get
giddy about this, or euphoric. What you want to do is to make sure that,
absolutely a positive sign, and absolutely one that could have very
positive ramifications over time. But we need to understand it is still a
war, and there are still going to be tough days.

Steve.

Q Did the President know that the manhunt had intensified for Zarqawi? He
mentioned that there was acting on a tip. Was he surprised by this news?

MR. SNOW: No. I'm going to take a quick look, see if I can find it
yesterday in the notes, because he actually was talking after Ray LaHood
had made the helpful suggestion that they go ahead and kill Zarqawi. The
President had said -- had made it clear that there were ongoing efforts to
get Zarqawi, and he talked about the special forces. And one of the things
he took pains to do this morning, also, is talk about the extraordinary
accomplishment, in a time when people have questioned the valor of American
forces.

I would point to several things here. Not only did you have this operation,
but it's also an example of what's gone on in this war. You had targeted,
500-pound bombs that hit a single building. The idea is not to kill
civilians, the idea is to kill the bad guys. No country has ever spent more
in the way of resources or gone more out of its way to protect innocents.
And the men and women who fight there, and do it under extraordinary stress
and pressure, need to get full credit for what they do every day. This is
one of those chances to understand exactly what goes on, and the President
feels strongly about that. So that's --

Q You also mentioned that, I think the quote was, we are crushing the
opposition. How can that be true when there are bombs going off every day
killing hundreds of people?

MR. SNOW: Because that's exactly the point to make -- there are a continued
string of victories, if you want to call them that, of going after terror
cells -- why don't we call it successes. I think victories would place me
in the uncomfortable position of sounding giddy about what are really
targeted operations against discreet terror cells. And those have
succeeded. We see them all the time. But they're not nearly as splashy as
what happened today, when somebody blows up a bomb in a marketplace in
Baghdad and kills innocents.

They know that they can manipulate those pictures to give the impression of
success. But if you take a look, for instance, at some of the al Qaeda
memos to Zarqawi, where you had direct pleas, will you stop beheading
people, it's bad PR; when you had some indications that Zarqawi was
beginning to lose confidence -- I mean, this is -- what's happened is, the
practice of killing Iraqi civilians, surprise surprise, is not all that
popular with Iraqi civilians. And so you begin to see the development of
confidence among the Iraqi people, not only in the confidence of the
American forces, but most importantly of being able to develop security
forces where Shia, Sunni and Kurds alike can trust the people who are
working for their national government. That's the next big step.

Jim.

Q Tony, so the news was learned by the President, I take it, at 9:20 p.m.,
but the White House doesn't announce it for several hours. Could you say
what the thinking was about how to announce it? You could have broken in --

MR. SNOW: We could have, but we thought we'd let you sleep. No, it was
decided that the Prime Minister of Iraq ought to announce this important
development on Iraqi soil. And so you saw the press conference with the
Prime Minister and General Casey where they announced it.

Q You mentioned earlier in the briefing the President's earlier statement,
this is going to be a long war, a long struggle in Iraq.

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q And I'm curious, from the point of view of public opinion, polls suggest
that the war is still pretty unpopular among Americans. And I'm wondering
if you can just address the significance of these day's events on kind of
keeping the American public supportive of a continued presence and
engagement in Iraq?

MR. SNOW: First, it's a long war on terror. It's a mistake to focus on Iraq
as the sole and only focus. We've seen parts of the war on terror being
played out over the weekend in Canada. We've been told of intelligence
operations all around the world. So I want to make that important
correction.

As far as public opinion, the President understands that war is a grueling
thing, and that it does, in fact, wear on the patience of a people. It has
long been remarked that in democracies the hardest thing -- Tocqueville
talked about it, for heaven's sake -- the ability to maintain support for
something as taxing as a war over an extended period of time. The President
understands it. But he also understands that this is a war we're going to
win, and it means that if he takes a public -- if he takes a hit in the
polls, it's less important than carrying out his obligations as
Commander-in-Chief.

Now, I think it's important for the American people to understand the
nature of what's going on in Iraq, which is -- this gives us a chance to
illustrate it -- nobody carried a big story over the weekend about the fact
that Zarqawi's people had deposited eight or nine heads in a box -- I say
eight or nine because the press accounts vary. That's grotesque. It had
enormous effect there, didn't get reported here. And people forget the
nature of the opposition there. Not much reporting here about the fact that
a bunch of university students get on a bus and they get turned around and
gunned down. That's not reported here.

