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Skriven 2006-08-23 23:31:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0608232) for Wed, 2006 Aug 23
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Press Briefing by Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 23, 2006

Press Briefing by Dana Perino
White House Conference Center Briefing Room

Press Briefing view


1:49 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Good afternoon. I'm, frankly, surprised anybody showed up.

Q Why?

MS. PERINO: The junior varsity. Only for another week. (Laughter.)

One announcement, and then we'll go to questions.

Q He'll be gone next week, too?

MS. PERINO: Yes. But we're traveling most of the week.

The President spoke to Secretary General Kofi Annan this morning. The call
lasted about 14 minutes. It was initiated by Secretary Annan. They
discussed the current efforts to assemble an international force for
Lebanon, as called for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,
and agreed that quick decisions by the main potential contributors will be
an important step. Secretary Annan said progress is being made on
assembling an international force. The Secretary General said he would
travel to the region, and the President asked him to call when he returns
to discuss his trip.

They also discussed the Iranian regime's statement on its nuclear program
and the terms of the U.N. Security Council resolution. And finally, they
also discussed Darfur and the need for action to improve the situation
there.

That's my announcement. I'll take questions. Terry.

Q -- peacekeepers, Syria says that the deployment of peacekeepers on the
Syrian-Lebanese border would be a hostile act -- this is something that
Israel has proposed -- and that they would close their border. Does the
United States have any reaction to that?

MS. PERINO: Well, I'm not sure that they're a party to this discussion.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 had the entire United
Nations Security Council agreeing that troops, international troops would
be deployed in Lebanon. Lebanon is a sovereign country; it is its own
territory. If the President of Syria was not supplying Hezbollah, this
wouldn't have been a problem in the first place. So the United Nations
Security Council resolution that calls upon UNIFIL to assist the government
of Lebanon in securing its borders, including its northern and eastern
borders with Syria, stands and the entire United Nations Security Council
agrees.

Q So we don't take this objection from Syria seriously?

MS. PERINO: No.

Q Any further readout on the meeting with Secretary Rice today, and any
response on the Iranian issue so far?

MS. PERINO: Yes, I have one. The Secretary of State's office, on the
Department of State website probably has this statement up on their website
now, as we were walking over.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1696 made clear, as you know,
the conditions Iran must meet regarding its nuclear program. And yesterday,
the Iranian government conveyed its response in the 21-page package on the
incentives that we provided to them on June 6th. That was made by the
United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China,
affectionately known as P5 plus one.

We acknowledge that Iran considers its response as a serious offer, and we
will review it. The response, however, falls short of the conditions set by
the Security Council, which require the full and verifiable suspension of
all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. We are closely
consulting with the other members of the Security Council on the next
steps.

Q Why are we sending more troops to -- Marines and soldiers to Iraq?

MS. PERINO: I think "more" is the wrong word. I think this is a rotation.

Q What?

MS. PERINO: This is a rotation. The order was signed by the President
several weeks ago. The military commanders at the Pentagon know best how to
do those troop rotations. And just as he defers to his commanders on the
ground in Iraq, he defers to his military leaders here. That's why he
signed the order.

As I understand it, DoD held a roundtable today to discuss the order. And
they'll be taking volunteers first, and then going to involuntary action,
if necessary. This does reflect the fact that we're in a long and difficult
struggle. The President is grateful and thankful for every soldier's
sacrifice and the sacrifice made by their families, especially.

I would note, this morning, somebody asked if this was a recruiting
problem. But across the military, at all branches, the military is hitting
its targets for recruiting.

Q So it's not an increase?

MS. PERINO: No, as I understand it, it's a rotation.

Q To go back to Iran, I just wonder, when you said, it falls short, their
response yesterday -- so what's next? What's the United States want to do
in consultation with the P5 plus Germany in terms of -- the U.N. deadline,
obviously, is August 31st. Is there a hope that diplomacy in the next few
days could do something? Are you going to push for tough sanctions? What's
next from the White House?

MS. PERINO: I should have mentioned, the Security Council will meet on
August 31st, as is cited in Resolution 1696. It's U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1696. They will meet on August 31st. Of course, they're in
communication now. I do not have information for you as to specific next
steps, but that's what they're talking about.

Q Do you want tough sanctions, though? I mean, what can you do? There's
been a carrot out there with incentives, but where is the stick from the
United States?

MS. PERINO: We're going to allow all of our allies to -- the P5 plus one to
talk about it and try to figure that out. And when we have next steps to
announce, we'll announce them. But for right now --

Q Doesn't that give Iran the signal that they can just keep talking and
stalling?

