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Skriven 2007-08-08 23:30:52 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0708084) for Wed, 2007 Aug 8
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Press Briefing by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary August 8, 2007

Press Briefing by Tony Snow James S. Brady Briefing Room

˙ /news/releases/2007/08/20070808-4.wm.v.html ˙˙Press Briefings
˙˙Audio


1:02 P.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: Good afternoon. A few things up front. This afternoon we're going
to give you the results of the President's physical exam. It's actually
been conducted in a series of exams over the last couple of weeks. Doctors
have determined that the President remains in superior fitness for a man
his age -- anybody who has seen him on the bike or out and about certainly
knows that -- and that he is fit for duty.

The President and Mrs. Bush are going to welcome French President Nicolas
Sarkozy and Mrs. Sarkozy to the home of former President George H.W. Bush,
for a private lunch on August 11th -- that will be Saturday. This is a
result of an invitation extended during the G8 by Mrs. Bush to Mrs.
Sarkozy.

Obviously, the U.S. and France share a deep historic friendship. They've
worked together since the founding of the nation to protect freedom around
the world. And the President looks forward to visiting with President
Sarkozy during their time in Kennebunkport and also, obviously, looks
forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.

The President also spoke Tuesday evening with Australian Prime Minister
John Howard. The President told the Prime Minister that he looks forward to
visiting Sydney in early September for bilateral meetings and for the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit. President Bush and Prime
Minister Howard discussed a range of issues, including the situation in
Iraq, the international economic outlook, and climate change issues.

Questions.

Q Has the President called Barry Bonds yet?

MR. SNOW: Actually been reaching out to him, and there will be a
conversation at some point today.

Q Tony, in the President's statement about the economy, he didn't mention
anything about the mortgage issue, which is currently creating a lot of
anxiety in some sectors, and also nothing about the credit crunch. I'm
wondering why not.

MR. SNOW: Well, number one, obviously people are concerned about the
situation. Fortunately, at this juncture, the subprime market is something
like 0.7 percent of the overall mortgage market, but it is a source of
concern. The President really was speaking broadly of the fundamentals in
the economy, and you've got an economy right now where we still have robust
levels of growth, we have continued growth in employment, we have wage
growth. But the President also thinks it's very important to continue to
attend to fundamentals in terms of keeping taxes low, working on
regulations, and also looking at trade, because exports, for instance,
represent a very important and growing part of our economy.

Why the President didn't mention something, I don't know. But the fact is
that you had a broad briefing about a lot of issues; he'll have
opportunities to talk about other things later on.

Q On the micro level, a lot of people -- individuals who are reading
newspapers every day, aware of their own mortgage statements -- adjustable
rate mortgages, for instance -- a lot of people sort of get a sense of how
the economy is going through that very individualistic prism. And more and
more people -- not just subprime -- are starting to feel some sort of pinch
as regards their mortgages.

MR. SNOW: Well, what you're talking about is adjustable rate mortgages.
Look, there obviously is some anxiety about mortgages in various parts of
the economy. What the President thinks is important is that you have to
make sure that you don't strangle the market for providing funds for people
to continue to finance their homes. And that is -- that's obviously
something that we'll continue to look at it.

Q The President said he would use his veto pen to prevent tax increases,
yet even some Republicans are suggesting some tax increases to repair the
nation's infrastructure, such as the bridges. Would the President be open
to something specific like that, to transportation needs?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think at this juncture, let's -- number one, I haven't
heard any specific requests from Republicans for raising taxes on
infrastructure. Number two, it's important to take a clear look -- you've
got to keep in mind, the majority of funding for infrastructure is state
and local. There is a significant federal role, but the majority is from
state and local. And we've had a 30 percent increase during this
administration in the funding for transportation and for infrastructure.

If this -- if members want to have a conversation about it when they come
back, we'll certainly listen, but the President believes it's important to
hold the line on taxes. A lot of times, when you are making -- you've got
to make decisions about what your priorities are, and members of Congress,
obviously, they'll have something to say. But what you're asking me to
respond to basically are flyers at this juncture, rather than concrete
proposals. Can't really do it in detail.

