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Skriven 2007-04-16 23:31:04 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0704161) for Mon, 2007 Apr 16
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Press Briefing by Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary April 16, 2007

Press Briefing by Dana Perino White House Conference Center Briefing Room

˙ Video (Windows) ˙˙Press Briefings


12:58 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Good afternoon. I have several announcements and then we'll go
to questions.

The President was made aware of the Virginia Tech shootings. He was
horrified and his immediate reaction was one of deep concern for the
families of the victims, the victims, themselves, the students, the
professors and all the people of Virginia who have dealt with this shocking
incident. And his thoughts and prayers are with them; we are monitoring the
situation. And while state and local authorities are in the lead right now
-- I think that will remain the case, but federal assets are available
should they be needed, if Virginia were to request them.

On Iraq, this is the 70th day since the President requested emergency
funding for our troops. President Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister
Maliki via secure video this morning. That lasted about 50 minutes. The two
leaders discussed ongoing efforts among Iraqi leaders to come to agreement
on important matters of reconciliation and that determination of Iraqi
legislators to continue their important work in the face of the al
Qaeda-claimed bombing at the Iraqi parliament last week.

The President and Prime Minister also discussed the importance of garnering
more regional support for political and security efforts in Iraq, and the
opportunity that the upcoming regional conference in Sharm el-Sheikh
presents, on May 3rd and 4th.

In Russia, we are deeply disturbed by the heavy-handed manner in which this
weekend's demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg were broken up by the
authorities, and by an emerging pattern of use of excessive force by the
authorities in reaction to similar events. We also find it intolerable that
journalists were detained -- an unacceptable practice that hinders freedom
of the press. We underscore that allowing peaceful expressions of protest
is an essential element of democracy and a universally recognized human
right.

In Nigeria, the United States takes seriously reports of voting
irregularities and election-related violence during this past weekend's
state and local elections. We would urge that officials address any
problems in order to ensure that Saturday's presidential election, that
those polls are free and fair and conducted in an atmosphere free of
violence. These elections set the stage for an important milestone, as they
will lead to the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in Nigeria's
history at the end of May.

And the last announcement is that the President and Mrs. Bush extend warm
wishes to Pope Benedict XVI on his 80th birthday. Pope Benedict is a great
moral leader who offers a powerful message of love, faith and reason. Today
we celebrate his life and we express our appreciation for his commitment to
the cause of human dignity around the world.

Terry.

Q Any talk that President might go to Virginia to comfort the families?

MS. PERINO: I spoke to the President at 12:35 p.m., I was the first to
alert him to the tragedy and I think that it's a little bit premature to
talk about any other travel arrangements, or anything else. But if that
changes, we'll let you know.

Q Might he speak on the topic?

MS. PERINO: If it changes, I'll let you know for sure. He had just been
informed, as I said, about 25 minutes ago.

Q Has he communicated these concerns to President Putin, about the
demonstrations?

MS. PERINO: I don't believe that they've spoken, no.

Q Will he do so, or might he do that?

MS. PERINO: Well, I know that the --

Q Or bring in the Russian Ambassador to talk about it, or anything like
that?

MS. PERINO: I haven't heard of any such plans. Obviously, we've had a
consistent position that we think that these types of disruptions at
peaceful protests are unacceptable. And we welcome the call by some Russian
officials for a thorough investigation of the activities. And we also call
for the Russian government to reiterate its commitment and attention to
respect fully the international standards of involving freedom of speech
and the press and the assembly -- freedom to assemble. And I would refer
you to the State Department to find out if any of the ambassadors have been
in touch.

Jessica.

Q The Attorney General released a copy of the remarks he'll be making
before Congress tomorrow. Has the President read these remarks, and is he
satisfied that they're detailed enough about the pattern of decision
making?

