NSC Briefing for Foreign Media

Real Audio of Briefing

MODERATOR: Welcome to the Foreign Press Center. It's my pleasure in turn to welcome back Sean McCormack, the NSC spokesman, who will take your questions. Statement? No statement, just your questions.

       Sean, it's all yours.

       MR. MCCORMACK: Great. It's good to be back here. Why don't we -- since I don't have any statement, why don't we go ahead and start?

       Yes, sir?

       Q In the last few weeks, there -- (inaudible) -- of a major breakthrough on the 17th of November terrorist organization with arrest and prosecutions. And this organization is responsible for the murders of five American citizens. Does the White House have any comment on that? Any reaction?

       MR. MCCORMACK: Absolutely. First of all, we'd like to commend the Greek authorities for the actions that they have taken, both their investigation and the apprehension of these suspects. We hope that this spells the end to the 17 November terrorist group, which, as you pointed out, has taken many lives, including that of an American citizen. They have been operating for the past three decades and they've brutally murdered people in terrorist acts.

       This is only part -- this recent act is really only part of the significant actions that the Greek government has taken in the war against terrorism. We've been working very closely with Greece on counterterrorism and in the war against terrorism. And we're confident that this cooperation will continue and even deepen as we approach the 2004 summer games, which will be happening in Athens.

       One other point I'd like to make, too. I think that this -- it often gets lost when the terrorist acts that groups or individuals are alleged to have committed took place some time ago. But I think that this arrest is actually all the more significant for the fact that it sends a message to terrorists and those who harbor terrorists around the world that it doesn't matter how long ago the terrorist act was committed, we will continue to hunt you down and we will find you and we will bring you to justice.

       MODERATOR: Let's go to Taiwan.

       Q Nadia Chow with The Liberty Times, Taiwan.

       Recently there's a lot of rumors in China -- the 16th Party Congress might be delayed or that President Jiang might stay as the president and the general secretary. I just don't know if U.S. is closely monitor (sic) the situation and what's U.S. position. And in October, when he visit here, if he's still in power and what status he's come here. Thanks.

       MR. MCCORMACK: President Jiang -- again, you know, we -- President Bush looks forward to welcoming President Jiang, as you pointed out, in October. President Bush and President Jiang have met, I believe, three times -- two or three times already. They have established the basis of a good working relationship. We are going to work with the leader of China and the leaders of China, whomever they may be. It's an important relationship the United States has with China. In some areas, we will have some differences. We will speak clearly about those, but we will speak about them in a respectful tone and in a tone of trying to work those differences out.

       There are also a lot of areas of cooperation with China -- most recently in the economic area and in trade. And these are areas that we can work together with China. So we have welcomed a series of Chinese leaders and lower-level officials to the United States. We have met with those officials in China, and we'll continue to do so.

       Q Is President Jiang coming before the APEC meeting in Mexico or after the APEC meeting in Mexico?

       MR. MCCORMACK: I don't know. I don't have the dates clearly enough in my head to offer an answer on that.

       Q Could you tell us any of his itinerary?

       MR. MCCORMACK: I don't. That's something that we're going to work out together with the Chinese government and President Jiang's representatives.

       MODERATOR: One more.

       MR. MCCORMACK: One more. Okay. We're on a roll.

       Q Nauru, a little Pacific island country, established formal relations with China and stopped relations with Taiwan.

       Does the White House have any comment on that? And secondly, there's -- a Taiwan official yesterday said he hopes to have a free trade agreement with the States. Would the States consider that request?

       MR. MCCORMACK: On the first -- the first of your questions, I don't have anything for you. I just don't have any information on that. On the second, specifically about a free trade agreement, I don't have anything. We have an extensive trading relationship with Taiwan, and I expect that that will continue.

       MODERATOR: Any more on China? Let's go there. The gentleman in the back.

       MR. MCCORMACK: In the back, yeah.

       Q Feng Xing-hui (sp), correspondent for China Youth Daily. Two days ago Washington Post cited your remarks like this: The president has and does see the need for U.S.-China military-to- military ties that protect -- that serve U.S. interests. So my question is that, would you please talk about more what's the real attitude of President Bush towards U.S. and China military-to-military relations? What kind of concrete steps will be taken?

