Text 4530, 587 rader
Skriven 2007-05-07 23:31:20 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0705073) for Mon, 2007 May 7
===================================================

===========================================================================
Press Briefing by Tony Snow
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary May 7, 2007

Press Briefing by Tony Snow White House Conference Center Briefing Room

˙ /news/releases/2007/05/20070507-3.wm.v.html ˙˙Press Briefings
˙˙Audio


12:45 P.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: Good afternoon. We have one addition to what I read out this
morning. The President had a secure video teleconference this morning with
Prime Minister Maliki, 25 minutes with staff in, the remainder -- and I
don't know how long that lasted -- was a one-on-one. I can tell you that at
least during the conversations in front of staff the President
congratulated the Prime Minister on the conferences in Sharm el Sheikh. The
Prime Minister, in turn, thanked the President for his support.

Then they proceeded to talk about matters of mutual interest, both regional
relations, and also outreach within Iraq. The Prime Minister is working
with the presidency council to advance the political process in Iraq,
including a lot of the legislation that we've been discussing over the last
few months, but issues of communications and reconciliation were at the
fore. And also outreach to groups within -- you may recall the Prime
Minister went to Ramadi and there he met with Sunni leaders, and the Prime
Minister reiterated his determination not only to continue the process, but
to work for reconciliation within Iraq. So that was sort of the focal point
of those conversations.

Questions.

Q Tony, do you have any readout of what the Queen said to the President?

MR. SNOW: No. No, those are private conversations; we don't read them out.

Q Even on the podium, after the ad lib?

MR. SNOW: That was a good ad lib. (Laughter.)

Q Quality stuff. (Laughter.)

Q Does the President think his drop in the polls, to 28 percent, has
anything to do with our occupation and escalation in Iraq?

MR. SNOW: Actually, one of the interesting things is here's a poll where 51
percent of those who responded were either Democrats or -- self-identified
Democrats or lean Democratic, as opposed to 34 percent Republican, lean
Republican. So you've got a pretty good skew here. And the Newsweek polls
do tend to be outliers in that sense.

Q Is that Newsweek?

MR. SNOW: Yes, that's the Newsweek poll. Look, the President certainly
understands that Americans don't like war. He doesn't like war, either, but
he also does not like the alternative.

Q Does he think it has anything to do with his policies, a drop like that?

MR. SNOW: Well, again, I would counsel against this one, it was a pretty
skewed set of response.

Q Tony, I know you said you can't give us the content of their actual
conversations, but with Great Britain being our primary ally in Iraq, is it
safe to say that might come up, that they might discuss it at some point
during her visit?

MR. SNOW: Again, the Queen -- the Queen put it in a wonderful way: This is
a time to step back and to take a look at the historic relationship between
the United States and Great Britain. She talked about going to Jamestown
last week. And she talked about the things that bind us, the principles and
aspirations. And my sense is that there will be a lot of pleasant
conversation. But, again, I'm not going to try and read out whether they
get involved in geopolitics. I'll leave that to the Queen and the President
to discuss. And, as usually happens -- especially in events of this sort,
where the Queen does not play a political role in Great Britain -- we're
certainly not going to draw her into such things. We're going to allow them
to go ahead and have very pleasant conversations that reflect the long
ties, the deep warmth between the two countries. It's a pretty cool day,
you know? I think that the pageantry -- and there you saw the President
joking with the Queen -- I don't know that a lot of people joke with the
Queen, but the President did. It worked out just fine.

Q You have to say something once he implies she's over 200 years old.
(Laughter.)

Q The governor of Kansas, in the wake of the tornadoes, has talked about
the fact that she can't get equipment into the areas that have been ravaged
because the equipment is now over in Iraq. What type of help is the federal
government going to provide?

MR. SNOW: Well, first, take a look at whether such help has been requested.
But what I would do is I would ask you to go ahead to DOD for really the
specific answers about that. But there's been an enormous amount of help on
the scene already, frankly, when it comes to what's been going on with the
tornado. FEMA has certainly been actively engaged, and the administration
is doing whatever it can. And if there's a need for equipment, it's going
to be arrived -- it will arrive.

As you know, there are prepositioning points throughout the country for
National Guard and other equipment in the case of emergency. So some of
those plans, again, if called upon, are going to be put into motion. But I
just can't tell you precisely how it goes. And in order to get -- the best
way to get an accurate response is to call DOD on that one.

Jim. Did you have one? Victoria.

Q Given that, as you said, the Queen doesn't play a political role in Great
Britain, was there a particular reason why the President gave such a
political speech?

