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Skriven 2006-08-31 23:31:40 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0608314) for Thu, 2006 Aug 31
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Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 31, 2006

Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Andrews Air Force Base



3:43 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Good afternoon. For all of you who have been traveling with us
the past four days, we're finally on our way home, to D.C.

The President gave his speech today at the American Legion. This was the
first in a series of speeches he's going to be giving from now until the
UNGA speech on September 19th. Again, the purpose of the speeches is to
explain all that we are doing, and what the enemy is doing in the global
war on terror, so that the public can clearly understand what we're
fighting, how we're fighting, why we're fighting, and most importantly, why
we are winning.

On Tuesday -- actually, I have two scheduling announcements. Let me start
with Monday. Monday is Labor Day. On September 4th, the President will
participate in a tour of Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and
Education. He will make remarks about the economy on Labor Day at that
event. It's in Piney Point, Maryland. And that event will take place sort
of midday, leaving late morning and getting back early afternoon.

Q Do you know how far away is it from Washington? Is it like a day trip?

MS. PERINO: Yes, it's just a day trip. It will be probably a chopper. But
we'll give you details on that in the week ahead tomorrow. But just so that
you have this for your planning purposes tonight and for your reporting
purposes if you want it.

And then on Tuesday, the President will be giving the second in a series of
these speeches. It will be in Washington, D.C. The audience will be the
Military Officers Association of America, and there will be many members of
the diplomatic corps in attendance, as well.

And with that, I'll take your questions. Let the record show there are no
questions.

Q Dana, I just was wondering if you could address what the President talked
about today. He seemed to group together Sunni followers of al Qaeda along
with Shiites in Iraq who are involved in the sectarian violence, and these
groups are fighting each other. So I'm just wondering if you could
elaborate on how he thinks these groups are united in one belief?

MS. PERINO: The point of today's speech and the key of today's speech was
to show that there is a common thread. You see that the violence that is
happening around -- one of the things I mentioned yesterday was that these
different groups share an ideology of hatred and use tactics of murder of
innocent people, and that there is a common thread that ties all those
together.

And so the point of the speech today was to take a step back and to look at
the global war on terror in a broader context. One of the reasons for doing
a series of speeches is because the global war on terror is very complex,
there are a lot of different parts to it, and if the President were to try
to address all the parts in one speech, most likely he wouldn't accomplish
anything because there would be too much to say. And so by breaking it up
this way, you can address the different issues over a period of time when
America is, rightly, thinking about the global war on terror, and
especially today, he focused on the war in Iraq.

Q What issue does he plan to focus on in the next speech on Tuesday?

MS. PERINO: I hope to be able to give you some more of those details
probably by tomorrow.

Q Without giving the details, describe the breakdown -- if today was Iraq,
sort of how many speeches -- what will the breakdown roughly look like over
the next few weeks?

MS. PERINO: Again, that's what I hope to be able to provide a little bit
more detail on tomorrow, as plans are finalized. The speech today was an
overall view with a longer section on Iraq, and it will go through the UNGA
speech. But for the topics, I'm just going to have to ask for your patience
and I'll, hopefully, be able to give you a lot more tomorrow.

Q Can you preview what he's going to be doing on the 9/11 anniversary?

MS. PERINO: No, we have not announced all of those details yet. The one
thing I can say is that the President will visit all three sites on the
anniversary.

Q On that day, on September 11th?

MS. PERINO: Yes, but there could be additional travel, and I'm just not
able to tell it -- to reveal that yet.

Q Thanks.

MS. PERINO: Okay, thanks everyone.

END 3:47 P.M. EDT

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