For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 20, 2002
Press Gaggle by Ari Fleischer
12:46 P.M. CDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. Let me give you a report on the
President's day and a little bit about Mrs. Bush this week, then I'll
be happy to take your questions. The President this morning had his
usual intelligence briefings, spent some time doing a little work
around the ranch and is having lunch.
Mrs. Bush this week is going to be traveling to Leander, Texas,
which is located approximately 30 minutes north of Austin. This is
going to be on Thursday, where she will take part in a back-to-school
event at a new school that's first day of classes is today. The school
board in Leander voted earlier this year to name its elementary school
the Laura W. Bush Elementary School, and so she will be visiting this
new school to meet the students, to meet the educational professionals
and the teachers, and to accept the honor of having a school named
after her.
And she will also be honored by Weekly Reader Newspaper, which is a
newspaper that was founded in 1902 that is all about public school
education, where she will be presented with a 100th anniversary Charles
P. Davis educational achievement award that is given to her in
recognition of her dedication to education and her commitment to
achieving literacy for all children. So Mrs. Bush will travel to that
school on Thursday.
And that is it for opening statements. If I can answer any
questions, I'll be happy to.
Q Ari, any reaction to the takeover of the Iraqi embassy in
Germany? Do we know who those folks are?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me make a couple points. Actions like this
takeover are unacceptable. They undermine legitimate efforts by Iraqis
both inside and outside Iraq to bring regime change to Iraq.
As for the particular group involved, we had no prior knowledge of
this group and have had no contacts with them.
Q Ari, the Defense Secretary in his briefing just said that
you didn't want to get into the details but that there are al Qaeda in
Iraq in a number of places. If that is known to the United States
government, the President is on the record saying he will go anywhere
in the world in pursuit of these people, why are they still there? Why
have they not been dealt with?
MR. FLEISCHER: The Secretary has made that statement previously,
not only about Iraq but in other places. We have said that al Qaeda
operates cells in some 60 countries around the world, if you recall,
and the President has said that this is a long war against terrorism,
and the war on terrorism is going to have multiple stages to it.
And so I'm not going to delineate each and every specific future
potential stage in the war against terrorism, but it does remain a
concern about the presence of al Qaeda either in Iraq or in other
places.
Q He said some of them fled directly from Afghanistan. The
President has said that they will be pursued wherever they go. Why are
they still there?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think that is perfectly consistent with the
ongoing war against terrorism, a war that has many stages to it and
many different levels to it, some being military, some being political,
some being economic. And what continues to underscore the heart of the
war against terrorism is that these terrorists are trying to regroup,
trying to get back to other places, and we will use whatever means the
President deems appropriate to prevent them from being able to
regroup. And we will work in concert with people around the world, as
we have done in other places, where you've seen them trying to bunch up
and get back together.
Q -- denounced this group in Berlin. Do you think they may
be encouraged by the talk from the White House denouncing Saddam and
meeting with dissident groups? I mean, is that likely?
MR. FLEISCHER: I couldn't begin to guess the motives for anybody
to do something like this. But it is the American position
unequivocally that this is an unacceptable action.
Q Yesterday, you had no comment about the death of Abu
Nidal, clearly one of the most sought-after terrorists that this
country has ever wanted to try to get. Does the White House have any
reaction today?
MR. FLEISCHER: Abu Nidal was one of the most craven and despicable
terrorists in the world. He was responsible for killing at least 900
people in 20 different countries. The fact that only Iraq would give
safe haven to Abu Nidal demonstrates the Iraqi regime's complicity with
global terror. He will not be missed.
Q Ari, you say that the actions of these Iraqis undermined
other efforts. Why aren't these just freedom fighters resisting a
gangsterish and tyrannical regime and trying to liberate their
country?