MS. PERINO: I don't know if the President has read the remarks, but he does
believe that the Justice Department and the Attorney General, at his
direction, have been fully responsive to Congress and that there will be a
hearing tomorrow, and then the AG can continue to answer questions from the
members.

Q So were they submitted to the White House, or reviewed by the White House
before they were released?

MS. PERINO: I don't believe so. At least I did not see them, and that was
one thing I said I would check on from the gaggle, and I didn't have an
opportunity.

Just to let you know, the committee asked for the remarks -- or the
testimony, 48 hours in advance, and I don't know if it was the Attorney
General who first released them. But they asked for the remarks, and the
Attorney General also had an op-ed in yesterday's paper, and I think that
he's working very hard to make sure people have answers to the questions
that they have.

Q Did the President read the op-ed?

MS. PERINO: I don't know.

April.

Q Dana, going back to Virginia Tech, what more does this White House think
needs to be done as it relates to gun issues? The President says current
laws need to be strengthened, anything beyond that -- you had a conference
on school violence with guns -- what more needs to be done?

MS. PERINO: I would point you back to the fact that President, along with
Secretary Spellings, hosted last October -- October 10, 2006 -- a
conference on school gun violence after the Amish school shooting and the
other shootings that had happened, because the tragedies are the ones that
just collectively break America's heart and are ones that we deeply feel,
because all of us can imagine what it would be like to have been at your
own school, your own college, and to have something happen. And those of us
who are parents, or brothers or sisters of people at the schools have to
take that into consideration.

As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people
to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a
gun into a school dormitory and shooting -- I don't want to say numbers
because I know that they're still trying to figure out many people were
wounded and possibly killed, but obviously that would be against the law
and something that someone should be held accountable for.

Q Columbine, Amish school shooting, now this, and a whole host of other gun
issues brought into schools -- that's not including guns on the streets and
in many urban areas and rural areas. Does there need to be some more
restrictions? Does there need to be gun control in this country?

MS. PERINO: The President -- as I said, April, if there are changes to the
President's policy we will let you know. But we've had a consistent policy
of ensuring that the Justice Department is enforcing all of the gun laws
that we have on the books and making sure that they're prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law.

Q Lastly, in Texas, if I'm correct, he passed legislation, no age
restriction on possession of weapons, if I'm correct. Should there be some
kind of federal age limit, as far as the President is concerned, raising
the age for gun possession in this country?

MS. PERINO: Unfortunately, I'm going to have to go back and look at what
the record was in Texas. Maybe Ken Herman could tell us. We'll go to Ken
next.

Q Dana, what is the outcome the President hopes to see at Wednesday's
meeting on Iraq at the White House?

MS. PERINO: The President hopes to find out if the Democrats are going to
be able to come together, resolve their differences, and stop being so
unreasonable and come to him and say how they are going to pass a clean
bill that can get to his desk that will fund the troops.

As you continue to hear from them, they are not consistent in their
position, they refuse to take arbitrary timetables off of the table, and
other restrictions against our generals. And the President has said that he
hopes that they can come down here and talk about how they're going to get
a clean bill to his desk, because they've also said that they're not going
to let the troops go without funding. So there has to be a reasonable
discussion on Wednesday, and the President hopes that that will be the
beginning of that, on Wednesday afternoon.

Q Does he expect them to give up on timetables?

MS. PERINO: I'm going to let them have a conversation on Wednesday, and
I'll update you from there.

Q I guess a logical follow up to that question is, what is the President
perhaps willing to compromise if the timetables have to be taken off the
table?

MS. PERINO: The President was very clear today in his remarks of what he is
for and what he will accept. What he will not accept is an arbitrary
timetable for withdrawal, a date for withdrawal that tells our enemies
exactly when we're going to leave. He is not going to accept armchair
quarterbacking from Capitol Hill on the generals who are in Baghdad and
around Iraq trying to prosecute this war. And he is really disappointed
that they had to include pork barrel spending in order to get this bill
across the goal line.