       The second question is, would you please specify the interests which protect -- are served by good U.S.-China military relations?

       Thank you.

       MR. MCCORMACK: Well, in terms of President Bush's attitude, I refer you to my quote that you accurately referred -- quoted back to me. This is something that President Bush views -- he has in the past and still does view military-to-military relations with China as something that can be important and is in the interests of the United States.

       As for the details for those, that is something that -- on specifically what steps are taken, the Department of Defense and the government of China and the Chinese military are going to work those things out. And Peter Rodman was -- assistant secretary of Defense was recently in China having discussions with Chinese officials. For any sort of detailed read-out of exactly where they are in that process of defining what concrete steps they are going to take now and potentially in the future, I think that you'd have to check with DOD on that.

       MODERATOR: Okay. Let's go to Greece. Lambros?

       Q Lambros Papantoniou, Elettheros Typos Greek daily. Mr. McCormack, do you know if the Greek ambassador -- the U.S. ambassador to Athens, Mr. Tom Miller, is here in the town. And I was wondering, do you have any meeting or do you plan to have any meeting with him the White House, in the National Security Council?

       MR. MCCORMACK: It's possible that NSC staff will be meeting with the ambassador. I'm not aware of anything. I don't recall anything on Dr. Rice's schedule. But it's entirely possible that either at the White House or -- that he will have meetings or NSC officials will sit in on meetings elsewhere.

       MODERATOR: (Off mike.)

       Q Savas Suzal from the Turkish ATV. Sir, you know Turkey has scheduled its early election right now. One of the Turkish political parties, which is the -- look like a front-runner, the Western media describe them -- if this party win the election, the NATO has a new government as a -- look like mullah-administrated allies. Do you have any concern about the situation?

       And also, second part of the question, Mr. Dervis, the Turkish economic minister, is in town, and the Turkish media describe him as the U.S. "joker" in the Turkish political life. Do you plan any meeting with him?

       MR. MCCORMACK: Okay. On the first part of your question, there -- I'm aware of the discussion with regard to elections in Turkey. I'm not going to have any comment on domestic -- Turkish domestic politics. That's for the Turkish people and the Turkish leaders to work out.

       I can say, though, that Turkey is a valued friend and ally. It's a valuable member of NATO. It's a staunch ally and a good friend to the United States. And we look forward to working with whomever the Turkish people select as their leaders.

       And the second --

       Q Mr. Dervis, the economy minister --

       MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

       Q He's in the town. And have you met and the National Security Council met -- (off mike) -- do you schedule any meeting with him?

       MR. MCCORMACK: Again, I'm not aware of anything -- any meetings that we have -- may or may not have with the NSC staff. It's entirely possible, but I just don't know. I just don't have the answer to that.

       MODERATOR: This gentleman here.

       Q Malcolm Brown from Feature Story News. On Iraq, the U.S. has concerns about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, has concerns about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

       Does the administration feel it has to make a clearer linkage between those two things before it takes military action, or does it feel that the mere possibility of this happening is sufficient?

       MR. MCCORMACK: Well, let's separate that out. In terms of -- you referred to possible military action against Iraq. And with respect to -- let me back up. The policy of the United States since 1995, since passage of the Iraq Liberation Act, has been for a regime change. And this president is -- that's a matter of law, and this president very much supports the idea of regime change in Iraq.

       I think that -- and the reasons for that have been clear. We've talked about them -- we've talked about them quite a bit, both here and from other podia. Saddam Hussein is a menace to his own people, he's a menace to his neighbors in the region, and a menace to the world. And part of that is pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. It's been very clear before the Gulf War that he was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. He's used them against his own people. He's gassed his own people.

       He has not, since -- for the past several years lived up to the bargain that he made to end the war in 1991, and that is to rid his regime of weapons of mass destruction. He's not shown that through inspections. Inspections were a means to that end. And there are clearly doubts, serious doubts that remain at the end of the period when inspections stopped. And he has not had inspections. There have not been inspections in Iraq for the past several years. And we expect that he has continued his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

       That's a long preamble into the question that you asked, and that is, the point of it was really regime change, and there have been no decisions with respect to the change in regime in Iraq. It's a goal we clearly support. The president has a number of different options, levers of power, if you will -- political, economic, diplomatic, military -- at his disposal. He has not settled on any one option or combination of options. So any discussion of that is really -- is really premature at this point.