We hope that we are going to be able not only to present the facts -- to be
able to present the facts on Iraq -- the good, the bad, because there are
going to be times when you have bad news -- but to give a sense of what's
taking place. For instance, again today, I don't -- I have not watched
closely enough. I don't know if people have played the original Maliki
announcement where he does it, and members of the press are applauding in
the room. It's important for us to understand that a war on terror is a war
that involves the hearts and minds and determinations of all people
involved -- those on our side, and also the bad guys, as well. What
happened today was a blow to the morale of the other side.

Q And you think that buys you more time to --

MR. SNOW: I don't -- you don't talk about buying time. I mean, the only
thing you can do is to continue to try your best -- you don't have to try
your best, but to continue to make sure you're going to win. And we're now
in that period of transition. And it really does mark a new day. And it's
an interesting one, when you have a Prime Minister who has shown the kind
of leadership and the verve that Prime Minister Maliki has, and the
President now can say to the Secretary of Defense, you deal with the
Minister of Defense. And there is the ability now to start doing
coordinated work with the Iraqis in a way that simply has not been possible
before.

Q Tony, there has been talk in intelligence circles in recent months that
Zarqawi had overtaken the significance of Osama bin Laden in the terrorist
hierarchy. Does the President believe that the death of Zarqawi today is
perhaps even more significant than the death or capture of Osama bin Laden
would be?

MR. SNOW: I wouldn't compare. I really wouldn't. Secretary Rumsfeld was
pretty direct. "No man in recent years," he said, "has the blood of more
innocents on his hands than Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." I think rather than
trying to compare people who take delight and believe that they serve a
holy mission by slaughtering innocents, I think it's important that we took
one down.

Q What about the significance of Zarqawi in Iraq as far as the security
situation goes there?

MR. SNOW: Again, we're going to have to see. You know the theories, Brett.
He's the general. Does this mean that suddenly that some of the other arms
in the terror network begin to wilt away? We don't know. We've also heard
reports in recent years that al Qaeda has, in fact, splintered, that bin
Laden no longer had the kind of command that he did, and therefore, you had
autonomous units developing. We don't know what's going to happen. What we
do know is we have to stick with the job because there are still others
remaining, and we've got to take care of them, as well.

Q Do you think that this is going to be significant talk on Monday and
Tuesday about the effect Zarqawi and the security --

MR. SNOW: Well, absolutely -- you mean, when we're talking at Camp David. I
think we're going to try to assess it. I mean, certainly the topic is going
to come up, but I think it also comes up not merely as Zarqawi, but Zarqawi
and the terror network and what's going on with insurgency, and old Saddam
loyalists. I mean, all those things fit into the picture, and it's one of
the reasons why we want to hear from General Casey and General Abizaid.
Cynthia McKinney made the point yesterday in the meeting with the President
that the one thing they had gotten from generals there were thorough and
honest assessments of what's going on.** And that's part of what we expect
to get to.

Q I'm sorry, I heard with my left ear this morning on the way over here,
somebody, I believe it was a general briefing from Baghdad, using the
phrase, "treasure trove" of intelligence that was gathered. What else was
gotten on the scene or in these other 17 strikes that you can tell us
about?

MR. SNOW: Nothing. I will go -- let's see, here we go. I will read to you.
It's General Caldwell. He did, in fact, he said, "Conducted 17 simultaneous
raids within Baghdad proper and just on the outskirts, utilizing both Iraqi
security forces and coalition forces." He said, "There was a tremendous
amount of intelligence collected and presently it is being exploited and
utilized for further use. It was a treasure trove, no question." But he did
not issue details, nor will I.

Q Tony, can I come back to the Camp David meeting? I'm still a bit
confused.

MR. SNOW: Yes, absolutely.

Q The President has said security needs of the new government is going to
be one of the prime topics of discussion. You said it again.

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q And no discussion of troop levels? Surely, there's going to be some
discussion of it, not necessarily a decision --

MR. SNOW: You guys are all -- why are you so hellbent on saying, we're
going to get out tomorrow, or you know, make a good news headline? But the
facts on the ground, we've got six additional dead guys out of the terror
network, but there is still a significant problem here. So I don't think --
of course, there is going to be a discussion of the way ahead, and there
will be discussions, if this happens, what happens here. But I think you
need to frame this more in terms of how the United States and the Iraqis
cooperate. And I think we're still at the point of assessment. We now have
a defense minister -- in six, eight, ten hours -- so none of these things
are going to be -- you can't analyze them in sufficient detail at this
point to say, at some date we'll be able to do this.

I mean, we know that the ultimate objective is for the Iraqis to take full
responsibility and for the Americans to come home. But there is certainly
no timetable and that's not going to be part of the discussion.

