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Skriven 2006-09-26 23:31:26 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0609263) for Tue, 2006 Sep 26
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President Bush Welcomes President Karzai of Afghanistan to the White House
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 26, 2006

President Bush Welcomes President Karzai of Afghanistan to the White House
The East Room

President's Remarks view

˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Afghanistan ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Global Diplomacy

11:37 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. Please be seated. It's my honor to welcome
President Karzai back to the White House. Mr. President, Laura and I fondly
remember your gracious hospitality when we met you in your capital. We had
a chance today to reconfirm our strong commitment to work together for
peace and freedom. And I'm proud of your leadership.

You've got a tough job --

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Yes --

PRESIDENT BUSH: -- and you're showing a lot of strength and character. And
we're proud to call you ally and friend. I really am.

We discussed how the government is building institutions necessary for
Afghans to have a secure future. We talked about how America and our
international partners can continue to help.

Our allies are working on initiatives to help the Afghan people in building
a free Afghanistan. And we discussed those initiatives; we discussed
whether or not they could be effective, we discussed how to make them
effective. We discussed our cooperation in defeating those who kill
innocent life to achieve objectives, political objectives.

The Afghan people know firsthand the nature of the enemy that we face in
the war on terror. After all, just yesterday, Taliban gunmen assassinated
Safia Ama Jan -- cold-blooded kill -- she got killed in cold blood. She was
a leader who wanted to give young girls an education in Afghanistan. She
was a person who served her government. She was a person who cared deeply
about the future of the country. And, Mr. President, Laura and I and the
American people join you in mourning her loss.

And her loss shows the nature of this enemy we face. They have no
conscience. Their objective is to create fear, and create enough violence
so we withdraw and let them have their way. And that's unacceptable. It's
unacceptable behavior for the free world and the civilized world to accept,
Mr. President.

I know that Taliban and al Qaeda remnants and others are trying to bring
down your government, because they know that as the democratic institutions
take root in your country, that terrorists will not be able to control your
country, or be able to use it to launch attacks on other nations. They see
the threat of democratic progress.

In recent months, the Taliban and other extremists have tried to regain
control, mostly in the south of Afghanistan. And so we've adjusted tactics
and we're on the offense to meet the threat and to defeat the threat.
Forces from dozens of nations, including every member of NATO, are
supporting the democratic government of Afghanistan. The American people
are providing money to help send our troops to your country, Mr. President,
and so are a lot of other nations around the world. This is a multinational
effort to help you succeed.

Your people have rejected extremism. Afghan forces are fighting bravely for
the future of Afghanistan, and many of your forces have given their lives,
and we send our deepest condolences to their families and their friends and
their neighbors.

The fighting in Afghanistan is part of a global struggle. Recently, British
forces killed a long-time terrorist affiliated with al Qaeda named Omar
Farouq. Farouq was active in Bosnia and Southeast Asia. He was captured in
Indonesia, he escaped from prison in Afghanistan, he was killed hiding in
Iraq. Every victory in the war on terror enhances the security of free
peoples everywhere.

Mr. President, as I told you in the Oval Office, our country will stand
with the free people of Afghanistan. I know there's some in your country
who wonder or not -- whether or not America has got the will to do the hard
work necessary to help you succeed. We have got that will, and we're proud
of you as a partner.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Wonderful. Great.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We discussed our efforts to help the government deliver a
better life. President Karzai said this about his aspirations -- he said he
"wants to make Afghanistan a great success and an enduring example of a
prosperous and democratic society."

We're helping you build effective and accountable government agencies. We
discussed different agencies in your government and how best to make them
accountable to the people. We're going to help you build roads. We
understand that it's important for people to have access to markets. I
thought our general had a pretty interesting statement -- he said, "Where
the road ends, the Taliban tries to begin." The President understands that.
We're helping you with a national literacy program.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We understand that a free society is one that counts upon a
educated citizenry. The more educated a populace is, the more likely it is
they'll be active participants in democratic forms of government. We're
helping you build schools and medical centers.