MR. SNOW: The President -- was it a political speech, or was it one, in
fact, reflecting the closeness and the importance of principle?

Q It was a political speech. (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: To you it was.

Q I think it was a political speech. It spoke a great deal about the war,
the war on terror, the war in Iraq. The Queen's speech reflected something
that was not political. When you compare the two, and the tone of the two,
one was political and one was not.

MR. SNOW: As a matter of fact, if you take a look -- one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven -- eight paragraphs, there are nine paragraphs -- I
believe one referred to it, and there was nothing directly mentioning Iraq,
although there was talk about democracy, liberty, defending liberty against
tyranny and terror. It mentions killing the innocent to advance a hateful
ideology, whether it's in New York, London, Kabul or Baghdad.

You may call that political, but that is, in fact, a reflection of what's
going on the world. And we have seen evidence of that. And we've also seen
evidence of terrorists to continue to do that sort of thing. You saw the
Zawahiri tape over the weekend. Well, what did he talk about? He was
celebrating in his own view -- what he said was celebrating terrorism. At
one point he said, "Fie on moderation, I thank Allah for the bounty of
extremism, militancy and terrorism and everything else we are labeled
with." And he talked about that in some considerable detail.

What he tried to do is manipulate American political sentiments, a big,
long section on Malcolm X that was designed to try to foment hatred within
the United States. And he called for a rebellion by minority groups in this
country. And at the same time, what he tried to do was to misconstrue
democratic debate in this country -- small "d" -- in such a way as to try
to take political advantage of statements that Senator Reid has made.

So what you have is you have a determined enemy that, in fact, wants to
kill Americans. One of the things he expressed some unhappiness about is
that he wants to kill 200,000 to 300,000 Americans. Now, again, if you
think it is political to make reference to the fact that that is extremism
and it is a live force in our lives and is a real consideration, then you
so may label it. But on the other hand, there was nothing in here that
tried to draw the Queen into any direct political conflicts in this country
other than to remind and thank her for the support of the very principles
that are the bedrock of the Anglo American system, which have to do with
individual liberties, the rule of law and a long chain of events and
innovations that stretch back from the Magna Carta to the present.

Q You would say it's not political.

MR. SNOW: No. No. I would say it is not political.

Sara.

Q Thank you. Is the President happy with the election in France?

MR. SNOW: The President is happy with any democratic election. And he has
congratulated President-elect Sarkozy and looks forward to meeting him at
the G8 next month.

Q A follow-up on that. Tony Blair is scheduled to step down as head of the
Labour Party later this week. Can you talk a little bit about the notion of
-- the possibility of the French President-elect becoming the replacement
for Tony Blair as the President's best friend in Europe?

MR. SNOW: I believe they represent different countries. (Laughter.)

Q -- best friend?

MR. SNOW: Again, this is -- this kind of trivializes a process that's going
on. And I'm not -- we will have comments --

Q But the friendship between Bush and Blair was pretty important.

MR. SNOW: It was extraordinary. And it's very important to try to develop
and deepen friendships. And whoever may follow Tony Blair as Prime Minister
of Great Britain, we hope to have just as close a relationship. You may
recall that there was some question early on, because Prime Minister Blair
had such a close relationship with President Clinton, about whether he'd
have one with President Bush. Well, he did. And why is that? Because of
deep shared interests and values, precisely the sort of the thing that the
President and the Queen both made mention of today.

What we're hoping for at all times is closer relations with all our allies.

Q Does it suggest -- given what Sarkozy has said about being there, being
at the side when the U.S. needs help -- does that suggest that France might
be more willing to do something in Iraq --

MR. SNOW: Again, I think it's very premature to judge these things. What it
does mean is that in a hotly contested election with very high turnout, Mr.
Sarkozy was elected President.

Q Can I follow up?

MR. SNOW: First, let me get up here and we'll --

Q If that's a follow-up, you can take --

MR. SNOW: Is it a follow-up, Connie?

Q Yes. I just -- on Sarkozy, did the President talk to him --

MR. SNOW: Yes, he did.

Q Okay. Did they speak about this climate change statement?

MR. SNOW: No, they -- it was just a very short two-minute congratulations,
and congratulations on a successful free and fair election, and he'll look
forward to seeing him in Germany next month.

Q Have they ever met?

MR. SNOW: I don't believe they have, but I'll check.*

Q Tony, back to the President's poll numbers. I know the President says
again and again he doesn't govern by polls, and he doesn't really think
about them. And yet the polls keep continuing to go down or stay level,
they don't seem to rise at all. And he has made a determined effort to try
to convince people, he's given many speeches about the Iraq war policy,
global war on terrorism, nothing changes. Is he concerned about that, and
do you look at ways to try to bring back the will of the American people?

