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Skriven 2006-09-27 23:31:34 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060927) for Wed, 2006 Sep 27
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Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 27, 2006

Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
Aboard Air Force One
En route Memphis, Tennessee



11:16 A.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: All right, let's get started. We are on our way to Memphis,
Tennessee. Let me give you the President's schedule. He had his normal
briefings this morning. At 8:55 a.m. he met with the Secretary of State,
Secretary Rice. At 12:05 p.m. he will attend the Bob Corker for U.S. Senate
and Tennessee Republican Party Luncheon. We arrive back at the White House
at 4:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m. will be the greeting with the President of Pakistan and the
President of Afghanistan, in the Oval Office. And at 7:50 p.m., the
President will make a statement, and the President of Pakistan and the
President of Afghanistan will be there with him. That will be in Rose
Garden, and that is pool coverage.

Let me give you one read out on a presidential phone call this morning, and
then I'll give you a little bit about the dinner tonight. The President
spoke with the new Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, this morning. The
two leaders reaffirmed the continuing warmth and strength of the U.S.-Japan
alliance. They expressed their desire to further deepen and strengthen
bilateral relations and global cooperation based on the advancement of
deeply held common values of freedom, democracy, human rights, market
democracy and rule of law. The President congratulated the Prime Minister
on his election and said that he and Mrs. Bush look forward to seeing the
Prime Minister and Mrs. Abe at APEC in Hanoi in November.

Q Where was that, back at the White House?

MS. PERINO: That was at the White House, by phone, from the Oval.

A little bit about the dinner tonight, so that you have something to use.
You heard the President describe it yesterday, these two countries,
Pakistan and Afghanistan, are very important allies to the United States.
The President looks forward to this opportunity to meet with them, and he
will be able to be a part of a conversation and work to help strengthen the
relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He will recognize both
countries' efforts to improve communication amongst their two countries,
increase efforts to counter the militant threat facing both countries, and
really focus on the cooperative efforts there, and emphasize the United
States' long-term commitment to the region's security.

One of the reasons that we are all in this together is because we have our
common enemy that wants to do us harm, so there are some key things that
both countries can do to help strengthen security and help us win the
global war on terror.

And with that, I'll take your questions -- oh, and let me give you one
scheduling update, in case you didn't see. Tony was not initially going to
brief today, but he is briefing at 11:30 a.m., in about 15 minutes, back at
the White House.

Q Can you talk -- whose house is the fundraiser at?

MS. PERINO: I don't have the actual house. I know it's a private residence.

MR. DECKARD: We'll get you the name.

Q Can you talk a little bit about the NIE? And there seems to be kind of
disconnect between the President's more rosy assessment that he gave during
the Karzai meeting and what actually came out of the report. Are we missing
something here?

MS. PERINO: Absolutely. You heard the President yesterday. Tony will talk
more about this in the briefing today. But the President yesterday said
that he embraced the NIE and its conclusions. It does not come as a
surprise to him that the terrorists, once they were hit hard in Afghanistan
and are hit hard in other places around the world as we work in cooperation
with our allies, that they disperse and become more diffuse.

And if you had a chance to look at the National Counterterrorism Strategy
document that the Homeland Security Council produced and the White House
released in August, many of the strategy -- you will see that the strategy
points, many of them are based directly on information from the NIE. And,
in fact, Fran Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor, told me yesterday that
in knowing that they were going to do the updated National Strategy for
Counterterrorism, she asked for more research. And one of those things that
she told me is that when you're going to do this type of research, you ask
for an NIE. And so that's what they had done. I guess it was finished
around February, in terms of their research, and written and published in
April of 2006.

The President realizes that we have a philosophical choice to make in this
country, the debate being whether we fight this on offense or not. When he
said yesterday that to not keep the pressure on them and not keep on
offense would be to ignore 20 years of experience, it also meant that it
would ignore the choice that we have to make as a country: Do we continue
to fight aggressively on the offense, or do we sit back and wait?

And Fran Townsend comprehensively went over the document yesterday. One of
the key points was that it says that should the jihadists perceive
themselves to be failing in Iraq, their ability to recruit and train will
be lessened. And that's why we -- that's why the President has continued to
say -- lay out the importance of and the consequences of winning in the
region.

Q I'm wondering if there are going to be details on the fundraiser, in
terms of whose home and the amount of money raised. You'll have that?

MS. PERINO: For the amount of money raised, I've always got to refer you to
the campaign itself. I just -- I know it's a private residence; I just
don't have with me the actual name of the individuals' home. But I believe
there's about between 400 and 430 people attending. We'll get the name and
bring it right back to you.

Q Dana, Fran Townsend said yesterday that the leak of the report was a
crime. Did the President -- is there some sort of -- is there going to be
some sort of investigation into who leaked that information?

MS. PERINO: I have not heard him express that. No, I think if there's
something to update in terms of an investigation, I'd have to refer you to
the Department of Justice, because I believe that the intelligence agency
that produced this document that was leaked is the one who makes the
request to the Department of Justice. The President, to my knowledge, has
not made such a request. It is troubling that classified information is
leaked.

A couple of points about -- the intelligence community must have the
ability to write frankly and to provide advice to the President, in which
they provide both welcome and unwelcome news. And what you don't want to
have happen, and what Fran Townsend was talking about yesterday, is losing
that ability of both the intelligence analysts, and then the policymakers
using the information that they're getting, to feel like they are hampered
in any decision-making because they believe that that information is going
to end up in the public and be exploited for political purposes.

It is curious that this document was finished and provided in April and it
doesn't show up until we're in the homestretch of the election. We've seen
this pattern of behavior before. Just, overall, the leaking of classified
information, the President takes it very, very seriously, I can assure you
of that. But in terms of an investigation, I haven't heard that.

Q Will there be any readout of the dinner tonight afterwards?

MS. PERINO: Let me find out. I don't know who all is in attendance, but
we'll see if we can provide something. The dinner is a little bit later in
the evening, so we'll see what we can do to get you something. I'll find
out who the duty officer is, or if Fred or I could do something.

Q Great. That would be wonderful.

MS. PERINO: Okay. We'll get you the name of the house.

MR. DECKARD: It's Pitt and Barbara Hyde, P-i-t-t, last name is H-y-d-e,
wife is Barbara, and he's the founder of Auto Zone.

END 11:25 A.M. EDT

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