So it is the President who has a very principled stand, one that is
consistent. And the Democrats don't have any agreement on their side. So,
hopefully, they can come to agreement on their side. And if they come on
Wednesday and they don't, we'll have to see where we go from there.

Q Doesn't he have to give something, maybe? I realize you're not going to
negotiate here, but --

MS. PERINO: No, I'm not going to negotiate from the podium. The President
invited them to the meeting on Wednesday and he's looking forward to it,
and we'll update you after that.

Peter.

Q Dana, a lot of the stories about the Gonzales appearance tomorrow framed
it as "his job is on the line." Is it?

MS. PERINO: Look, I think there's a lot of hype about the hearing. This
issue has been ongoing for I think over a couple of months now. The Justice
Department has been fully responsive to the committee, and that's going to
culminate tomorrow in a hearing. But I think that one day's hearing does
not necessarily mean -- I've heard it described as "make or break," and I
would submit to you that the Attorney General, as you've reported, has been
as forthcoming as he possibly can be, has laid it all out on the table for
them and tomorrow he looks forward to answering their questions.

Q Is this a job security issue?

MS. PERINO: No, I don't think so. The Attorney General has the full
confidence of the President, and the President wanted the Justice
Department to be fully responsive and they have been. The President also
said he needed to go to Capitol Hill and continue to talk to those members.
He's had many conversations with members of Congress by phone, while they
were on their two-week recess, and tomorrow he'll have a chance to talk to
them in person.

Q Well, does he, and he alone, have to dig himself out of this controversy?

MS. PERINO: Look, the Attorney General has taken full responsibility for
it, and I think that the Attorney General looks forward to answering those
questions tomorrow.

Q Dana, General Sheehan, one of the names that's come up as a potential war
czar, says the administration does not have an "agreed-upon strategic view"
for Iraq. Do you buy that?

MS. PERINO: Well, first of all, I would take issue with the idea that he
was a potential war czar. As Steve Hadley has said and as we have said,
that no list of candidates has been narrowed down and no names have been
sent to the President for consideration.

What we are working on right now is implementation of a long, deliberative
process of a policy that was created and announced by the President on
January 10, 2007, and is being implemented right now by General David
Petraeus. We are quite unified. And we are starting to see some small signs
of success, despite the very real challenges and the violence that the
enemy continues to perpetrate.

Suzanne.

Q Can you give us an update on the emails from the RNC side and the White
House side? Last week we talked about the organization, Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a figure of 5 million missing
emails. You had mentioned in the gaggle you thought -- you would check with
the Office of Administration and perhaps that wasn't correct.

MS. PERINO: Look, the left-wing group, CREW, came up with a number of 5
million. We don't know where they came up with that number. We've told you
what we know, which is that we are aware that there could have been some
emails that were not automatically archived because of a technical issue.
And we have talked with the Office of Administration about that, and we're
looking into those details. But given the complex nature of this issue, it
might take us a little while to identify those. We do, however, know that
most -- all of those emails should be available on backup tapes. And so
we'll continue to look at it. This is separate from the RNC accounts, and
as soon as we have more information, we'll provide it.

Q Are you confident they're on backup tapes, or you're still in that phase
of investigating?

MS. PERINO: There should be, and we just want to make sure that there are
all of them. And, remember, there's a huge amount of email that comes in
and out of the White House. And it's quite a feat for the IT folks to be
able to keep up with software upgrades and storage and the amount of --
just the amount of traffic that's coming in and out on emails. On any given
year, I think I've read upwards of 50 million emails are sent and received,
not to mention forwarded or copied or blind copied, or all of those
different features that you can use with email. So it's a massive number.

Q And what was the agreement between the White House Counsel and members of
Congress regarding an independent investigator, computer IT?