Q Tony, you spoke about this turning the tide in Iraq. Does this also turn
the tide here at home, where the public has been deeply skeptical about the
war and the President's handling of it?

MR. SNOW: We'll have to see how the public assesses this. Again, as I
mentioned before, war can be a grueling thing, but I think if people begin,
once again -- there has been insufficient focus on how incredible the
people who are fighting over there are, and the kinds of hazards they
endure, and the kinds of precautions they take, and the kinds of successes
they achieve, because, again, an exploding bomb in a marketplace is just --
it's an easier picture and an easier story.

If the American people begin to see that a new government in Iraq -- one
that had been opposed through three election cycles and the development and
the inauguration of a new government -- not only is standing up, but is
showing leadership, and you've got a Prime Minister who is clearly not a
figurehead, who is somebody who does have a bias for action, I think it
gives people a chance to say, okay, let's take a look at what's happening
here. And again, the American people are fairminded. We'll have to see what
happens in weeks ahead.

Q Tony, can you talk about the $25 million bounty and who gets it?

MR. SNOW: Don't have any information on that. Obviously, $25 million
bounty, but again, the point here also is, we're still at the point -- all
of these questions bear on operational details. If we say, this guy gets
$25 million, that may tell a lot of things about intelligence-gathering.
But having said that, I've got nothing on it.

Q My understanding is the U.S. military isn't eligible for that --

MR. SNOW: No.

Q -- but I'm wondering whether the people who provided the intelligence
might be.

MR. SNOW: You know what, hurl it to the Pentagon. Just don't know.

Q Tony, could I go to domestic?

Q Can we stay on this, please?

MR. SNOW: Lester, we'll come back to you. I think we've got a lot --

Q You seem to be saying that the way this is seen is that we're letting the
drama of the explosions color the way we're seeing everything. But we're
certainly hearing plenty of stories from reporters there who are saying
they would like to go out on the street and tell these other stories, but
they can't because, as we've seen in the CBS case and others, it isn't safe
yet to do that.

MR. SNOW: And Baghdad is -- you've got four provinces where violence is a
significant problem. Baghdad proper is one of them. Al-Anbar is one. You
know -- and so, absolutely, it's tough to get out and around in those
places. On the other hand, if you've had people who have been in Kurdish
areas, who are vacationing there, for heaven sakes, literally vacationing.
So it's -- again, I don't want to be a Pollyanna about this, but there have
been significant successes in various portions of the country. There have
also been cases where we've succeeded in cleaning out a place, and then
over time, bad guys come back. We understand that.

But it is worth noting that it is not all unrelieved gloom and doom, and it
is possible for someone to paint a picture of a place being in total chaos
simply by detonating a single bomb.

Q Tony, do you think, does the White House think that a success story such
as this one has transfer -- in other words, does it help the President
negotiate other things on the Hill, for example, a push on immigration, or
get a little more muscle for something else?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, this is such an
extraordinary and separate issue that, as you know, Richard -- there are a
lot of people on the Hill who support the President on the war and don't
support him on immigration. I don't think they're suddenly going to say,
whoop, changed my mind. Those are still legislative issues that involve
people's passions and political beliefs.

I think the most important thing is that we now -- again, I'm going to
stress this over and over -- you've got a government in Iraq that means
business and that is serious. The new head of the defense forces is a
lieutenant general who has been in command of ground forces for the better
part of a year and has already dealt with U.S. generals on the ground and
the U.S. military. Therefore, you've got the basis of a relationship. And
you have a retired colonel now who is head of the interior ministry, who
also has some experience with the Americans.

So it's important to realize that the big change here may not --
immigration, taxes, all those are issues on which the President is
passionate and he'll make his views known. But on the war, I don't think
there's necessarily a direct transfer, nor should there be. I mean, these
are separate issues.

Q You just accused my good colleague over there of being hellbent to get
troops out tomorrow, but I think there's some polling evidence that
suggests Americans are getting antsy to see some troop movements back --

MR. SNOW: I understand that --

Q What I'm asking is, how does the President view that? I mean, you say
that -- is he like that --

MR. SNOW: No, the President understands what the polls are, but he also
understands what his obligations are as Commander-in-Chief. And if the
polling data is contrary to the national security interests, guess what --
national security interests win, period. That's how he views it. And so you
can look at the poll data -- and we do, we've taken very cold and honest
looks at the poll data -- but the one thing as Commander-in-Chief, he is
not going to fail in Iraq. He is not going to permit failure, and
therefore, even if at times that may seem to fly in the face of public
opinion, he knows his job as Commander-in-Chief of the United States is to
carry out his constitutional obligations. And one of the things that is a
strong point of this President is that he'll do it, regardless of what the
polls say.