       MODERATOR: Halid (ph)?

       Q Halid Al-Karim (ph), Middle East News Agency of Egypt. My first question is about tonight's U.N. Security Council meeting, I guess to be focusing on what happened in Gaza, the Monday massacre. What position does the administration have vis-a-vis a possible statement or resolution by the council condemning Israel? Does it plan to use the veto rights to block such a resolution or statement? That's first.

       My second question is about the fact that the Israeli attack came just days following the meetings of the "quartet" and the Arab ministers who were in town just a couple of days ago. In that light, does the administration still have -- does it trust the Israeli prime minister's peace intentions? Does it believe that he is really working to get the whole region out of that crisis or he is scuttling whatever efforts we have to get out of that situation? Thank you.

       MR. MCCORMACK: On the first point, you have me at an advantage. I've been out of the office for the past couple of hours. And I know that they were talking about a possible Security Council meeting. If they've scheduled it, I haven't had a chance to discuss it with any of my colleagues.

       I think really if you want an understanding of where we stand with respect to what happened last night -- or the night before last, you heard Ari Fleischer from the White House yesterday talk about -- and even today -- talk about our -- you know, our thoughts on the Israeli action. And quite frankly, it's not an action that contributed to the peace process. And it -- we do have some worries of the implications of yesterday's (sic) action for the peace process.

       That said, we remain focused on working to implement President Bush's vision that he laid out on June 24th in his speech, and working towards the goal that he outlined, which is really the only solution to -- or we view as the only solution to the situation in the region, and that is a two-state solution where you have Palestine and Israel living together side by side in peace and security. And we would -- we have and we will urge all parties, all parties have responsibilities in this regard to create the atmosphere that will get the parties to that solution. Without that focus, without the effort of all parties, the dedication of all parties, that will not happen. And we do believe that they -- the parties have the will and the desire and will be committed to seeking peace. It's too important a goal and the region is too important not to try to seek it, not only for political reasons, but for basic reasons of bettering the situation for everybody in the region, and most importantly for the Palestinian people. For too long their hopes and aspirations for a better life for their families, for their children, have been put on hold by people who are more interested in stoking their grievances than in finding a solution to the problem.

       So again, our focus -- just to sum up, our focus is on working to implement the president's vision. The actions yesterday (sic) certainly -- we have discussed in detail. Our views on that has not changed. And we're going to continue to work for peace, as we hope all parties in the region do.

       Q Follow-up?

       MODERATOR: Okay, let's take the follow-up, if you can spot where it's from.

       Q Margery Friesner from ANSA, the Italian News Agency. I'd like to know if the administration confirms what the foreign policy chief of the European Union, Javier Solana, reported; that the Palestinian terrorist groups had had a meeting and had agreed to suspend all suicide attacks for the sake of speeding up Palestinian statehood right before the Israeli raid in Gaza.

       I wanted to know if this administration confirms that and if that would be one of the implications that you just mentioned of the Israeli action. Two, has the administration asked Israel to stop using American-made airplanes or other equipment for these raids? And third -- it's an easy one -- since Monday night, has the president spoken with Sharon or any other leader in the region?

       MR. MCCORMACK: The third one first: No, he hasn't. There have not been any phone calls. We've had contact at the diplomatic level with a number of countries in the region since the night before last.

       In terms of American-made weapons, this is something that -- it's a question that comes up from time to time, primarily at the State Department. And they are really the experts on the -- believe the name of it is the Arms Export Control Act. I promised Richard that I would get that right. And we, as a government -- and the State Department really has the lead on this -- continuously review all situations and all sales of weapons for their compliance with the Arms Control Export Act. And any sort of further information on that, you would have to check with the State Department. In terms of specific actions, I think that they do this on a rolling basis. There's no set time when you have one report that's coming out. And if there is a report, it gets released. You should check with them to see if there's any further activity in that regard.