MS. PERINO: Sure, that was regarding a separate issue, which is on the
small number of people that have access to RNC-hosted email accounts, based
on the job description that they have in order for them to avoid violating
the Hatch Act. And the agreement that we came to was -- was suggested by
Senator Leahy and Senator Specter, I believe, in which they said, why don't
we work together to see if there's an outside consultant, forensics
consultant that can help us identify if there are any potentially lost
emails. Fred Fielding and the rest of the White House thought that was a
reasonable idea. And so Fred Fielding and the Senator spoke on Friday, and
their staffs are going to meet today to talk about how to move that process
forward.

Q Is there any sense of a timetable, when you might have some more details?

MS. PERINO: No.

Q Weeks or days?

MS. PERINO: I don't know. I'm not going to put a date on it.

Q Dana, can I come back to the Gonzales testimony again? One of the things
Senator Schumer said is that there's a lot of "I don't knows," and "don't
remembers" in it. You've heard the testimony. Do you think that the
Attorney General has been specific enough in how he has answered some of
the questions about the --

MS. PERINO: I think that the Attorney General has been perfectly honest.
And I do have to -- I think all of us have to remember that this was an
issue that took place over now almost two-and-a-half years. And so if there
are certain things that somebody can't specifically remember, I wouldn't
consider that necessarily to be without -- outside the realm of
possibility, and I think the Attorney General has been very honest and he
looks forward to that hearing tomorrow.

Q Does the President plan to speak to the Attorney General or offer him any
guidance?

MS. PERINO: They spoke this morning.

Q And can you give us any sense of --

MS. PERINO: I don't have a readout of it, but they -- obviously they speak
regularly, and this morning, when they spoke, they talked about his
testimony.

Go ahead, Jim.

Q I was just wondering, because there was a while where they weren't
speaking so regularly.

MS. PERINO: That's not the case. The Attorney General has been here for
regular meetings with the President.

Q Wait a minute, we asked several times if they talked, and I know that a
week had gone by or, say, eight days --

MS. PERINO: They don't speak every day, but I can assure you that I have
seen him coming in and out of the Oval Office for the regular meetings that
he has, especially for FBI --

Q And have they discussed this incident?

MS. PERINO: They have many other things to discuss, as well, but again,
this morning when they spoke, they did talk about tomorrow's testimony.

Q And you have no readout for us at all about what was said?

MS. PERINO: No, I wasn't there. But I can tell you that they spoke, and
obviously, as I've told you, the President has full confidence in the
Attorney General, and there's a hearing tomorrow, and once we get that
behind us, we'll see how we can get about the business of the people.

Q I was listening to Vice President Cheney yesterday on "Face the Nation,"
and he seemed --

MS. PERINO: Nice self-promotion. (Laughter.)

Q -- and it seemed to me that he was less than resolute in his backing of
the Attorney General.

MS. PERINO: I think that is an over-interpretation. The Vice President said
the Attorney General has the full confidence of the President, and he said
that the Attorney General is going to have to go up to Capitol Hill
tomorrow and speak with the senators and answer their questions. And that's
exactly what I'm saying here today.

It's not -- this was an issue that the Attorney General managed out of his
department; he's taken full responsibility for it. And so I think the Vice
President was accurate in his statements yesterday.

Q Has the White House received a letter from some conservatives asking for
Gonzales's resignation? Has the President seen that?

MS. PERINO: Not that I'm aware of.

Go ahead, Les.

Q Thank you, Dana. Two questions: Yesterday The New York Times quoted
Houston Baker, an English professor at Duke who has now relocated to
Vanderbilt, as condemning what he called "rapacious white athletes given
license to rape, maraud, deploy hate speech, and feel proud of themselves
--

MS. PERINO: What's your question, Les?

Q -- scummy bunch of white males living like farm animals." The question:
Does the President believe that this man and 87 other Duke faculty who also
maligned these three lacrosse players found not guilty should now
apologize, or not?

MS. PERINO: As much as you have tried to drag me into this story, I'm going
to continue to resist it, Les. What's your next question?