Q Tony, President Musharraf bailing on this jirga, is that a setback for --

MR. SNOW: We're not -- we're not sure what his schedule is. The Prime
Minister is there, and really the most important thing to do right now is
to figure out what the jirga achieves. So you have a senior official -- the
Prime Minister certainly counts as a senior official within the Pakistani
government. I don't know and I'm not sure our people know for sure what
President Musharraf's schedule is. But, no, this is obviously important.
You've got Pashtun leaders from both sides of the border. They're talking
about something that's very important, which is try to build greater
confidence and security, and to try to avoid the problem not only of the
gaining strength of radical forces within some of the tribal areas in
Pakistan, but also stopping cross-border incursions, which has continued to
be a source of concern for the Afghans.

Q But is the White House and the President concerned, after Karzai seemed
to be friendlier toward Pakistan the other day at Camp David --

MR. SNOW: Again, I think what you're trying to do is to create a personal
fight here, and I don't think it exists.

Q Tony, does FISA or any law affecting intelligence gathering need further
revisions, or is the state of the law now exactly what the President thinks
he needs?

MR. SNOW: There would be further revisions that we would like to see. As we
told you before, DNI Director McConnell put together a 66-page bill
originally; we pared it down to 11 pages, which were the absolute
essentials. Now, we're going to have to see in the atmosphere when we get
back what Congress is willing to consider.

What Congress has done now is passed a bill that will stay in effect until
-- well, six months from now. In six months it's going to be debated again.
It is important at all times to try to figure out how you can collect
intelligence, how you can target -- how you can sort of surveil foreign
targets who are not on American soil, do so in a way that is consistent
with protecting the civil liberties of Americans, and at the same time
guaranteeing their security.

I cannot tell you at this point, Ken, what kind of debate is going to be
happening in the weeks to come. But certainly it's important to make sure
that we realize that in the war on terror we're fighting an enemy that's
constantly adapting, that is technologically sophisticated, that certainly
is doing what it can to try to make full use of means of communication and
means of destruction to go after American citizens, and we've got to be
nimble in responding to them.

Q As we sit here today, are there things the President would like to do
that he thinks are crucial to defending the country that he thinks the law
doesn't allow him to?

MR. SNOW: At this point I'll let the President say it. Right now what we're
talking about is we have gotten what the DNI Director says he needs for
this month, right now. We can continue the conversation about what other
changes might be contemplated later.

Q Why did the President need enhanced power to conduct surveillance
involving American citizens, as well? I understand the target --

MR. SNOW: What do you mean?

Q Well, because now the target is somebody overseas, but it could be
somebody who is talking to an American citizen by phone or email.

MR. SNOW: Well, you've got to keep in mind that the original FISA statute
said that you didn't need a warrant if you were, in fact, doing
surveillance on a foreigner, period. What we've done is we have restored
the original intent and design of FISA.

Again, the target in these conversations: a foreign individual not on U.S.
soil. If that person is talking to a U.S. citizen, it does not mean that
you're sitting around doing surveillance on the U.S. citizen. Furthermore,
if it is a --

Q But if you're surveilling a phone call, you're not just listening to the
foreigner's side of the call, right?

MR. SNOW: Well, yes, but on the other hand, if -- you probably understand
that if somebody is just calling in and asking how his socks are at the dry
cleaners, all of that personal information is combed out and, in fact, the
U.S. citizen basically -- you're not conducting surveillance.

If, on the other hand, they're talking about blowing up subways in New
York, what happens is then our officials would go to the FISA court, seek a
warrant and listen in. But the idea that somehow this is an attempt to sit
around and listen in on American citizens -- I can think of nothing less
efficient than sitting around and saying, I want to listen to Joe here, but
I've got to wait until somebody abroad who belongs to al Qaeda gives him a
phone call.