MR. FLEISCHER: Terry, at all times, the American position is to
support the rule of law. The rule of international law, the rule of
freedom and the rights of people to have a government that is
protective of the rights of its neighbors, governments that don't
declare war on other nations, governments that don't use chemical
weapons against their own people. But in pursuit of America's policy
within international law of regime change, it is not acceptable to have
takeovers of other nations' embassies. That is not consistent with the
rule of law. And that is why we have an unequivocal position that this
action is unacceptable. Even against a regime that is as evil as
Iraq's.
Q Ari, I know you talked yesterday about the words of
caution on Iraq that have been raised by some Republicans. But I'm
wondering, do these words represent a split in the party that could
delay an attack, if that's what the President decides to do?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think what you're seeing is a healthy debate
throughout the United States about the best way of achieving regime
change. Some people would like to talk about the speed with which
regime change should be carried out, the manner in which it's most
effective to carry it out. But you could continue to see for many,
many people, you could continue to see from many people who have
expressed their opinions on this, that the world would be safer off
without Saddam Hussein in power.
Q But if there are words of caution coming from the
President's own party, does that concern him that maybe there is a need
to go a little slower on this issue?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, you're implying that the President is going
at a certain speed, and you have no reason to make that speculation.
The President has made no decisions, as you know. So I don't think
it's fair to make any judgments about what speed the President is
traveling at.
Okay, last question and then we're going to go to the rest of the
briefing.
Q Ari, are you concerned about all this talk about regime
change and increased rhetoric, that the President is sort of boxing
himself in and that the public perception now is that he will
eventually attack Iraq and that it's just a question of time? Are you
concerned that you're sort of boxing yourselves in to that
expectation?
MR. FLEISCHER: No.
Okay. For the rest of the briefing. Could somebody cut those
lights there so I could see who's in this room? Oh, that's who's
here. (Laugther.)
Q You said we have had no contact with this group who took
over the embassy. Are we certain, because someone was described as
ex-military folks who participated in that London meeting. Are we sure
we haven't had contact with individuals who are involved here?
MR. FLEISCHER: This is on the basis of all the checking that the
National Security Council has been able to do this morning, I can
report to you that we had no prior knowledge of the group and have no
contacts with them. That's on the information that we checked into
this morning, upon hearing who has claimed responsibility for this.
I do notice the group of people that we have been working with
toward freedom in Iraq has condemned this attack as well.
Q About the California trip on Friday. I was wondering if
you could let us know whether the President is going to be making an
appearance with Mr. Smith at any of the three campaign events in
California?
MR. FLEISCHER: Mr. Smith?
Q Mr. Simon -- I'm sorry. Mr. Simon. I was wondering if
there was any, you know, concern about being associated with a man
whose company has been -- had a fraud judgment against it in this time
of --
MR. FLEISCHER: First of all, on logistics, tomorrow I'm going to
try to give you a little bit more information about the trip to Oregon
as well as the trip to California.
The answer to your question is, no, the President is going to
campaign for Mr. Simon.
The other issue, just logistically, too, in terms of the meeting at
the ranch tomorrow, I'm still trying to work out coverage issues for
what if any access there will be. We'll have an announcement on that
first thing tomorrow morning for everybody. That's not yet nailed
down. I'm trying to work something out, though.
Q What is the time of that meeting?
MR. FLEISCHER: Time of the meeting is -- it's a couple hours. So
it's a morning meeting, I think, that begins right around nine-ish.
And then they'll go, and they may have lunch. I'm not sure about
that.
Q On tomorrow, can I ask you to talk a little bit about
what the President hopes to get out of that meeting, whether it's sort
of a brainstorming session or whether it's more of an intent to
actually hammer out policy or hammer out a budget outline? What
exactly are they trying to produce?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think it's part of a conversation to try to put
some -- to first kick around, to listen to some of the thinking that's
been done on transformation and then try to put some framework around
budget proposals that are -- may be start to be made for the 2004
budget year -- yes, 2004 budget year. As you know, the budget that's
being voted on in Congress this year is for fiscal year '03. And when
we come back, interestingly, the budget planners will have to start
their work on the administration's budget proposals for the next fiscal
year, '04. That really kicks in in the fall.