MR. SNOW: I think, as Americans -- you know, what's interesting is that,
for instance, you take a look at some of the debate over the weekend, and
you've got -- there seems to be a mind-set sometimes among critics that
they are not going to acknowledge changes on the ground. They quite often
say, stay the course. Well, we do not have a stay the course policy. Or one
in which they say, civil war, when the signals -- or the metrics for a
civil war fortunately have been going down, but you do have al Qaeda
activity.

The question is, why do we not simply give the Baghdad security plan a
chance to work? There have been some encouraging early signs that we
certainly don't want to oversell, but on the other hand, we don't want to
ignore. And General Petraeus is certainly going to be talking about these.

If you take a look at reporting on your network and others, people talk
about tangible changes, not only in places like Anbar province, but also in
some places in Baghdad, some of the counterinsurgency efforts in Diyala.
You do see that there is greater capability and, furthermore,
encouragement, at least in the sense of the conversation today with the
Prime Minister indicating that there is will and determination to make
political progress.

When people start to see that happening, I think they're going to say,
okay. Another thing that's going to be interesting is, there may be more
opportunities to get -- I know that there's more embedding going on, so
people are going to be able to get a better sense, once again, of what's
going on, on the ground -- you've had an opportunity to do it in recent
weeks -- to gather a fuller picture, because for instance, the headlines
this week, eight Americans died, that is true; but on the other hand, you
also had the fact that there have been very successful operations against
bad guys, and you have had some pretty significant seizures, whether it be
in weapons caches, or insurgents, or killers that they've gotten.

All of that sort of stuff also helps balance out the picture. In many
cases, Americans don't get that other side of the picture. They're starting
to get it in some of the briefings -- I know that the Pentagon is going to
start posting some stuff on "YouTube." It's important to make sure that
people are able to draw full judgments. And I think when they see that the
thing that they most want, which is a competent military pursuing a noble
mission, enjoying some success, doing it at personal hazard, and doing it
in a way that is consistent with American principles, they're going to say,
okay, this is what we want.

Q You don't think they've seen that in the past? I mean, this war has ebbed
and flowed, and there certainly has been some good news over the years, and
yet, the President's poll numbers are not improving.

MR. SNOW: I understand that, but the President also --

Q And you've tried to make a case over and over. He's tried to make the
case over and over.

MR. SNOW: Yes. Well, you know what? Ultimately, again, if -- for instance,
I would go back to the Zawahiri tape. What Zawahiri was recommending, for
instance, at one point, he started laying out what his ambitions were. And
his ambition was, what the President has talked about for some time now,
which is a new caliphate, and a caliphate that would extend across much of
the world, and it was going to be trying to place much of the world under
the kind of oppression -- under the religious oppression that most
Americans -- it's not even religious; it is the terrorist oppression that
tends to misidentify itself as a religious movement, and to do it in such a
way as to terrorize people into surrendering their freedoms.

Then Americans say, ah-ha, you mean Zawahiri really does mean that, that al
Qaeda really does mean that. And it's important to realize that the threat
is real and ongoing. The President cannot look away from that, and he does
not look away from that. It is his obligation as Commander-in-Chief to do
whatever is necessary to defend the security of this country.

And that means at times, when it is -- it means at times when people wish
the threat were not there, when some political figures say, I'm not going
to listen to it, they're telling me something I don't want to hear, I'm not
going to listen to it -- and we've heard some of that in the debate. The
President says, I have to, because his obligation is to do the right thing.
And, sometimes, yes, it will be unpopular, but on the other hand, over
time, as people begin to get a stronger sense of what's going on, and they
do get a feeling for progress, you can assume that public opinion will
follow.

And what's interesting is those who live by the polls better be careful,
because if they try to get all their guidance simply from the poll
questions, then all of a sudden it turns out that a lot of the things that
have been stoutly opposed by some in the political class turn out to be
things that have actually provided a basis for hope and success in Iraq --
they'll have to answer for that, too. Polling is not static, and neither
are the issues.

Q Are you saying we want this war, the American people want this war?

MR. SNOW: No, the American people don't want this war, but they --

Q Well, you say the will -- they had the will?

MR. SNOW: Helen, the American people also do not want the Middle East in
flames. They do not want millions of people dying. They do not want the
economic dislocation, the geopolitical danger that would be ignited should,
in fact, Zawahiri and others get their way. Americans still remember
September 11th; they remember the fear it inspired --

Q But the Iraqis had nothing to do with it.