       And on your first point, I haven't seen Mr. Solana's remarks, so I can't really comment specifically on them. I've seen these reports. As for the stage of development of these discussions, I can't really comment. It's not something that we were involved in. I would only add that certainly we, in terms of terrorist groups ceasing terrorist activities, that's -- you know, there's an obvious answer to that.

       You know, we don't condone terrorist acts in any form, and there's no cause that justifies using terrorism for reaching whatever means -- ends people may have in mind.

       Q Mr. McCormack, on Tuesday, Washington Post stated that U.S. has abandoned hope to work with President Khatami and his reformist group. Hours later, White House denied the statement by Washington Post. Is United States -- I guess my question is, does United States have enough faith in President Khatami and his reformist group in order to bring about democracy and reform in Iran?

       MODERATOR: Could you identify yourself please?

       Q Mac Alfreed (ph) from Voice of America.

       MR. MCCORMACK: I guess I would just say that we have faith in the Iranian people, who have quite clearly expressed their desire for greater social, political and economic freedoms. And this is not something that's new. As long ago as the elections, I think it was five years ago, they expressed this. And since then there have been a number of activities and acts during which they have, again, reiterated this desire for greater freedoms, greater economic freedom, greater political freedom. And I think you all saw the president's statement on July 12th in which he talked about the desire of the Iranian people for grater freedoms. And the intent of `that was to speak directly to the Iranian people, as we think that that is important. And we also call upon Iran's elected leaders to start acting like the elected leaders and to respond to the will of the Iranian people for greater economic and social freedoms, and not for support of terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

       You know, we have said all along -- President Bush mentioned this in his July 12th statement -- as Iran moves towards greater tolerance and freedoms and away from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, the Iranian people will have no better friend than the United States.

       And so I think quite simply we are trying to speak directly to the Iranian people, and call upon the Iranian leaders, elected leaders, to heed the call of the Iranian people. For too long, the unelected few have stymied the hopes for the Iranian people for a freer, better future for themselves.

       MODERATOR: And from Indonesia.

       MR. MCCORMACK: Hi.

       Q Sujono from Suara Merdeka, Indonesia. Yesterday morning President Bush spoke with President Megawati to express his appreciation to her government for to combat extremists and terrorism. Could you tell me what other matter was discussed, except -- including possibility military-to-military relation between the two countries? And how is the prospect for lifting arms sale embargo to Indonesia since the IMET program has been -- by the Senate Foreign Relation Committee yesterday -- on Thursday, it was agreed to restore the IMET to Indonesia?

       Thank you.

       MR. MCCORMACK: On the phone calls, the -- President Bush and President Megawati had a good discussion. They've talked on the phone I think three times and met at least twice, I believe, or seen each other at least twice. They had a good discussion. You heard Ari describe the context of their call. They did talk about combatting terrorism in all its forms, and President Bush thanked President Megawati for her efforts in Indonesia to combat extremism and terrorism. We are discussing with the Indonesian government cooperation on combatting terrorism. Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz was recently in Indonesia. That was one of the topics that he was discussing. Secretary Powell will soon be traveling to the region. He will meet with President Megawati and her team there. Combatting terrorism and cooperation on counter-terrorism is going to be on their agenda.

       We are working -- as you pointed out, we are working closely with the Congress on a counter-terrorism agenda for Indonesia. And we, of course, have and will talk to the Indonesian government, to President Megawati, about that as well. This has a number of different components to it. Military-to-military cooperation, as you pointed out, is one of those components as well as training for the police, which is actually the largest component of this proposed package.

       So these are all things that are currently being discussed. There's nothing at this point, I can say, that is final. We'll continue talking to the Congress, continue talking to the Indonesian government, continue -- Secretary Powell will continue those discussions. But the -- just to sum up, yeah, we are very appreciative of Indonesia's efforts to combat terrorism, and we look forward to building on that cooperation.

       MODERATOR: Let's go to Serbia. Yes.

       Q On Kosovo. Dobra Kosavic (sp), Daily Novosti (sp), Belgrade.