We talked about the illegal drug trade. The President gave me a very direct
assessment of successes in eradicating poppies and failures in eradicating
poppies. It was a realistic assessment of the conditions on the ground. And
he talked about his strategy, particularly in dealing in Helmand Province.
And, Mr. President, we will support you on this strategy. We understand
what you understand, and that is we've got to eradicate drug trade, for the
good of the people of Afghanistan.

Tomorrow, President Karzai and President Musharraf and I will have dinner.
I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be an interesting discussion
amongst three allies, three people who are concerned about the future of
Pakistan and Afghanistan. It will be a chance for us to work on how to
secure the border, how we can continue to work together and share
information so we can defeat extremists; how we can work together to build
a future of peace and democracy in your region, Mr. President.

I thank you for coming today. I'm looking forward to our discussion
tomorrow evening. Welcome back to the White House. The podium is yours.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Thank you very much, Mr. President. It's a great honor to
be in your very beautiful country once again, especially during fall with
all the lovely leaves around. And thank you very much for the great
hospitality that you and the First Lady are always giving to your guests,
especially to me. And thanks also for your visit to Afghanistan and for
seeing us in our country, for seeing from close as to who we are and how we
may get to a better future.

I'm very grateful, Mr. President, to you and the American people for all
that you have done for Afghanistan for the last four-and-a-half years, from
roads to education, to democracy, to parliament, to good governance effort,
to health, and to all other good things that are happening in Afghanistan.

Mr. President, I was, the day before yesterday, in the Walter Reed
Hospital. There I met wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there also I met
a woman soldier with six boys, from 7 to 21, that she had left behind in
America in order to build us a road in a mountainous part of the country in
Afghanistan. There's nothing more that any nation can do for another
country, to send a woman with children to Afghanistan to help. We are very
grateful. I'm glad I came to know that story and I'll be repeating it to
the Afghan people once I go back to Afghanistan.

We discussed today all matters that concern the two countries -- the
question of the reconstruction of Afghanistan, improvement for the
reconstruction of Afghanistan, the equipping of the Afghan army, the
training of the Afghan army, the police in Afghanistan, and all other
aspects of reconstruction. We also discussed the region around us,
discussed our relations with Pakistan and the question of the joint fight
that we have together against terrorism. And I am glad, Mr. President, that
you are, tomorrow, hosting a dinner for me and President Musharraf. And I'm
sure we'll come out of that meeting with a lot more to talk about to our
nations in a very positive way for a better future.

Mr. President, we, the Afghan people, are grateful to you and the American
people for all that you have done. I have things in mind to speak about,
and you did that, so I'll stop short and let the questions come to us.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. We'll have two questions a side. We'll start
with Jennifer Loven.

Q Thank you, sir. Even after hearing that one of the major conclusions of
the National Intelligence Estimate in April was that the Iraq war has
fueled terror growth around the world, why have you continued to say that
the Iraq war has made this country safer?

And to President Karzai, if I might, what do you think of President
Musharraf's comments that you need to get to know your own country better
when you're talking about where terror threats and the Taliban threat is
coming from?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Do you want to start?

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Go ahead, please. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: I, of course, read the key judgments on the NIE. I agree
with their conclusion that because of our successes against the leadership
of al Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent. I'm not
surprised the enemy is exploiting the situation in Iraq and using it as a
propaganda tool to try to recruit more people to their -- to their
murderous ways.

Some people have guessed what's in the report and have concluded that going
into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree. I think it's naive. I think
it's a mistake for people to believe that going on the offense against
people that want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe. The
terrorists fight us in Iraq for a reason: They want to try to stop a young
democracy from developing, just like they're trying to fight another young
democracy in Afghanistan. And they use it as a recruitment tool, because
they understand the stakes. They understand what will happen to them when
we defeat them in Iraq.

You know, to suggest that if we weren't in Iraq, we would see a rosier
scenario with fewer extremists joining the radical movement requires us to
ignore 20 years of experience. We weren't in Iraq when we got attacked on
September the 11th. We weren't in Iraq, and thousands of fighters were
trained in terror camps inside your country, Mr. President. We weren't in
Iraq when they first attacked the World Trade Center in 1993. We weren't in
Iraq when they bombed the Cole. We weren't in Iraq when they blew up our
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. My judgment is, if we weren't in Iraq,
they'd find some other excuse, because they have ambitions. They kill in
order to achieve their objectives.