MR. SNOW: I understand that. But on the other hand, al Qaeda now has
decided to make Iraq the central front. And it's pretty clear --

Q We decided that.

MR. SNOW: No, I don't think so. But --

Q Historically.

MR. SNOW: We've gone through this many times.

Q Tony, two quick questions. One, elegant ceremony for the Queen I have
witnessed in a long time. My question is that as far as Prime Minister Tony
Blair step down as Prime Minister of England, do you think when Her Majesty
was carrying any kind of special message from the British --

MR. SNOW: Again, I'm not going to comment or speculate about conversations.
But keep -- the President talks to Tony Blair all the time. I don't think
he needs to have anybody channeling. And as far as trying to do
retrospectives on the Prime Ministership of Tony Blair, let's just wait
until he's made his announcements. We're not going to get involved
beforehand.

Q Second, on Afghanistan. The Afghans are saying really now that the
message for the President, that they are saying that they hope, after their
freedom from the United States (inaudible), that the President or the
United States has not forgotten them because of the attention elsewhere,
and they are asking President's help because they feel that NATO so far has
failed in many areas of Afghanistan as far as tapping down al Qaeda and
Taliban.

MR. SNOW: Well, I'm not going to get -- number one, that's too vague a
charge when you label something to "the Afghans." Number two, the
government of Afghanistan certainly understands our commitment. Part of the
debate on the supplemental, keep in mind, was not merely about Iraq, but
also ongoing operations in Afghanistan, including boosting presence there
and boosting capability.

Q Tony, what are we to read into the Pentagon opting for "YouTube" as part
of its communication?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. You'll just have to ask -- that was something they
announced last week. I don't know.

Q We're you part of that --

MR. SNOW: No, but I think it's a good idea.

Q Why?

MR. SNOW: Because it's important sometimes to be able to get -- it's
important to get images out that are going to portray a fuller picture of
what's going on, on the battlefield.

Q What kind of images would you like to see on "YouTube"?

MR. SNOW: I'd like to see a little bit of everything, wouldn't you?

Q Is the White House going to use it, too, or are you satisfied with your
own web --

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I don't -- we have no immediate plans for using
"YouTube."

Q On Friday I asked Dana why the President opposes broadening the hate
crimes law to cover gays and lesbians. She pointed me to the statement of
administration policy saying: We would oppose it solely on the grounds it
would federalize law enforcement of crimes already being addressed in the
states.

Why is that okay in the case of race and religion, and not in the case of
sexual orientation?

MR. SNOW: Well, no, I don't think -- I think you're asking a question
that's not relevant. The President of course believes in prosecuting crimes
of discrimination against anybody. In fact, that is a proper responsibility
of states, and many states have already enacted such statutes. And we have
a Civil Rights Division to take a look into charges of discrimination on
any basis. The fact is that you try to prosecute the laws so that in a
society like ours, the law is equally applied to everybody.

On the other hand, if you try to -- what this law would do is create maybe
an unparalleled increase in federal police power, and that is something
that we do not welcome, especially because the states already have the
authority to do this, and furthermore, we feel confident that the rights of
all Americans are going to be protected. We have a -- our government is
based upon equal protection under the law. If you suddenly start getting
into sort of a situation where you start trying to tick off each and every
class that may think it's aggrieved, what you're going to do is create an
endless cycle where somebody else wants inclusion. But the fact is, the law
already covers everybody.

So this should not be construed as an attempt to say that we do not care
about acts of violence against individuals. We care about acts of violence
against all individuals, and we think they ought to be prosecuted fully and
completely.

Q Tony, I have a definitional question.

MR. SNOW: Oh, good.

Q Is it possible that some of what the colonists did might be construed by
some as terrorism and insurgency?

MR. SNOW: I don't know, you'll have to ask them. (Laughter.)

Q Do you have their email? (Laughter.)

Q Funny man.

Q You were saying that Prime Minister Maliki is committed to making
political progress, that he and the President discussed that. Can you
outline, in any general sense, what the President conveyed to the Prime
Minister about his expectations for what political progress is by this
fall?

MR. SNOW: No, I'm going to -- no. Again, I'm going to allow the two of them
to have -- they have private conversations for a reason, and many of those
remain confidential.

Let me just tell you again what Prime Minister Maliki was talking about,
which is to assemble the council of presidents, which do include members of
all the major groups, and to sit down in a very practical way and say,
let's get this stuff fixed. That was what he laid out. We'll also leave it
to him to be a little more specific, because he is the Prime Minister, and
it is certainly his prerogative to announce whatever initiatives he may be
wishing to put together.