Q Okay. You, Dana, we're quoted --

MS. PERINO: Uh-oh.

Q -- in yesterday's New York Times, with your 61-word announcement,
beginning with, "The President has full confidence in Paul Wolfowitz." But
the large Times headline above your quote was "the mounting storm on
Wolfowitz," which The Washington Post headlined as "furor." And my
question: Do you or the President believe that Mr. Wolfowitz has been
libeled by these newspapers publishing details of his personal life?

Q Let me just reiterate for you that the President does have full
confidence in Paul Wolfowitz. He has done a very good job at the World
Bank, where they are working to lift people up out of poverty around the
world. He's focused on Africa and other areas around the world that need
the World Bank's attention. And the President continues to have confidence
in him.

Q You don't think that he has been libeled, then?

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment on that.

Q Does the President think he used good judgment in this incident, however?

MS. PERINO: Look, what he knows is that Paul Wolfowitz has apologized, and
the board at the World Bank is undergoing a review and I think I'll have to
leave it there.

Victoria.

Q Does the President not remember having a phone conversation with Senator
Domenici about U.S. attorney Iglesias? Or is he clear that one did not take
place?

MS. PERINO: I've never asked him that question. I do know that his vague
recollection was that he had heard complaints. And then I'll refer you to
his statement -- or his answer to a question that he got in Mexico, in
which he was asked that question, and he said that he recalls being at a
meeting on the Hill in which this issue was brought up -- a meeting of
senators on the Hill in which it was brought up. But I've never heard
anything about a phone call.

Q So he's never actually answered the question.

MS. PERINO: He answered the question. And I don't know anything about a
phone call; I've never heard that -- except for questions from you all.

Q You mean the phone call --

MS. PERINO: I don't know that the President ever received a phone call. I
don't have any record of that, or any recollection of it, and I've been
dealing with this issue for many weeks.

Q When he was at the meeting on the Hill where it was brought up, it was
Senator Domenici --

MS. PERINO: I don't think people remember, necessarily, who it was. And,
remember, complaints about voter fraud cases were coming in from various
different places.

Q Right. Just to be clear about this, then, Senator Domenici and the
President, has there ever been a direct conversation between the two?

MS. PERINO: I don't know. I don't believe so, necessarily, about this
particular issue, but remember, when -- the President sees members of
Congress all of the time, and as I think I said last week, whenever a
senator has the President's ear, whether the issue -- whether the topic of
the meeting is the Iraq war supplemental, if they have a chance to talk
about other issues, they will. And so I'm not going to rule it out, but I
just can't say that Senator Domenici and the President ever had a
one-on-one conversation about it.

Sarah.

Q Thank you. Dana, is the President running out of patience on North Korea,
which appears to be stalling again? What does he plan to do if North Korea
refuses to end its nuclear program?

MS. PERINO: The goal here is denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. As
Chris Hill said yesterday, that the host of the six-party talks, the
Chinese, have asked the Americans to have some patience. And so we think
that that would be the prudent thing to do, and we believe that everyone
will and should live up to its obligations from the February 13th
agreement.

Q Follow up on Terry's question about the letter from conservatives. And
whether you know any specifics on this letter or not, I'm just wondering,
in general --

MS. PERINO: I've not seen one.

Q In general, though, when the President receives a letter like this from,
in this case, conservatives who include longtime supporters of the
President, expressing concern and criticism and calling for Gonzales to
step down, does a letter like that get the President's attention more than
other letters, given the fact that they are long-time supporters?

MS. PERINO: A lot of things come across the President's desk. Usually in a
case like that, if the letter didn't make it directly to him to look at,
then one of the senior staff members would have brought it to his
attention, sure.

Q The phone call -- did he speak with Gonzales by phone or face-to-face?

MS. PERINO: By phone, by phone this morning.

Q Okay. Thank you.

END 1:19 P.M. EDT
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