You know, in the past, Osama bin Laden used Somalia as an excuse for people
to join his jihadist movement. In the past, they used the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was a convenient way to try to recruit
people to their jihadist movement. They've used all kinds of excuses.

This government is going to do whatever it takes to protect this homeland.
We're not going to let their excuses stop us from staying on the offense.
The best way to protect America is defeat these killers overseas so we do
not have to face them here at home. We're not going to let lies and
propaganda by the enemy dictate how we win this war.

Now, you know what's interesting about the NIE -- it was a intelligence
report done last April. As I understand, the conclusions -- the evidence on
the conclusions reached was stopped being gathered on February -- at the
end of February. And here we are, coming down the stretch in an election
campaign, and it's on the front page of your newspapers. Isn't that
interesting? Somebody has taken it upon themselves to leak classified
information for political purposes.

I talked to John Negroponte today, the DNI. You know, I think it's a bad
habit for our government to declassify every time there's a leak, because
it means that it's going to be hard to get good product out of our
analysts. Those of you who have been around here long enough know what I'm
talking about. But once again, there's a leak out of our government, coming
right down the stretch in this campaign, -- to create confusion in the
minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why they leaked it.

And so we're going to -- I told the DNI to declassify this document. You
can read it for yourself. We'll stop all the speculation, all the politics
about somebody saying something about Iraq, somebody trying to confuse the
American people about the nature of this enemy. And so John Negroponte, the
DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible. He'll
declassify the key judgments for you to read yourself. And he'll do so in
such a way that we'll be able to protect sources and methods that our
intelligence community uses. And then everybody can draw their own
conclusions about what the report says.

Thank you.

Q My question --

PRESIDENT BUSH: What was that question?

Q Why is that declassification not --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Because I want you to read the documents so you don't
speculate about what it says. You asked me a question based upon what you
thought was in the document, or at least somebody told you was in the
document. And so I think, Jennifer, you'll be able to ask a more profound
question when you get to look at it yourself -- (laughter) -- as opposed to
relying upon gossip and somebody who may or may not have seen the document
trying to classify the war in Iraq one way or the other.

I guess it's just Washington, isn't it, where, you know, we kind of --
there's no such thing as classification anymore, hardly. But, anyway, you
ought to take a look at it and then you'll get to see.

You've got a two-part question.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Ma'am, before I go to remarks by my brother, President
Musharraf, terrorism was hurting us way before Iraq or September 11th. The
President mentioned some examples of it. These extremist forces were
killing people in Afghanistan and around for years, closing schools,
burning mosques, killing children, uprooting vineyards, with vine trees,
grapes hanging on them, forcing populations to poverty and misery.

They came to America on September 11th, but they were attacking you before
September 11th in other parts of the world. We are a witness in Afghanistan
to what they are and how they can hurt. You are a witness in New York. Do
you forget people jumping off the 80th floor or 70th floor when the planes
hit them? Can you imagine what it will be for a man or a woman to jump off
that high? Who did that? And where are they now? And how do we fight them,
how do we get rid of them, other than going after them? Should we wait for
them to come and kill us again? That's why we need more action around the
world, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to get them defeated -- extremism,
their allies, terrorists and the like.

On the remarks of my brother, President Musharraf, Afghanistan is a country
that is emerging out of so many years of war and destruction, and
occupation by terrorism and misery that they've brought to us. We lost
almost two generations to the lack of education. And those who were
educated before that are now older. We know our problems. We have
difficulties. But Afghanistan also knows where the problem is -- in
extremism, in madrassas preaching hatred, preachers in the name of
madrassas preaching hatred. That's what we should do together to stop.

The United States, as our ally, is helping both countries. And I think it
is very important that we have more dedication and more intense work with
sincerity, all of us, to get rid of the problems that we have around the
world.

An Afghan press? You?