MS. PERINO: No, not at all. I think that what it means is that we're going
to -- this is a serious matter, and we're going to seriously consider it.
And the P5 plus one will get together and -- they're going to be talking
between now and August 31st, but when they get together on August 31st --
or before then, if they have more to say as to what the actual next steps
will be, we'll let you know.

Yes, Mark.

Q Was there anything positive in what the Iranians had to say, or was it
just, once you don't get past the uranium enrichment, nothing worth looking
at?

MS. PERINO: I don't have anything additional from what I had earlier.

Q Senator McCain, in his comments yesterday, said that the American people
had been led to believe by the administration that the Iraq war would be a
"day at the beach." Does that concern the White House? Do you feel that
you're losing support among Republicans?

MS. PERINO: I think it's important to look back at what President Bush has
said from the beginning. If you look at what he has said, starting even in
March of 2003, that, "Helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable, and free
country will require our sustained commitment." Throughout the year, since
we've been in Iraq, he has called it -- he has said that it is difficult
work to do, going to require sacrifice and patience, prevailing in Iraq is
going to require much more tough fighting, it's going to require more
sacrifice, and he's thankful for the sacrifices that the military and
military families are making.

It's puzzling to me that McCain's comments yesterday are getting so much
attention today when if you look over the past couple of months, Senator
McCain has made similar comments. He is a Senator who is not shy about
sharing his views. That's one of the reasons he is such a unique figure in
American politics, and also one of the most popular. And he shares,
however, a commitment with the President that we win Iraq, and he
understands the struggle that we're in. The President appreciates his
support.

The President has never made the comments that you referred to. Any time
that the President has felt a need to acknowledge mistakes in the war on
Iraq, he has done so. And other members of his administration, they can
speak for themselves. And I know that the Vice President has repeatedly
been asked about comments that he's made in the past, and he's answered
them. So I don't understand why we're going back over all this ground now.

Q Well, perhaps because support for the war seems to be slipping, it's down
at a new low point in the latest polling, and may reflect concern for the
political year that we're in.

MS. PERINO: I think if you look at what the President said on Monday, this
is tough work that we're doing in Iraq, and criticism is part of our system
of government and certainly a part of when you take tough action and when
you are stalwart in your action. We're aware of the polls, and the
President said on Monday, of course, you want people in America to support
your positions. You've seen him out talking about it. His administration is
going to continue to explain to the American people the situation that
we're in, the struggle that we face and how important it is that we win.

Q Dana, on Monday the President said that Iran cannot be allowed to thumb
its nose at the U.N. Security Council and there have to be consequences.
Does the President believe that this response is essentially thumbing
Iran's nose at the U.N.?

MS. PERINO: What I said earlier was that the P5 plus one is going to take
some time to discuss amongst themselves, and the President has not made a
comment like that to me or to anyone else that I know of. And I think that
what's important here is that this serious matter be seriously considered.
That's what he's doing now.

Q Yes, "falls short" doesn't seem that strong. Do you believe a stronger
statement about Iran's response is expected today, tomorrow? How long will
it take to digest?

MS. PERINO: No, I don't think you'll get another statement today. I think
that we needs some time to review it and to discuss what the next steps
are. All six of them are meeting, and we'll see what comes next. And then
as soon as we do have something, we'll be able to give it to you, but I
don't expect anything else today.

Q But, clearly, the administration looks at the response and sees that Iran
is not agreeing to stop or suspend enriching uranium, correct?

MS. PERINO: The statement says that the Iranians' response falls short of
the conditions set by the Security Council, yes.

Q As far as Iran is concerned, they have said that they will not go with
the U.N. Security Council or the global community as far as the statements
on Iran is concerned. Let's say, if the U.N. fails, or the P5, so what's
the next step for Iran --

MS. PERINO: As I just said, Goyal, let's let the P5 plus one meet, have
discussions, and then we'll announce next steps when we're ready.

Q -- what you said, would it be fair to say that what matters is the state
of play on August 31st, when the U.N. Security Council meets, that that is
the point at which you will decide whether to press for sanctions? Is there
time between now and then for Iran to modify its response, or for other
developments to occur?

MS. PERINO: I, personally, do not know that. I can't tell you right now
that August 31st is the deadline -- well, is the date that we're going to
have a specific statement. It could come before, there could be changes. I
just don't know.

Q The President is going to Kennebunkport tomorrow, he's staying through
Sunday. What should we expect in the way of Iran developments and any
meetings that he might be having over the course of those days in
Kennebunkport?