Q But on that point about going to the FISA court, you're saying the
administration will still go to the FISA court. But, in fact, the new law
is going to give enhanced power to the Director of National Intelligence
and the Attorney General to approve this, not the --

MR. SNOW: When you want a warrant to do surveillance on an American
citizen, you have to go to the FISA court.

Q Still?

MR. SNOW: Yes, yes. But what we're talking about -- yes, absolutely.

Q So the Attorney General can't just sign off on it, or the DNI, without
the FISA court --

MR. SNOW: Well, what happens is that the Attorney General, the DNI, a
number of other lawyers and others are going to put together procedures for
figuring out who is eligible -- how you do eligibility -- in other words,
that foreign target not on American soil. That is the focal point of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And by the way, the vast majority of
surveillance conducted on this is foreign to foreign; it has nothing to do
with Americans.

So what they end up doing is coming up with the proper procedures and
design for -- under which you can conduct surveillance consistent with the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This actually is an expansion of the
court's power; it did not have that power under the original statute.

Q But if the vast majority do involve foreign to foreign, why did you need
this new power to potentially --

MR. SNOW: It's not a new power. What happened is that the way the law was
written, if you ended up having a foreign-to-foreign conversation that
ended up traveling over a fiber-optic line in the United States, you'd have
to go seek a warrant for it. Well, wait a minute. The Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act was never designed to go seek warrants for foreigners
doing conversation -- foreign targets doing conversations. It was
technologically obsolete. So what we were trying to do was to craft a bill
that would reflect not only modern-day technology, but also keep in mind
that it's not merely terror targets but hostile foreign powers and others.
So, again, it is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; foreign targets
not on U.S. soil are, in fact, the primary concern.

April.

Q Tony, on two subjects, one on Barry Bonds. Was there ever a concern that
the President would not call him because of the cloud over him about
steroids?

MR. SNOW: No, the reason we -- the President was asleep when Barry Bonds
hit his home run, and Barry Bonds was asleep when the President came to
work today. I mean, it's one of those things where baseball players,
especially after setting records, tend to stay up late -- and especially
when you're three time zones away.

Q The President talked about steroids in his State of the Union address in
2004. In the midst of this controversy, there's a question over it, and
some people are saying that there will always be an asterisk next to his
name. What is the President saying about the issue of steroids?

MR. SNOW: Number one, the President thinks that steroids are inappropriate;
it's a lousy example to kids, and it's also a way to destroy your body if
you're a professional athlete. He's made it clear that
performance-enhancing drugs, in fact, are destructive not only to the
athlete, but certainly set a lousy -- terrible example for kids. He
supports Major League Baseball's efforts not only to go after
performance-enhancing drugs, but Senator Mitchell also taking a look at the
phenomenon within the sport, trying to get to the bottom of it.

As far as Barry Bonds, this is something that's properly -- Major League
Baseball is taking its look. We're certainly not going to try to be the
fact witness on that.

Q Okay. And on China, it's happening again, apparently seafood is coming
into the country that's not being inspected, that has carcinogens and
antibiotics. What are you guys doing --

MR. SNOW: As you know, that is the Food and Drug Administration also, and
Secretary Leavitt has put together a task force on food safety. Give them a
call.

Q A follow-up on China, Tony? There's a report out --

MR. SNOW: Okay. (Laughter.) Pat.

Q Thank you -- a report out of London indicating that Chinese officials are
sending word that they might be prepared to use their $1.3 trillion in
foreign reserves to counter any pressure from the United States, economic
pressure on their exports. Is there a concern here that China --

MR. SNOW: I know nothing about the report. I'm certainly not going to try
to engage in global economic speculation on a report that I'm not familiar
with.

Q Tony, two quick questions. One, going back to Afghanistan. When these two
great leaders met at Camp David, President Bush and President Karzai of
Afghanistan, what message they had for the 25 million Afghans who were
freed and had first freely elected government in Afghanistan, when they
were trying for freedom from the Taliban and al Qaeda? But today, they're
asking freedom for peace. How can they have peace in Afghanistan?

