For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 22, 2002
Press Gaggle by Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One
En route St. Petersburg, Russia
3:10 P.M. (L)
MR. FLEISCHER: The President looks forward to arriving into Russia
for a meeting with President Putin. It's interesting how this meeting
came to be. During the course of the phone calls the President was
making to the P-5 nations concerning the resolution on Iraq, President
Putin several weeks ago spontaneously suggested to President Bush that
he visit Russia as part of this tour of the NATO expansion in Prague,
and President Bush instantly accepted.
This did not go up through the normal staffing process. This was
as a result of President Putin saying, it would be a good idea for you
to come to Russia. And the President instinctively and immediately
making the judgment that, given the news about the expansion of NATO
this is very important, in the President's judgment, to come to Russia
to send a signal to Russia that stability and democracy in Russia are
enhanced by stability and democracy on Russia's borders.
So the President looks forward to this opportunity to speak
directly to President Putin and, therefore, the Russian people about
how close our friendship between the United States and Russia has
become. But that's an interesting context for our visit to Russia in
the wake of expansion of NATO.
I think on the list of items the President may discuss with
President Putin you will see the continued development of the strategic
relationship and friendship between the United States and Russia. Iraq
will likely be a target -- a topic. And also North Korea will also
likely be a topic of conversation.
Then the President will depart from Russia and arrive into Vilnius
tonight. And then tomorrow the President will have two speeches, one
in Lithuania, the new NATO nation, and in Romania, where he will likely
see the largest crowds of his Presidency, where he will give a speech
welcoming these new NATO nations to the alliance of the free. And the
President views this as a real exciting moment in history and he
expects to see a very charged-up crowd of people who relish freedom and
are very pleased by the fact that they are now members of NATO. And
the President, I think, will feel the energy of these crowds; as he put
it in his speech in Warsaw and in Prague, that this helps invigorate
NATO and invigorate the soul of NATO.
Let me get into the week ahead, I want to give you that now and
then I'll be happy to take questions.
It's interesting what's going to happen next week, because this
week has been a real week, concluding several weeks, of accomplishment
and diplomacy of international relations, given the bipartisan -- I
mean the unanimous vote in the United Nations Security Council on Iraq,
the NATO statement on Iraq, the historic expansion of NATO. It's been
a week of international accomplishment.
Next week will be a real week of domestic accomplishment. The
President will on three days next week sign four pieces of legislation
into law. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, each will be an important
bill signing day that concludes a week of accomplishment, that
concludes two years' worth of accomplishment in what was a very divided
United States Congress. The Congress has passed many major measures
that help the American people.
On Monday next week, the President will sign into law the homeland
security act in the East Room. He will also sign an important security
measure into law that same day. Tuesday, the President will sign the
terrorism insurance act into law. And that afternoon he will also, by
the way, participate in the annual pardoning of the turkey in the Rose
Garden. And on Wednesday, the President will sign the intelligence
authorization act into law, which of course includes the 9/11
commission legislation.
Q I'm sorry, which one on Wednesday?
MR. FLEISCHER: Wednesday will be the intelligence authorization
act, which includes the 9/11 commission. And then he will depart for
Crawford on Wednesday, where he will spend Thanksgiving weekend.
So an exciting week next week of domestic accomplishment.
Q Why do you say Romania will have the biggest crowds?
Because you've got a --
MR. FLEISCHER: I said Lithuania and Romania will be the two
largest crowds of his Presidency, in all likelihood.
Q Estimates?
MR. FLEISCHER: The initial estimates are between 50,000 and
100,000.
Q In each place?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes.
MR. DICKENS: (Inaudible.)
MR. FLEISCHER: I stand corrected: 25,000 to 50,000 in Lithuania
and 50,000 to 100,000 in Romania.
Q He's meeting the Baltic leaders tomorrow, too. What's his
message there?
MR. FLEISCHER: The message there is these nations which recently
suffered from tyranny, Nazi occupation and, in the case of Romania,
Soviet domination are now leading members of the alliance of the free
and NATO. And what an historic moment it is for nations that created
liberty to now find it in such stability that comes with NATO
membership.
Q In the Euro-Atlantic Council meeting this morning, Bush was
heard to tell the aspiring NATO members they needed to participate in a
war on terrorism. Is that a new standard for NATO members --
MR. FLEISCHER: The President's message to the world is that the
world needs to participate in the war on terrorism, that no nation
anywhere is safe from terrorists. Al Qaeda is organized in some 60
nations around the world and this is a worldwide effort to combat
terrorism and, as the President made clear in his remarks in Prague,
the mission of NATO has to focus on the new threats. And the new
threats involve terrorism.