Q Tony, who are the outside experts coming to Camp David?

MR. SNOW: We're still working on it.

Q And is the President seeking advice for Iraqis in forming the new
government, or is it going to be a broad discussion of administration
policy in Iraq --

MR. SNOW: It's going to be a broad discussion of policy in Iraq. For
instance, some of the conversations are going to be, how is Iraqi culture
changing, I mean, how are the Iraqi people changing, how has the war
affected them; how do you make sure that you interact effectively with the
Iraqi people, given what's happened over the last three years. Those are --
it's not all troop movements, it's trying to figure out the most effective
way to work with this new Iraqi government. And as we've said, there's
going to be a teleconference -- it will be a pretty extraordinary thing --
with the President and Prime Minister and their respective cabinets.

Q Are they people in Iraq, or are these experts, like, from universities
and --

MR. SNOW: Again, we're coming up with a list. I'll tell you what, I'll leaf
to my page here, because I can tell you who we have confirmed. And we are
still sort of finalizing some of the guest list on it. But the Camp David
attendees will include, obviously, members of the Cabinet who are directly
engaged in the war, as well as some who might be considered indirectly --
the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy, for instance; the Vice
President; the Secretary of State; Secretary of Defense; Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs; the National Intelligence Director; the National Security
Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor; the Director of Central
Intelligence; White House Chief of Staff; other relevant White House
staffers. That's sort of the general outline right now.

Q How will the President report to us, or the American people --

MR. SNOW: Through me.

Q Through you? I mean, he's not going to give a speech or something?

MR. SNOW: There will -- wait until the schedule comes out. There will be
opportunities to find out what's going on.

Q Just a housekeeping matter, first of all, I think what Terry was getting
at -- do you plan to brief there, or here, or will you be setting up a
briefing room there?

MR. SNOW: Wait until we release the schedule and we'll be able to give you
full details.

Q The President recently expressed some regret about the tone, the bravado,
if you will, that he's used in the past. Did that have anything to do with
the tone that he took this morning in the Rose Garden announcement on this?

MR. SNOW: No. No. Look, war has its effects on Presidents, too. And the
President has taken a very serious look at what has gone on in Iraq and,
again, has been trying to assess as vigorously as possible how you win it,
and how you create a freestanding Iraq. Those are the things that he's
concerned about. So, no, there was no attempt to sort of cross-hatch this
with previous comments.

Is this on this topic, Lester?

Q No --

MR. SNOW: You'll have to wait.

Q One more on the tick-tock.

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q When Congressman LaHood said that at the meeting, what was the
President's response to him?

MR. SNOW: Well, we were all sort of like, "well, yeah!" I mean, I think --
the response was kind of jovial within the room. People were going, whew,
good one, Ray. Little did we know that maybe even at that moment it had
already taken place, because -- I mean, it's at the bottom of the second
pages of my notes, so it very well could have been after the fact, but none
of us knew it at the time.

Q Has he called the White House today, LaHood?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I'll let you know if there are congratulations,
thanks or other things.

Q Maybe he should suggest ending world hunger, also. (Laughter.)

Following on Peter's question, we saw the President's very somber tone out
here in the Rose Garden. At any time during this -- for want of a better
word -- was there any jubilation on his part, was he smiling?

MR. SNOW: I was not there in the Oval when he was briefed. I've told you
who was there. I am told that he was pleased. I kept trying to get, did he
smile, did he laugh? And, apparently, no. It was like more a sense of
relief, but also let's figure out if this is right, what are the facts,
what's going on there.

The President, in situations likes this, tends to be very practical. He's
not going to run around the room giving high-fives. Instead it's, what do
we know, who's there, tell me about the operation. And the follow-on
conversation was more of that tone than jubilation. But as was related to
me, again, he said, "Well, that would be a good thing." And that's the one
and only quote I've been able to glean from the session.

Q This is another of the domestic effects. Do you --

MR. SNOW: Let's hold --

Q No, no, domestic effects of this.

MR. SNOW: Oh, okay. Proceed.

Q Do you expect this to affect the calls for immediate pullout one way or
the other?

MR. SNOW: That's up to the people who are calling for immediate pullout. I
mean, the people who are making calls about the war have to ask themselves
a question, what is the best way to win? And I will let them answer for
themselves.

Q Exactly when did you decide to go ahead with the Camp David summit --
after you learned of --

MR. SNOW: No, no, no. This, literally, has been -- I was in planning --
this has been going on for a matter of weeks. You don't just throw together
a summit like this. It has --

Q It had been already --

MR. SNOW: It's not like, when Zarqawi dead, no. The idea is to coordinate
with a fully formed Iraqi government, because --

Q It had more to do with the appointments of a defense minister --

MR. SNOW: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Q Can you give us a sense, also, of the thinking behind doing this summit
at Camp David, outside Washington? I mean, is there a reason that the
President wanted to gather all his advisors around him someplace outside
the White House?

