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Skriven 2005-04-12 23:33:00 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0504126) for Tue, 2005 Apr 12
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Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
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For Immediate Release
April 12, 2005

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En route Andrews Air Force Base


  þ President's Ft. Hood Visit
  þ Arrests of Terror Suspects

5:30 P.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everybody. I want to give you a readout from
the President's visit with the families of the fallen at Fort Hood.

The President visited with 33 families of the fallen. There were some 80 to
90 family members who were present. One of the President's most important
responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief is to visit the families of the
fallen. The President does that to provide comfort to the families and to
make sure that they are getting the help that they need. The President
would ask the families when he'd visit them -- and so you know, let me back
up, just kind of the atmosphere in the room there.

We were at the Soldier Development Center and the families were separated
into individual cubicles so the President could visit personally and
individually with each family. It included parents; it included wives and
children -- daughters and sons -- brothers and sister. I remember one,
there was one 15 year old who had lost his mother in Iraq, and the
President visited with him individually; he was there on his own. So the
President went around to each cubicle and visited individually with each of
the families. These visits tend to be pretty emotional. When the President
first walks in to visit the families there are often a lot of tears that
are shed and, you know, they visit for a while. They also share laughs,
they take pictures, the President signs memorabilia for them so that they
can -- memorabilia that honors their loved one.

Then the President -- one of the first questions the President always has
for the families is, "Are you getting all the help you need? Are you doing
okay?" No one can imagine what these families are going through, but the
President wants to make sure that the military is doing all that they can
to support the families during the difficult time that they go through. And
the President also lets them know that the world is becoming a better and
more peaceful place because of their loved one's sacrifice. And he talks
about the importance of completing the mission, that's the best way to
honor the sacrifice of the loved one, is to complete the mission -- because
the world is changing for the better because of the service and sacrifice
of our men and women in uniform. They are making tremendous sacrifices in
the global war on terrorism and we are forever grateful for those
sacrifices.

You heard the President talk today about some of those sacrifices in his
remarks to the troops at Fort Hood. He also -- he talked about the
important progress that is being made to help the Iraqi people realize a
brighter future that is based on freedom and democracy. And we are forever
grateful to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to make that happen.

And the President was honored to visit with all these families. I think I
mentioned to you all when we got on the plane that the total time he spent
there was from 11:52 a.m., this morning, to right about 3:10 p.m., this
afternoon. And that whole time he was visiting individually with the
families that were present. It's always amazing to see the strength of the
family members. I remember one mother said, you know, "Finish the job --
that's my message to you." Another wife was saying, "We support you."

And the families were very appreciative of the visit by the President. You
know, some of them -- some of the families did have some concerns that they
expressed about some of the help that they were getting, and the President
always makes sure that we follow up on those concerns, so we did make some
notes of the concerns that they expressed and we will be following up on
those.

Q What type of concerns?

MR. McCLELLAN: It varies. The ones that expressed -- some of them expressed
some concerns, you know, it can be anything from the benefits to just the
help they're getting from the military. I think I'll leave that to those
private discussions. But the President always makes sure that we follow up
to make sure those concerns are being addressed as best they can be.

Q Does anybody ever raise any concerns about the lack of armor, for
example? Is that the kind of stuff that comes up in these talks?

MR. McCLELLAN: I didn't hear that in any of these conversations. Obviously,
I didn't hear everything that was being expressed because I try to stand
back a little bit and let the President visit individually with the
families. But, no, I think more -- their focus was more on just making sure
that their families were being taken care of and would be provided for,
things of that nature.

Q Scott, how are the families chosen?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, any time we go to bases the President -- the base will
reach out to families of the fallen to see if they would like to come and
visit with the President. We do that everywhere we go and it's the base
that will take the lead on reaching out to the families and making sure
that they get there. Some of those families are right there in the area. A
lot of them were from the Texas area, if not from the Fort Hood area. And
some came from other states, from other places.

Q So the President will meet with as many families as the military gathers
for him at these events?

MR. McCLELLAN: Basically. Generally speaking, yes, when we do these things.
I mean, this was a fairly large number that he visited with today, but I
remember at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, I think there were -- one visit he
had there were about 120 families, somewhere around that, plus or minus a
little bit, but it was somewhere around 120 families -- and, you know, many
more in terms of the actual number of people that were present because of
the various family members.

Q How many times does this make visiting with families of the fallen; do
you know offhand?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me check that. I need to check that. But he frequently
does this, as you're aware.

Anything else?

Q New topic? Does the President have any reaction to the arrests of the
suspects from the United Kingdom?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we are waging the global war on terrorism on many
fronts, and one of those is the law enforcement front and we're going to
continue to go after and pursue those who seek to do us harm and those who
seek to do harm to the civilized world. This is another significant step in
the global war on terrorism. And we will continue to pursue those who seek
to do us harm and bring them to justice.

Q Is he pleased, shocked, satisfied with what took place?

MR. McCLELLAN: He's pleased by the work of our -- he commends our law
enforcement authorities for arresting these individuals and seeking to
bring them to justice.

Q Thank you.

END 5:40 P.M. EDT
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