But, again, what you got was a very clear sense from the Prime Minister
that it was important to be making progress. And I think he felt a little
-- he felt somewhat encouraged by Sharm el Sheikh, because it does create
even a better sense of confidence and standing, and it allows him to
continue to move forward in a way that says, because a result of this -- as
a result of the meeting in Sharm el Sheikh, we're going to be on sounder
economic footing, we've got people who have made commitment, and we have
people who are committed to the success of this country. And we now have to
work together even more closely on things like oil law and constitutional
reform and so on. So he mentioned a lot of that, but I don't want to get
too specific beyond that.

Q Can I follow up? By the time that General Petraeus comes back to the
President at the end of the summer/early fall, and says, here's where we
are, can you say that the President feels confident after talking to the
Prime Minister that there will be achievement to point to on the political
side by that time?

MR. SNOW: Again, as The Washington Post pointed out this weekend, the
Democratic Congress can't even meet its benchmarks. So what you have is a
situation where I don't want to be prejudging what's going to happen, but
it is very clear that the Prime Minister, and I think others in the Iraqi
political system, realize that they want to get things accomplished. And
it's not simply because of impatience in Washington, although that's
clearly -- clearly exists, but because of their own national necessity. In
order to succeed as a country, they have got to find a way to build that
sense of shared economic obligation and cooperation through an oil law.
They've got to deal with the constitutional issues to build greater
confidence between groups. And the Prime Minister has made it clear that as
the Prime Minister of all Iraqis, he is committed to defending the civil
rights of all, and building on that. So I think that that's -- that was the
tenor that was struck in the meeting.

Q I understand all that. I just am asking you --

MR. SNOW: I know, but I'm not going to tell you.

Q You cannot say today that the President feels confident that those things
are achievable by the fall? I just want to clarify.

MR. SNOW: Again, no, because you're asking me a crystal ball question that
I just think -- I'm not going to bite.

Q Who initiated the conversation?

Q Is Maliki confident?

MR. SNOW: Again, Maliki is determined. What you have is a situation where
he is reaching out to the other major political leaders. They're going to
sit down, they're going to talk it through. What he's doing is what leaders
do, which is to try practically to work with everybody who is involved so
that you can come to accommodation, and we'll just have to see.

Q Thank you, Tony. Two questions. Congressman Tom Davis and 17 other
Republican House members have called on Attorney General Gonzales,
Department of Justice, to administer the polygraph test that Sandy Berger
agreed to in paragraph 11 of his plea agreement. And my question, could you
give us a substantial answer to these Republicans' request of the Bush
administration?

MR. SNOW: No. But I will study it.

Q At a press conference, Senate Majority Leader Reid, when asked about the
Vice President's announcement that he changed his position on Iraq three
times in five months, responded, "I am not going to get into a name-calling
match with someone who has a 9 percent approval rating." And my question,
what is the President's reaction to this, and does he believe that the Vice
President's rating is really lower than the now Democrat-controlled
Congress?

MR. SNOW: Again, I don't think the President -- President doesn't have a
comment on either of those formulations.

Q Mr. Snow, (inaudible) democracy include the (inaudible) under threat by
the military, in the light of the (inaudible)?

MR. SNOW: Run that last part by me again -- the democracy threat by
military in what way?

Q It's under threat by the military.

MR. SNOW: I think that's probably an argumentative question and I don't
want to get involved, as there's a debate about the presidency in Turkey --
that it is a democracy, continues to function as a democracy. And we will
let the democratic process work itself out.

Q One question on the supplemental. Do you guys have any reaction -- the
House leadership apparently is preparing some kind of bill that would give
you guys half the money right up front, and wait for the other half for the
President reporting on benchmarks and so forth.

MR. SNOW: Again, we've said that that sort of general approach provides a
kind of uncertainty that really is not helpful to commanders. But on the
other hand, I'm not going to respond in detail to every trial balloon,
because we tend to get a lot. What we're doing is we're working with both
Houses to try to come up with an acceptable way to provide a flow of
funding that is going to enable the troops to have funding and flexibility,
the phrase we've used many times. And at this juncture, you got to ask
yourself what guarantee you have that, again, something is going to meet
that deadline.

So I think the most important thing to do is to pass a supplemental that
gets us through this year.

Q Did Josh go up to the Hill today to talk to Obey?

MR. SNOW: No, I don't think so. No.

Q Tomorrow?

MR. SNOW: Don't know. We'll let you know.

END 1:10 P.M. EDT

*The President dropped by a meeting between National Security Advisor
Stephen Hadley and Mr. Sarkozy at the White House Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006.
===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070507-3.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)