MS. PERINO: Well, I'll be with you for the weekend, and as there are
updates available, I'll provide them. I don't anticipate anything; there's
certainly nothing on the schedule yet that's public. We'll let you know if
that changes. But I think right now what you'll see, if there's any comment
it will probably be coming from the Secretary of State.

Q He'll be making phone calls, I assume, consulting with allies and staff
during that time?

MS. PERINO: We'll keep you updated on calls.

Q Were you aware of Rockey Vaccarella's political background? Was he
invited to meet with the President because he supports the President?

MS. PERINO: I checked into that, and at the time of invitation, no, there
was no knowledge of his political affiliation.

Q You didn't know he had ever been a Republican candidate?

MS. PERINO: No, he was not invited -- he was invited before anybody knew
that.

Q And were you aware that he was going to endorse the President for a third
term? (Laughter.)

MS. PERINO: No. And, believe me, I think staff thinks that two are plenty.
(Laughter.) I don't think it was a secret that Rockey Vaccarella had been
supportive of the federal effort and he had said supportive things about
the President, as well. He asked to make sure that the President doesn't
forget the Katrina victims, and the President reaffirmed that he will not.

Q Why does the staff think two terms is enough?

MS. PERINO: Because I'm tired. (Laughter.)

Q President Bush is going to be meeting with the South Korean President on
September 14th. Could you talk a little bit about what President Bush's
intentions are in terms of pushing for lowering of trade barriers,
particularly against U.S.-made autos?

MS. PERINO: I am wholly unprepared for that question, so I'll either have
to attach a footnote to the briefing or refer you to the National Security
Council for more later.

Q Does the President support Italy leading the U.N. peacekeeping force in
Lebanon? And did he express any frustrations to Secretary Annan today about
that?

MS. PERINO: I'm not aware of him expressing frustrations to Secretary
Annan. What the President called for is that leadership should be
forthcoming quickly for the international force, but he did not endorse a
particular country leading it, no.

Q It was two days ago that he called for that. Is there any concern within
the White House that, here we are two days later and still --

MS. PERINO: No, I think, as I said before, Secretary Annan said that there
had been some progress, so that's a positive step.

Lester, I can't wait.

Q I have two questions, and could I say that I think you're doing very
well.

MS. PERINO: Thank you.

Q At the most recent Democratic National Committee's meeting, they voted by
voice vote to penalize any presidential candidate who campaigns in any
state that refused to follow a prescribed calendar of primaries and
caucuses by stripping that candidate of his or her delegates at the
Democratic National Convention.

MS. PERINO: And your question is?

Q My question is: Does this sound at all democratic to the President? Or
does he believe it's the latest political totalitarianism of Howard Dean?

MS. PERINO: The President doesn't get involved in the Democrats' decisions.
The Republican Party has decided to leave those matters to the state and
local parties, so we're not going to get involved.

Q On Monday, The New York Times reported that Tony Snow refused to say the
President will support and campaign for Connecticut Republican nominee,
Alan Schlesinger. My question: This is primarily because Lamont, the
Democratic nominee, has accepted public support from Al Sharpton, Jesse
Jackson, and Maxine Waters, and Schlesinger --

MS. PERINO: And your question is?

Q -- has slipped to a single digit. Isn't this the reason Tony didn't want
to answer that question? Or would you like to answer the question?

MS. PERINO: I'm going to leave it where the President left it on Monday,
and I will give you that transcript so that you have it.

Q He will not campaign for this Republican, will he?

MS. PERINO: He will not.

Olivier.

Q One quick one. The office of Afghan President Karzai says the President
invited him to the White House and he's coming. The office of Pakistani
President Musharraf put out a statement also saying that he'd been invited
and he's coming. Why hasn't the White House confirmed the visits?

MS. PERINO: There's just no announcement yet, but if there is, we'll
certainly update you.

Q Just a quick follow on Iran. The House Intelligence Committee put out a
report today, talking about threats from Iran, but also specifically said
the intelligence community has to do a better job of analyzing what
capacity there is for Iran in terms of building and trying to obtain
nuclear weapons. What steps do you think the White House has taken, the
administration has taken in general, to make sure that the intelligence
reports about Iran's nuclear ambitions are not off the mark like the Iraqi
WMD reports were?

MS. PERINO: I think that goes back to -- the President acknowledged that
the intelligence was poor, and one of the ways that he addressed that was a
wholesale transformation of the intelligence community. And the DNI's
office, Director of National Intelligence, led by John Negroponte, is now
coordinating efforts, and that seems to be working better. And I think that
we saw that a couple of weeks ago. I've heard that the coordination amongst
the intelligence agencies, not only interagency here in America, but
working with our allies overseas when the Brits were able to foil that
terror plot, that it was working better. I can't tell you any specifics, of
course, but that was my sense.