Q What more can you tell us about the terrorist whose name we
now know, who was captured?
MR. FLEISCHER: There's nothing I can say on the record about that
topic.
Q At all?
MR. FLEISCHER: There's nothing I can say on the record about that
topic specifically. I will say that the war on terrorism continues to
have successes. The President has made clear that we intend to pursue
this diligently around the world, bringing individuals to justice who
are terrorists, and we continue to have accomplishments in that war.
Q Ari, Iraq will likely come up. What specifically would the
President want to see from Russia as he moves forward in his effort
against Iraq?
MR. FLEISCHER: Of course, Russia voted with the Security Council
for a statement about the importance of Iraq disarming. And I think
the President and President Putin will discuss how to protect the peace
by keeping the pressure on, so Saddam Hussein does indeed disarm.
Q Has the United States asked --
Q What can Russia do in that regard, at this point?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let's wait and have the meeting take place and then
you'll have --
Q Has the United States contacted Russia, as it has this
other 50 countries, asking for --
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not going to delineate which countries have
been contacted. Nevertheless, the planning does proceed.
Q Ari, Al Gore says that the President has so fixated on
getting Osama -- or Saddam Hussein that he can't get Osama bin Laden.
Can you respond to the substance of that charge? And, secondly, to the
fact that he's criticizing the President's foreign policy while the
President is on foreign soil?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think the American people are very pleased
that this administration has focused on the war on terrorism, has taken
strong action in the war on terrorism. I think the American people are
very pleased that this administration has created an environment for
the inspectors to return to Iraq who, after all, were thrown out in
1998.
Q Under the previous administration. What about the idea of
criticizing him while he's on foreign soil? The President objected to
that last time, when he was in South America.
MR. FLEISCHER: It is an unusual departure from the norms of how
loyal opposition parties treat a President while a President travels.
I hope someone buys his book.
Q Ari, how much does the President know about Mr.
Poindexter's total information awareness program, and does he fully
support it?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think that the President supports his
efforts to prevent terrorists from engaging in any attacks against the
United States, while making certain that the constitutional rights and
liberties of the American people are protected. That's what the
President is going to make certain what is done.
Q Specifically on that program, that's been a bit
controversial, much like TIPS became controversial, has he waited at
all on --
MR. FLEISCHER: You'd really have to talk to Department of Defense
to get a clear understanding of what that program is. I think there's
been some misrepresentations of what it is. The President knows the
importance of working carefully and respectfully to honor the rights of
individual Americans while at the same time remain concerned that
terrorists are stopped from attacking us again.
Q Ari, Senator Daschle and Leader Gephardt have sent the
President a letter yesterday rather pointedly asking him to take a
moment or two out of his international schedule and focus on the
unemployed back home and encourage Republicans to support an extension
of the unemployment benefits. Will the President write back? And
what's his response?
MR. FLEISCHER: We're going to continue to work with the Congress
to hopefully get that done. The Senate and the House continue to have
disagreements about how best to get it done, as recently as last week.
And while the House and Senate members may be gone, there are still
people we can talk to, and we will continue to make efforts with the
Congress to help get things done.
Q What's the White House position, though? Do you support an
extension? For how long? With what kind of conditions?
MR. FLEISCHER: We're going to continue to work with the Congress
on economic growth for the American people, and consider a wide variety
of possibilities.
Q Does the President support an extension of unemployment
benefits?
MR. FLEISCHER: We continue to work with the Congress on it.
Q So that's a yes, but can you tell me what kind of
extension?
MR. FLEISCHER: I said we're going to continue to work with the
Congress on it.
Q That sounds like he doesn't have a position at all, because
you asked -- she asked of you does he have a position, and you said --
MR. FLEISCHER: Again, the House and the Senate have to work
together. The House and the Senate have to get something done in order
for the President to have something to sign. And we've sent every
clear signal that we wanted the House and the Senate to get together
and work together well.
Q But on other pieces of legislation, on homeland security
for instance, the President took a very strong position and said, this
is where I want you to go with it. Why on this bill doesn't the
President just say, this is the extension I want, I need you to deliver
it, I need something on my desk to sign, people are out of work, they
need money.
MR. FLEISCHER: The President believes that there are a number of
things that can be done to help people. He was pleased that the
Congress passed the terrorism insurance bill which creates jobs. The
most important priority is to have economic growth that creates jobs.
But, nevertheless, the Congress still has tools at its disposal and
we're going to continue to work with Congress.
Q Any clear guidance to all those unemployed Americans on
whether or not their --
MR. FLEISCHER: You can ask the question a million different ways,
the answer's going to be the same.
Anything else? All righty. We'll see everybody in snowy St.
Petersburg.
END 3:20 P.M. (L)
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