MR. SNOW: When the President makes those decisions, I don't say, sir, why
did you do it? You just work on the planning. I'll let you draw your own
conclusions. I don't even want to presume to speak for him on that.

Q Tony, on terrorism and domestic security, are the rates -- are the
security levels -- alerts going to go up? Do you have any particular
suggestions? And this phrase that's sometimes batted around, be vigilant
and not vigilante. How do you draw that line?

MR. SNOW: What do you mean? That part I don't get, what do you mean,
vigilant but not vigilantes?

Q How do we prepare ourselves from the possibility of increased security
here, Canada, England --

MR. SNOW: The way we've done always. Well, look, one of the things that's
happened is, intelligence programs that have been conducted by this
government since September 11th have worked. And we saw evidence of that in
Canada over the weekend.

So nobody here stands down any day. And there are people who are devoting
all of -- devoting their careers and their lives right now to fighting
terrorism, not only here, but elsewhere. I don't -- for questions about
whether it affects terror alert levels and that sort of thing, I would
refer you to Homeland Security. We don't set those -- I don't set those,
and I don't have any sense of what might happen.

Q Tony, is there a difference between the capture of Saddam Hussein and the
killing of Zarqawi? If so, what is it?

MR. SNOW: Well, they're two different people captured under two different
circumstances -- you know -- again, I'll let historians assess the relative
significance. This is an important development in an ongoing war. That's
all I can tell you. I just -- I am poorly placed to give you historical
significance.

Lester.

Q Yes, Tony, two questions. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that
the Grand Jury investigation of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for
her striking of a U.S. Capitol police officer went into its third month,
"with experts saying it should have been wrapped up in a matter of days."
My question, as this nation's chief law enforcer, does the President
disagree with the National President of the Fraternal Order of Police,
Chuck Canterbury, who said, right from the start, this U.S. Attorney
handled this case differently because she's a sitting Congresswoman?

MR. SNOW: As I described to you, Lester, the President is not going to
assert command influence over ongoing investigations in Iraq. He certainly
is not going to sit around and second-guess a Grand Jury in Georgia.

Q All right. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has written an article in Rolling Stone
which revisits the Ohio vote in 2004. Does the President believe Kennedy
has raised any new evidence of voter fraud?

MR. SNOW: No, what I think he will do is let you, Lester, be his emissary
from Rolling Stone. (Laughter.)

Q You're a funny man.

Q Why isn't the President going to Kiev?

MR. SNOW: The President will be going to Kiev. We've just postponed the
trip. There will be a trip, but we're going to go to Budapest. This wasn't
a good time, and we're going to find a better time.

Q I have one more. On Iran, have you gotten the formal response from Iran
that you're expecting, or --

MR. SNOW: You're assuming, Steve, that there's a bilateral relationship
with Iran, and there's not. The --

Q Through the media, I guess.

MR. SNOW: You know, at this point, when it comes to Iran, I think we'll
just allow diplomacy to work its course without trying to engage in any
speculation about the back and forth. Let me also just give you -- well,
never mind. Go ahead.

Q Since the King of Jordan has an interest in al-Zarqawi, I was wondering
if the President also talked to the King or if he plans to?

MR. SNOW: I don't know if he's planned to. As you know, he had a
conversation with him last week. But he's got a pretty busy schedule today.
He's spoken with two heads of state, and he's got two other heads of state
in the White House today. I'm sure he and the King will be talking soon,
but I don't -- I don't have a schedule on that.

Q A follow up on her question. The Jordanians are claiming some
responsibility, credit for the killing of Zarqawi. Did the King, in his
unannounced visit last week, deliver any kind of information --

MR. SNOW: Again, I'm not getting into any operational details at any level.

Q Tony, estate tax. Is the administration willing to support a compromise
rather than --

MR. SNOW: Our position is simple. We want it repealed.

Q Thank you.

MR. SNOW: All right, thank you.

END 11:08 A.M. EDT

*In the Defense Department Briefing today in Baghdad, General Caldwell
stated, "Probably Abu al-Masri, if you had to pick somebody, would be the
person that is going to try to occupy the position that Zarqawi had."

**CORRECTION: Congresswoman *Shelia Jackson Lee* made the point yesterday
in the meeting with the President that the one thing they had gotten from
generals there were thorough and honest assessments of what's going on.

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