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Skriven 2006-08-08 23:31:08 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060808) for Tue, 2006 Aug 8
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Press Gaggle by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 8, 2006

Press Gaggle by Tony Snow
Crawford Middle School
Crawford, Texas



12:07 P.M. CDT

MR. SNOW: All right, welcome. Let me just start with a couple of little
items of business here, and then we'll go to questions. Those of you who
are eating, you may proceed through the line and shout out whatever you
want.

First, the Department of Commerce has released the latest numbers on wages.
Productivity growth continues to be strong. It's 2.4 percent over the past
four quarters. Hourly compensation is averaging 5.7 percent over the last
four quarters.

Today the President got up, had his normal intelligence briefing. He also
had briefings from the National Security Advisor and the Homeland Security
Advisor. And I believe they're working on a dock today. There will also be
other adventures in the afternoon.

Questions.

Q They're working on a dock?

MR. SNOW: They're working on a dock.

Q They have a lake?

MR. SNOW: I believe that there is no waterway directly to the ocean, so I
think a lake or a pond would be a more likely option. (Laughter.)

Q Tony, what do you think about this Lebanese proposal to deploy 15,000
troops into southern Lebanon? The Israelis called it an interesting step.

MR. SNOW: Steve was asking about a reported proposal by the Lebanese to
deploy 15,000 troops. I think also with the UNIFIL troops. Obviously,
interested in taking a look at it. As you know, there are three Arab
diplomats have shown up in New York, the foreign ministers of the United
Arab Emirates and Qatar, along with Amr Moussa the head of the Arab League.
And there will be discussions today in the Security Council; the U.S. and
the French also have been talking about ways forward.

We certainly welcome any help in trying to figure out how to supplement the
Lebanese armed forces and get us to one of the key goals in Lebanon, which
is to permit the government of Lebanon to assert full control over the
south, and also to prevent Hezbollah from asserting independent control. So
those are all items that are going to be under discussion in the next day,
and who knows how long it's going to go. But, obviously, it's a topic of
conversation in the U.N. and will continue to be.

Jim.

Q Tony, I assume that if the Lebanese army was strong enough to have taken
control without any multinational help, anytime in the last however many
years, they would have done so. So is it fair to say that the
administration would be skeptical of this idea?

MR. SNOW: I think it would be safe to say that the administration
understands that the Lebanese armed forces is going to need some help, and
we're working with allies to try to figure out the proper way to do it, and
also with the Lebanese government, which clearly has the strongest interest
not only in making sure it's done effectively, but it's done in a way they
see fit and proper.

Q Does the administration view this latest proposal by Lebanon as a setback
to getting this resolution moving along?

MR. SNOW: No, no. We do not view it as a setback. As the President said
yesterday in the hanger, and he's said on a number of occasions, diplomacy
takes time. And you've got a lot of interested parties here who have their
own views on how to proceed. And the real challenge now is to work forward
in a manner consistent with the principles that not only the President laid
out on the 12th of last month, but that were reiterated by the G8 and in
Rome and in the draft resolution put together by the U.S. and the French.

So I think everybody is really still pulling in the same direction. There
are a lot of ideas about how best to get there.

Wendell.

Q One of our reports got from an administration source this line, "It is a
line in the stand for the United States that there has to be an
international force deployed alongside the Lebanese in the south." Is that
inaccurate?

MR. SNOW: I think we've always said that there is going to be a force to
supplement the Lebanese armed forces. I'm not going to react to blind
quotes from unnamed administration officials about lines in the sand; I
don't think that's particularly helpful. I think the whole point is to try
to find out a way for forces to be able to supplement the Lebanese armed
forces, so that they can, in fact, be effective in the southern part of
Lebanon.

I think there's a recognition that they will require some supplemental
forces, and the question is, under what auspices that is done.

Q Can I ask you, on a different topic, last week the Senate rejected the
nomination of Richard Stickler at the Mine Safety and Health
Administration. What's the White House's plan going from here? Is the
President planning to do a recess appointment?

MR. SNOW: You have to let know earlier on ones like that, Nedra. I'll go
back and work the phones. I have no earthly clue.

Q Tony, Russia says that if there's a stalemate on this U.N. resolution for
any meaningful length of time they'd like to see an immediate resolution
calling for a humanitarian truce, kind of give everyone a breather while
the negotiations go on.

MR. SNOW: Again, I --

Q The United States has made it very clear that it wants a comprehensive
solution, not some immediate --

MR. SNOW: I think the Russians have been generally supportive of the draft
we've put together with the French, and I'm just not going to get into
assessing public statements at this point, especially about a hypothetical
situation. There's a lot of very active diplomacy going on right now, and
the Russians are among those involved.

Peter.

Q Can you address the report yesterday by AP about the new draft
immigration rules for Cuba that the administration is putting together?