So this is an early window to start looking at the framework for
some of those bigger decisions that have yet to be made.
Q To follow up, obviously the President wants to listen to
the folks from the Pentagon come in and talk about their priorities,
what they need. He, I imagine, has some ideas himself of what
priorities he wants to deliver to them, and kind of give them
guidance. How might those budget decisions and budget issues have
changed, as they obviously have, over the past year?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, one of the interesting lessons of what's
happening in Afghanistan is the role that technology plays in helping
America be more lighter and more lethal. And the President has
repeatedly talked about the need to skip generations, to move ahead to
the next generation, to have new thinking about how war should be
fought in the 21st century -- wars against a shadowy enemy, for
example, require a whole different type of approach, a different type
of lethality, a different type of speed, a different type of footprint
than your more traditional wars of the 20th century, which involve
massive movements of troops and vehicles and involve flotillas of ships
that would attack the United States.
That's 20th century thinking, and the President wants to really
push ahead to develop a Pentagon of the future. And that's always been
part of what he has focused on. Obviously some of the debate -- since
the events of September 11th, the Pentagon's focus shifted immediately
to protecting the United States, less to this bigger picture thinking
ahead. This is an attempt now to make certain that we're doing both.
Q A follow up on the budget question, on the defense
budget. As they look to 2004, will they be getting as specific as
looking at the amount of increases they should be requesting, what
they'll need money for next year, how much they should request?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's why I described it as a framework. No,
they're not at that point yet. The President's budget for '04 gets
submitted in January or February, and the Defense Department makes its
own internal decisions about what to request in the fall of 2002,
heading into January and February of 2003. But the President, just as
he did in August -- I think it was August 22nd or August 24th, 2001,
uses this meeting as a way to have big picture thinking, to set that
framework so that the more specific line items, when they get filled
in, are filled in around a structure or a framework that is the
strongest and best framework to provide for America's defensive needs
in the future.
Q Do you expect the meeting tomorrow to be a decisionmaking
meeting on some of these issues?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think this is -- again, this is a focus more on
the big picture. I never rule out that decisions get made, just
because of the nature of this group; it's a pretty decisive group. But
it still is early. So again, we'll try to get you more of a report
tomorrow, in one way or form, either me, or trying to have some other
people provided to help you.
Q Aside from Cheney and Rumsfeld, who else is going to be
in the --
MR. FLEISCHER: We'll get the list out tomorrow. Cheney, Rumsfeld,
Dick Meyers, General -- I'm going to mispronounce his last name --
Kadish. That's the Hebrew translation. He's in charge of missile
defense. Condi of course, Andy Card is coming down for it. There are
probably going to be other people from either the NSC or the Department
of Defense whose names I don't have. We'll see -- I'll have to poke
around and see if that's information I can give out in its entirety.
If I can, I surely will.
Q What building is the meeting going to be in?
MR. FLEISCHER: What building?
Q On the ranch, it's the old -- the Governor's House, is
that what it's called?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think they're going to meet in the President's
house. I think that's where they're going to do it. If that changes,
Mark, I'll let you know.
Q You can just invite me.
MR. FLEISCHER: Excuse me?
Q Just invite me along.
MR. FLEISCHER: They'll have the radio on. They can listen to
you.
Anything else? Jennifer.
Q I'll do one more. Except I just forgot it. I'll ask you
later.
Q When you said dissident groups that you guys are working
with legitimately on overthrowing Saddam condemned, are you talking
about the Iraqi National Congress?
MR. FLEISCHER: They put out a statement today about it.
Q And that's who you're talking about, the Iraqi National
Congress?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, they put out a statement, I believe, from
London, approximately an hour ago.
All right. Thank you everybody.
END 1:01 P.M. CDT
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