Q I'm from Voice of America. Mr. President, what is your strategy -- your
new strategy to fight against terrorism, and also to deal with narcotics in
Afghanistan? Thank you.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: All right. This was to me or to President Bush? Okay.
Ma'am, there is no new strategy on the fight against terrorism. We are
continuing the strategy that we have. We are implementing the strategy. We
are moving further in that strategy. We are getting more of them. We are
trying to clean the country of these elements, and the region of these
elements by doing more reconstruction, by doing more search for the
terrorist elements hiding around there. So the fight against terrorism will
continue the way we started it.

Q Mr. President, sorry, do you think it's working now the way it's going?

PRESIDENT KARZAI: It is absolutely working. We come across difficulties as
we are moving forward, and that's bound to happen. And we get over those
difficulties, we resolve them, and we go to the next stage of this fight
against terrorism for all the allies.

At one stage four years ago, we had a war against them to dislodge from
Afghanistan, to remove them from being the government of Afghanistan. And
then there were major operations against them to arrest or to chase them
out. And then we began to rebuild the country, to have roads, to have
schools, to have health clinics, to have education, to have all other
things that people need all over the world. And now we are at a stage of
bringing more stability and trying to get rid of them forever. The desire
is to do that sooner. But a desire is not always what you get. So it will
take time, and we must have the patience to have the time spent on getting
rid of them for good.

On narcotics, it is a problem. It is an embarrassment to Afghanistan. And I
told President Bush earlier in my conversation with him we feel very much
embarrassed for having narcotics growing in our country. But again, it has
come to Afghanistan because of years of our desperation and lack of hope
for tomorrow. I know Afghan families, ma'am, who destroyed their
pomegranate orchards or vineyards to replace them with poppies, because
they did not know if they were going to have their children the next day,
if they were going to be in their own country the next day, if they were
going to be having their home standing the next day. It has become a
reality because of jobs and years of misery.

We have worked on the problem. In some areas of the country, we have
succeeded; in other areas of the country, we have failed, because of the
circumstances, and because of our own failures. We have discussed that, and
we will continue to be very steadfast. It is Afghanistan's problem, so
Afghanistan is responsible for it and Afghanistan should act on it, with
the help of our friends in the United States and the rest of the world.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Caren.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Former President Clinton says that your
administration had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after he left
office. Is that factually accurate, and how do you respond to his charges?

PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, look, Caren, I've watched all this
finger-pointing and naming of names, and all that stuff. Our objective is
to secure the country. And we've had investigations, we had the 9/11
Commission, we had the look back this, we've had the look back that. The
American people need to know that we spend all our time doing everything
that we can to protect them. So I'm not going to comment on other comments.

But I will comment on this -- that we're on the offense against an enemy
that wants to do us harm. And we must have the tools necessary to protect
our country. On the one hand, if al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates are
calling somebody in the country, we need to know why. And so Congress needs
to pass that piece of legislation. If somebody has got information about a
potential attack, we need to be able to ask that person some questions. And
so Congress has got to pass that piece of legislation.

You can't protect America unless we give those people on the front lines of
protecting this country the tools necessary to do so within the
Constitution. And that's where the debate is here in the United States.
There are some decent people who don't believe -- evidently don't believe
we're at war, and therefore, shouldn't give the administration what is
necessary to protect us.

And that goes back to Jennifer's question, you know. Does being on the
offense mean we create terrorists? My judgment is the only way to defend
the country is to stay on the offense. It is preposterous to think if we
were to withdraw and hope for the best, things would turn out fine against
this enemy. That was my point about, before we were in Iraq there were
thousands being trained in Afghanistan to strike America and other places.
The only way to protect this country is to stay on the offense, is to deal
with threats before they fully materialize and, in the long-term, help
democracy succeed, like Afghanistan and Iraq, and Lebanon and a Palestinian
state.

But there's a difference of opinion. It will come clear during this
campaign, where people will say, get out, leave before the job is done. And
those are good, decent, patriotic people who believe that way -- I just
happen to believe they're absolutely wrong. So I'm going to continue to
work to protect this country. And we'll let history judge -- all the
different finger-pointing and all that business. I don't have enough time
to finger-point. I've got to stay -- I've got to do my job, which comes
home every day in the Oval Office, and that is to protect the American
people from further attack.