MR. SNOW: Yes, basically, you know, we don't comment on ongoing -- let me
confirm this, that there are drafts, and people are trying to think about
what is going to happen should there be a change in the political situation
in Cuba. But there is no change in policy, and that's the most important
thing to keep in mind.

The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State and other
portions of the government are taking a clear look and monitoring closely
the situation ongoing in Cuba. But as the President also has said, and
Secretary Rice, right now we're encouraging everybody not only to stay put,
but urging Cubans to stay on the island, and work toward democracy. Beyond
that, no specific comment about particulars mentioned in that story.

Q Why is there a need for a change in policy at all?

MR. SNOW: The only -- again, you're talking about a contemplated change
that, in turn, would be in response to a change that has not yet taken
place. I think you can all agree that if there is a change, a dramatic
change in the political situation in Cuba, there may be adjustments in U.S.
policy. Helms-Burton and other things are going to be revisited -- you
would think that -- but, on the other hand, there is no change in policy to
date.

But it is typical, traditional and important for a government to start
thinking, okay, if various changes take place, what sort of adjustments
should we make, and people present ideas. And the fact that somebody has
presented an idea does not mean that there has been a change in policy, it
means that you have an obligation constantly to think ahead domestically
and internationally, and I daresay that if there were changes in Cuba and
we had not thought ahead, the question would be, why didn't you think about
changes that might be taking place.

Sheryl.

Q Tony, Kofi Annan released a letter today saying that there were grounds
for an inquiry into whether Israeli air strikes constituted a pattern in
violating international law. Does the President think there are grounds for
such inquiry?

MR. SNOW: I'm really not going to respond to that. I mean, the Secretary
General was speaking for himself. At this point, the real work at the
United Nations is to try to figure out how to have a cessation of
hostilities in a way that's going to lead to peace and democracy in
Lebanon, and we welcome General Secretary Annan's help in achieving that
goal.

Q Tony, to what extent has the President gotten involved in this Alaska oil
pipeline stoppage, and how concerned are you about the impact on people who
are already hard-pressed by what they're already paying for gasoline?

MR. SNOW: A couple of points. Sam Bodman did a press conference on this not
too long ago, and apparently, at this point, the supplies are -- we're
actually in a pretty good supply situation, but he has also said that the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be made available if necessary. But it
looks like we're running some, like, 5 million barrels a day, in terms of
supplies, better than we were at this point last year.

Having said that, what's going on, really, is the result of some actions
the administration took a while ago. And I'll give you a little bit of a
timetable that helps you put this in context. There was a leak discovered
by a BP crew in March, on March 2nd. That's the first leak of the pipeline
that we know of. Shortly after that, the pipeline and hazardous materials
safety administration issued an enforcement action directing BP to improve
corrosion management on some of those pipelines. Later on it followed up
with a series of other guidelines, including trying to make sure that there
was what they called pipeline inspection gauges -- PIGs, in the parlance --
to try to figure out the integrity of those pipelines. That led to the
discovery a few days ago of weakness in some of the pipelines, which has
led to the interruption.

Now, our first priority is to make sure that there is continued safe
operation of the pipelines coming out of the North Slope. The Department of
Transportation has a team of investigators onsite, right now, to assess the
situation. They're going to have an evaluation. They are issuing new
compliance orders -- statutorily you can do that -- and they've already
issued two compliance orders, I just mentioned that, the one in March and a
follow-on in July. They're going to outline steps that the company has to
take to make sure that the pipelines are safe to be carrying oil.

We're happy that BP finally is making progress in addressing concerns which
have been discussed with it in the past. And we're also in the process of
accelerating the rule-making process that would enable the creation of a
robust regulatory regime over those pipelines. As you probably know, the
low-pressure pipelines -- and that's what these are, these are relatively
low-volume pipelines -- have not had the kind of federal oversight that the
high-volume pipelines have had. And the administration is working quickly
to get that into place.

At this point, obviously -- we've also been working with -- we've had
contact with the governments of Saudi Arabia and Mexico. If there are
supply shortages, they have agreed to help us in trying to address those.
At this point, no refineries have reported shortages in petroleum, but,
obviously, if those become a factor, we will address it and address it
vigorously and in a timely manner.

Q And how concerned are you about the impact on prices?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think any time you have a price increase, you want to try
to address the root cause, and the root cause here is trying to go at it
and deal with the pipeline integrity. On the other hand, I think what
you're going to see -- well, you know what, I don't want to interpret
what's going to go on with the prices. The important thing is that there
does not seem to be a significant supply interruption at this point. We
obviously want to get those pipelines up and running effectively as quickly
as possible. But, again, they have to be operating in a way that is safe
and also environmentally sound.

Q Just to follow up, Tony, when were these conversations with Saudi Arabia
and Mexico?

MR. SNOW: I don't know precisely when, but they've obviously been in the
last couple of days.