       Recently some steps were undertaken in Congress concerning independence of Kosovo. Some congressman proposed that. So what is your comment on that? And does it mean the position of the administration is a bit changed on the issue of independence or not?

       MR. MCCORMACK: I don't believe that there's any change at this time of the -- change in position of the administration with respect to Kosovo.

       In the back.

       Q Dimitri Kurusana (ph) from Russian News Agency.

       The Russian and European Union officials held the first round of talks over the problem of Kaliningrad region of Russia today in Brussels -- unsuccessfully, I must admit. With the forthcoming expansion of European Union, the Kaliningrad region would become a Russian enclave in E.U., as you probably know, sir. Brussels wants the Russian citizens to obtain Schengen visas to travel there, which Moscow considers unacceptable right now. I wonder if U.S. administration has its own point of view on this matter, sir.

       MR. MCCORMACK: I don't have anything in particular to add to that. I'm not familiar with the issue. It sounds as though it's an issue for discussion between the EU and Russia. As a general statement, we certainly encourage growing economic ties between the EU and Russia, as well as between Russian and all the states of the world. It's very important that Russia expand its economic ties and trade with the rest of the world. And the United States, for its part, supports Russian entry into the WTO once it meets WTO entry standards. And we're going to work with Russia in that regard.

       Q (Inaudible.)

       This time, I'm asking about Greece. And --

       MR. MCCORMACK: Now that your Greek colleagues have left! (Laughter.) I see. The answer's not going to be any different. (Laughter.)

       Q The problem is, do you assisting with the fighting the November 17 investigation in Greek security forces? And the second part of the question, has the Greek police -- they captured several guys, which -- they belonged to DHKP, which -- in the past, they attacked U.S. interests, also, and they killed several people in Turkey.

       MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

       Q And do you assist them? And do you help them (for the investigation ?) --

       MR. MCCORMACK: On (DHPK ?)?

       Q And also the November 17?

       MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, that I'm not -- that particular case, I'm not familiar with. On the November 17th case, this is really -- these are arrests and an investigation that were conducted by the Greek authorities. And they would -- I would leave it to them to describe, you know, what their investigation entailed and what their arrests entailed as well. Suffice it to say, we're very pleased at the activities and the actions of the Greek officials in bringing this group to justice.

       Q Malcolm Brown from Feature Story News again. The South African government says they don't expect the president to show up in Durban for the world summit on sustainable development, but I haven't heard a definitive statement one way or the other. I'm just wondering if you could clear up that scheduling matter?

       MR. MCCORMACK: At the moment, we don't have anything to announce with regard to the president's schedule in August. That will be -- that will be forthcoming.

       Q Is it still possible that he'll go?

       MR. MCCORMACK: Again, if we have anything to announce in that regard, we'll let you know.

       Okay. One more.

       Q Halid Al-Karim (sp), with Middle East News Agency again. And the Gaza massacre of Monday night took place about 7:00 p.m. Washington time. And the first reaction we got, it was like 10:00 a.m. Tuesday. Could you please just tell us why did it take the administration like 15 hours to react to an operation which resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians? And would you please just let us know why the president did not make any phone calls over the past couple of days to any of the Middle Eastern leaders or anybody, regardless of Arafat, on the Palestinian side to convey condolences, sympathy, if any, for the Palestinians, like he usually does when some Israelis do die? Thank you.

       MR. MCCORMACK: I think that we through myself, through Mr. Fleischer, we have conveyed quite clearly that we are quite saddened by the loss of innocent life in this regard. And in terms of communicating with the Israeli government, we have conveyed our views directly to the Israeli government in this regard.

       As for any -- any what you have characterized as delay in reaction to what happened, I would just -- you know, I'd just make two points. One, certainly when we -- our reaction is sincere and one should not read anything to the timing of it. It was the first opportunity -- it was actually at the White House -- that we had a chance to speak to the assembled press corps with regard to what happeend. And the -- as for, you know, the timing of the incident, with these types of things, you never react to first reports because these sorts of scenes, by definition, are quite chaotic. And you want to determine what the facts are and react on the basis of the facts. And that's what we did.

       I think that's it. Thank you very much.

       Q Thank you.

       MODERATOR: Thank you, Sean.