Now, there are some who say, well, maybe it's not going to happen. Well,
they don't see what I see. All I ask is that they look at that terror plot
that, along with the Brits, we helped -- helped stop -- people who were
going to get on an airplane and blow up innocent lives in order to achieve
political objectives. They're out there, they're mean, and they need to be
brought to justice.

Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, are you convinced, like President Bush,
that the deal General Musharraf signed with the tribal leaders in
Waziristan actually meant to fight Taliban?

And why are you convinced that Osama bin Laden is not in Afghanistan?

If I may, Mr. President, do you agree with the analysis from the counter
chief European -- counterterrorism chief European spokesman who said today
that the international support for terrorism has receded. Do you agree with
that? And do you see the tension between two important allies of yours,
Pakistan and Afghanistan, undermining your effort to get Osama bin Laden?
Thank you.

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's a four-part question. First of all, I didn't -- what
was this person a spokesman for?

Q Counterterrorism chief in Europe.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Some obscure spokesman?

Q No, actually, he has a name.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay, he's a got a name. (Laughter.) Well, no, I don't
agree with the spokesman for the obscure organization that said that the
international commitment to fighting terror is declining. It's quite the
contrary, starting with the evidence that NATO has committed troops in
Afghanistan. These are troops who are on the ground who are serving
incredibly bravely to protect this country.

Secondly, when the Brits, along with our help, intercepted the plot to
attack us, everybody started saying, they're still there. They began to
realize that their hopes that the terrorist threats were going away weren't
true. Since September 11th it's important for the American people to
remember there have been a lot of attacks on a lot of nations by these
jihadists. And some of them are al Qaeda and some of them are al
Qaeda-inspired. The NIE talked about how this group of folks are becoming
more dispersed. That's what I've been saying, as well. After all, look
inside of Great Britain. These are people inspired by, perhaps trained by
al Qaeda, but, nevertheless, plotted and planned attacks and conducted
attacks in the summer of 2005, and then plotted attacks in the summer of
2006. See, they're dangerous, and the world knows that.

And so, from my perspective, intelligence-sharing is good, cooperation on
the financial fronts is good, and that more and more nations are committing
troops to the fight, in Afghanistan, in particular.

Now, the other question --

Q -- does this undermine efforts of getting bin Laden?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, no, it doesn't. It's in President Karzai's interest to
see bin Laden brought to justice. It is in President Musharraf's interest
to see bin Laden brought to justice. Our interests coincide. It will be
interesting for me to watch the body language of these two leaders to
determine how tense things are.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: I'll be good. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: From my discussions with President Karzai and President
Musharraf, there is an understanding that by working together it is more
likely that all of us can achieve a common objectives, which are stable
societies that are hopeful societies, that prevent extremists from stopping
progress and denying people a hopeful world.

I know that's what President Karzai thinks and I know that's how President
Musharraf thinks. And so -- I'm kind of teasing about the body language for
the dinner tomorrow night, but it's going to be a good dinner and it's an
important dinner.

So, to answer your question, no, what you perceive as tension is stopping
us from bringing high value targets to justice. Quite the contrary, we're
working as hard as ever in doing that.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: On the question of Waziristan, ma'am, President
Musharraf, when he was in Kabul, explained what they had done. My initial
impression was that this was a deal signed by the Taliban -- and then later
I learned that they actually signed with the tribal chiefs. It will have a
different meaning if it is that signed with the tribal chiefs -- that for
us, for the United States, for the allies against terror.

The most important element here is item number one in this agreement, that
the terrorists will not be allowed to cross over into Afghanistan to attack
the coalition against terror -- that is, the international community and
Afghanistan together. We will have to wait and see if that is going to be
implemented exactly the way it is signed. So, from our side, it's a wait
and see attitude. But, generally, we will back any move, any deal that
would deny terrorism sanctuary in North Waziristan or in the tribal
territories of Pakistan.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you.

PRESIDENT KARZAI: Thank you, sir.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well done.

END 12:08 P.M. EDT
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