MR. SNOW: Well, peace is a challenge in Afghanistan. You've got the Taliban
who are still trying once again to create its own reign of terror and
oppression within Afghanistan. It's obviously important to fight back
against them.

Goyal, the aim has always been the same, which is, again, to build a
government that's able to stand on its own, that's able to expand the
security perimeter beyond Kabul, and at the same time, building the
strength among police and army forces. And as we pointed out last week or
the week before, there has been significant improvement and increases in
training. There are infrastructure problems, there are challenges on the
drug front and building a firm economy. Again, when you are trying to build
a stable nation, especially in a wreckage of the kind of oppression that --
and destruction that the Taliban wreaked, it takes a considerable amount of
time to put all the pieces together.

Q Also, just -- on Afghanistan, many peace workers and many countries and
many U.N. workers are not willing to go to Afghanistan to work because now
foundations are hostages and others feel the same thing may happen to them.
What are we doing as far as security for those who want to work for --

MR. SNOW: Well, look, we -- this gives you an idea of the kind of people
we're fighting. And we deplore it when they kidnap and they kill innocent
humans -- innocent men and women and children. But the most important thing
to do is, again, to continue to work with that Afghan government so that it
has the capability and resources to defend itself. And we'll do everything
we can to assist.

Q Tony, Asia analysts say the upcoming summit between the two Koreas will
actually do very little to get North Korea to start abandoning nuclear
weapons, that it will take much more direct U.S. involvement. Does the
administration see these talks as being hopeful towards --

MR. SNOW: Well, the administration supports the talks, and South Korea had
notified us in advance. We certainly support them. But it is important --
you've got the six-party process and this falls within the six-party
process, where you've got to have everybody working together to put
pressure on the North Koreans not only to shut down Pyongyang, but also
suspend any activities that can be used for uranium enrichment and
reprocessing.

I mean, we've -- it's all laid out in the September 13th agreement, and the
fact is that you've got to have all parties working together. And they have
been. And the tough decisions have to be made by the North Koreans.

Q Tony, Nouri al-Maliki is in Tehran again. Did he consult with the
administration before going there? Does it worry the President or his aides
that he's talking about -- economic and other cooperation agreements with a
regime that the President has repeatedly called a force for instability?

MR. SNOW: Well, no, what the President has said is that the Iranians have
to make a decision in that they should have an interest in stability, and
to the extent that there has been the movement of weaponry and also
fighters over the Iranian border, that is a contributor to instability. As
you know, there have been conversations about just that topic between the
U.S. Ambassador and Iranian counterparts.

On the other hand, Iran is the neighbor of Iraq, and it is certainly
appropriate for the Prime Minister to travel to neighbors and try to make
his case also for engaging in the kind of relationships that lead to
stability rather than instability.

Q You don't think that repeatedly attempting to negotiate agreements with
Tehran is going to, for example, worry the Sunnis and further distance
themselves from the so-called unity government?

MR. SNOW: Look, the Prime Minister -- you've got to keep in mind that Prime
Minister Maliki is the Prime Minister of all Iraq, and he is obviously
thinking about what's going to be important for the stability of Iraq. He's
also made it clear that he does not consider himself, and nobody should, a
proxy for Iran, or Shia as proxy for Iran. Shia within Iraq are working to
get their own homeland, to get their freedoms, to get their economic
independence. And, again, so -- I don't want to try to go any further than
that, but it is perfectly consistent with his duties as a Prime Minister to
reach out to a neighbor and to try to have good relations.

Q Did he consult with us first?

MR. SNOW: I mean, we knew he was going, but he's a sovereign head of state.