Q They have promised to help out if we have --

MR. SNOW: Well, that's according to Secretary Bodman, yes.

Q Is the President concerned that these oil companies who are enjoying
record profits right now are not doing enough to invest in sustaining their
infrastructure to avoid situations like this?

MR. SNOW: I don't think the President -- I'm not sure that the President is
-- let's take a couple of looks. First, most of the oil companies working
on the North Slope have had a pretty vigorous and regular regime of
inspecting the pipelines and looking at it. The pipelines we're talking
about have not been -- apparently have not had one of these pipeline
inspection gauges run through it in 16 years. The normal course is to do it
every other week. So, certainly, there is concern about making sure that
that is the case.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission, as you know, is taking a constant
look at the oil companies to make sure not only that there's no price
gouging at the corporate level, but also down to the gas station level, and
we will continue those regular efforts to make sure.

Q But what does the federal government do to ensure, though, that these
PIGs are going through as they should be, not every 16 years?

MR. SNOW: Well, that's -- again, this was an unregulated pipeline, as I
mentioned before. We're in the process now of doing a rule-making that
would, in fact, make those pipelines that are not presently subject to that
kind of a regulatory regime subject to it.

Victoria.

Q Tony, there's a new Washington Post poll out today as to which political
party people would trust to do a better job handling the U.S. campaign
against terrorism? And Democrats got 46 percent, Republicans got 38
percent. Are you concerned that in this particular category, in which
Republicans have always done better than Democrats, here, as well as in
other categories, Republicans are falling behind?

MR. SNOW: For the umpteenth time, I will remind you that the President is
not trying to conduct foreign policy in the war on terror in response to
public opinion polls, but to the realities on the ground, and I am sure
that that is going to be an important consideration voters are going to
have to make this November: Who really does take seriously the threat of
the war on terror; do they acknowledge or not that terrorists are still
trying to hurt Americans and American interests around the globe; and who
has the most credible way of addressing it. And that is a debate we look
forward to having.

Q Could you just be a little bit more specific about what it is that Saudi
Arabia and Mexico have agreed to do? I just want to make sure we have --

MR. SNOW: I've told you everything I know. The best thing to do is to --
I'd direct you to the Department of Energy, which has had these
conversations. Again, there has been an offer of assistance if we have some
shortages, petroleum shortages, that they apparently have offered to help
But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I'd recommend calling DOE.

Q So you don't know the specifics of whether there's a trigger, in terms of
the number of lost barrels or whatever?

MR. SNOW: I know nothing beyond what I've told you.

Q Does that indicate that they're not really, then, supplying stuff at
capacity? I mean, we were under the impression everybody was pretty much
tapped out, that's why oil prices were so high to begin with.

MR. SNOW: No, oil prices were high for a couple of reasons. Obviously,
there is vigorous global competition, and also there are jitters about
what's going on in the Middle East, Wendell. But, in terms of the vagaries
of how much excess capacity, again, talk to the experts, not the White
House Press Secretary.

Q Demand is not the reason?

MR. SNOW: No, demand is a serious reason, I just said that. There is not
only demand here, but demand around the globe. I just am not competent to
give you an assessment of what sort of swing capacity may still be
available with the Saudis, the Mexicans or others.

Q Does the President plan to have any meetings with congressional leaders
on immigration between now and Labor Day, or any calls?

MR. SNOW: Don't know. All I'm doing is tracking what we're doing this week.
The President has had a number of meetings with congressional leaders. And
I suspect -- well, I don't even want to try to guess, because if I try to
speculate, I could say something that later turned out not to be true, and
we wouldn't want that.

Q What about this afternoon? You said there will be something more this
afternoon?

MR. SNOW: I believe there will be hundred degree club activities later in
the afternoon.

Q I see, not some presidential appearance that we're going to be summoned
to?

MR. SNOW: Not that I'm aware of.

Q Will you report back to us --

MR. SNOW: If you are summoned, we will make sure that you are duly
informed.

Q We'll expect a full report on the hundred degree club.

MR. SNOW: Anything else?

Q Has the President had any conversations lately with President Fox about
the situation in Mexico?

MR. SNOW: I'm not aware of any. I do not think that he has had -- there are
no foreign leader calls today. I think his last conversation with President
Fox was a few weeks ago. I think it was right after the original
announcement of election results.

Q And Tony, one more thing, the Joe Lieberman election, the primary is
today. How closely is the President watching that race. And is he concerned
at all that if Lieberman loses the primary, he would lose a supporter of
the Iraq war in the Senate?

MR. SNOW: I think the President is going to stay out of the business of
trying to characterize what goes on in a Democratic primary. But I think
it's safe to say that there are several Democratic primaries that are of
interest around the country, and people are keeping a close eye on, and the
President is one of them.

All right? Thanks, guys.

END 12:25 P.M. CDT

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