Sarah.

Q Thank you, and welcome. You answered part of my question --

MS. PERINO: Oh, good. Let's go to the next one.

Q No, no, I have another. The call of the 2,500 Marines for up to 18 months
means U.S. forces will remain in Iraq for that long. Does that mean that
they will remain in Iraq for --

MS. PERINO: I'll refer you to the Department of Defense who makes all those
decisions.

Richard.

Q With the Congress coming back in a couple of weeks, and the immigration
bill is still hanging out there, is there any effort on the part of the
White House to start pushing the immigration again between now --

MS. PERINO: Immigration is certainly one of the pieces of legislation that
we would like to see pushed forward. I wouldn't say in terms of -- I
wouldn't call this a start, but a continuation of our efforts. Certainly,
Congress has been away, and so during that time it doesn't seem like
there's too much activity going on here in the capital, but a lot is going
on out in the country. And I'm sure members are hearing from their
constituents that they want to have an immigration bill. We consistently
see that people understand that if we're going to solve any of our
immigration problems individually, that they need to be solved together in
one bill, comprehensively. And the President continues to support a bill
that would increase border security, improve enforcement of the interior
laws in our country, for the folks who are here illegally, and dealing with
that problem, and in addition, create a temporary worker program, but
reject a plan of amnesty.

It's complicated, it's going to be tough work, but we are confident that
the American people understand and that the Congress understands that they
have a responsibility to move forward and actually get a bill passed.

Q Has the President been hearing from members of Congress -- over the last
two weeks, discouraging or any encouraging words?

MS. PERINO: I haven't heard whether or not. I know that he talks to members
quite regularly. Specifically on immigration, I haven't heard.

Peter.

Q Following up on that -- since he does talk to members of Congress
regularly, will he or anyone from the staff be consulting with Senator
McCain to find out why the Senator believes that the administration has
misled the public on the war?

MS. PERINO: We'll see if there's any updates in terms of

-- we have regular communication with Senator McCain's office, as you can
imagine. And if there's something to update you on that, we can in the
future.

Q It would seem logical that with such serious allegations, that somebody
would want to reach out to him.

MS. PERINO: I think we're in regular communication with Senator McCain, but
I also -- I point back that he's not shy about his views, and these are
views that he's been expressing for several months now. So I'm not quite
sure I understand the point about --

Q I don't recall him saying the administration had misled the public.

MS. PERINO: I never actually saw the word -- him use the word "misled" in
quotes that I went back and looked up today. I could be wrong. But I
understand the point that he is making, and --

Q -- "a day at the beach" --

MS. PERINO: Going back to what the President said, that it's going to be a
long and difficult struggle. And what they do is share the goal of winning
in Iraq.

Goyal.

Q A Hezbollah question, please. India Globe has carried a front-page story
that it's not only Iran supporting Hezbollah, but now Bangladesh has named
a new bridge to honor Hezbollah's

-- do you have comments on -- Bangladesh, our ally, is naming a bridge --

MS. PERINO: Goyal, again, I'm not prepared for that question, either. We'll
try to get you an answer.

Kelly.

Q When the President today talked about the one-year anniversary of Katrina
being just that, a one-year anniversary, was he in any way trying to lower
expectations for the people in the Gulf region about the measure of
recovery? Oxfam today put out a study saying that housing has not come back
in any measure as much as people had expected in terms of using some of the
money that's been available. And many people are still suffering, as he
indicated. Is the President trying to lower expectations?

MS. PERINO: I wouldn't call it lowering expectations. I think what he is
doing is reminding people of what he said a year ago, after the storm,
which is that there is a dedication to rebuilding the region, but that it
was going to be a years-long effort. This was never something that we were
going to be able to do within a year, especially when you have an entire
city that needs to be rebuilt.

If you think about it, you all are going to be in here for about nine
months as we remodel the White House briefing room. And so rebuilding an
entire city is a much bigger challenge. The resources are available. The
states both have their plans and the money is starting to go out the door,
as I think Don Powell, the Gulf Coast Coordinator, talked about yesterday.

So I wouldn't call it lowering expectations. It's just a reminder to
everyone that it's going to take years, and that reminding the American
people that we've got to stick with it. And they've been very generous both
with their taxpayer dollars and in their personal and private
contributions. And so I think it was -- that was a reminder, not a lowering
of expectations.

Q Thank you.

END 2:10 P.M. EDT
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