Q Tony, given the problems that we have in the economy with the credit on
the corporate level and the mortgage market -- it's spilled over from
mortgage to credit -- the President's speech today seemed way off target.
I'm wondering, is that the speech that was intended, or did they change it
at the last minute, because --

MR. SNOW: I think -- I don't want to try to pose here as the overall
economic expert, but you've got an economy that's enormously strong. And
there have been problems within the credit markets, and it is something
that is a source of concern. But on the other hand, you've got inflation
that's been moderated; you have continued growth in income and employment;
you have very strong fundamentals. So I would -- he may not have said what
you would have liked him to say, but, on the other hand, he was talking to
some pretty capable economic analysts, in the persons of the Treasury
Secretary, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, and so on, and
he was trying to give an overall view. What you're saying is, he didn't
pinpoint a problem.

Q Well, he did pinpoint a problem. He said that the greatest threat to the
economy are the Democrats.

MR. SNOW: But he also -- one of the things it said is that the -- market
always prices in a risk premium, and that's one of the things that's been
going on in the marketplace.

Q But I mean, why did he bother to give that speech if it's not addressing
--

MR. SNOW: Oh, I'm sorry, because it didn't address the bad news that you --
your perceived bad news, because it talks about underlying strengths?

Q Why did he have this lunch? I mean, is this something --

MR. SNOW: He does it every year. This is the seventh year he's done it.
He's done it in August of each of the years. Please consult calendar. This
is a normal annual event to meet with economic advisors. And you know what,
it's legitimate for a President to say, to raise taxes at a time like this
is bad policy; to increase regulation at a time like this is bad policy;
not to pursue free trade in an increasingly competitive world, where
exports represent a growing part of our economy, is bad policy.

Q You're giving a better speech than he did. (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: I'm getting out of here.

Q Tony, what is the President hoping to get out of this meeting with
President Sarkozy? And why is he using Walker's Point, now the second time
in just a matter of six weeks?

MR. SNOW: Well, the First Lady extended the invitation at the G8. You've
got a new French President who is -- number one, he's vacationing -- he's
been vacationing in New Hampshire; he's in the neighborhood. Number two, it
looks like we're on the verge of a new era of relations with the French,
which is a good thing, and the President believes in building personal
relationships with other heads of state. This fits into that pattern. It's
coming over -- I'm sure they'll talk about some international matters, but
this is not a summit, this is not something with an agenda. The agenda is,
come by and let's visit. And the main reason you're at Walker's Point is
the First Lady extended the invitation and the French President is in the
neighborhood.

Q To follow up on that, this was extended two months ago at the G8, is that
correct?

MR. SNOW: Correct.

Q So did the Sarkozys already have plans to come to the United States to
vacation?

MR. SNOW: I have not asked them or the French government, so I don't know.

Q Well, is that why Mrs. Bush extended the invitation, because there were
going to be in the neighborhood?

MR. SNOW: I honestly don't know, Ann.

Q What do you think of a foreign head of state making his first vacation in
the United States?

MR. SNOW: Well, he certainly picked a good country to visit, didn't he?
(Laughter.)

Q Great.

Q Can we quote you on that, Tony?

MR. SNOW: Yes, absolutely -- a great country to visit.

Q A couple of questions not related. There's a feeling that McConnell
stepped over -- crossed the line at being a propagandist for this spy
legislation.

MR. SNOW: I think it's unfortunate because there may be some charges that
really don't reflect the realities of Mike McConnell and who he is. He
doesn't see himself as a political figure. The President asked a simple
question: What do you need? Mike McConnell is the guy who is running DNI
and, by the way, has received high marks from Democrats and Republicans,
including in some of the reporting today.

So I would sort of steer away from the sort of personal reporting on this
because, frankly, he's somebody who is serving as an honest broker and was
dealing not only in good faith, but worked very hard with members of both
parties and produced a piece of legislation that passed overwhelmingly.

Q My other question is there a gate that the Petraeus report will come
through?

MR. SNOW: Well, I'm sure there is, we just don't know what it is.

Q In September?

MR. SNOW: Yes, well, look, there is a September 15th reporting date.

Okay, we'll catch up with you.

END 1:25 P.M. EDT
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