For Immediate Release Office of the
Press Secretary November 19, 2002
Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer Aboard Air
Force One En Route Prague, Czech Republic
12:09 P.M. EST
MR. FLEISCHER: Let the gaggle begin. The Senate just shortly
voted for -- against an amendment for the President's
position on the homeland security bill, which means now --
barring some unforeseen event -- the homeland security measure that
President Bush looks forward to signing will proceed on the Senate
floor in the manner that the President asked the Senate to consider
it.
The attempt to defeat the President's position was defeated by a
vote of 47 to 52. The President is very pleased that it looks as if
the homeland security bill that the President believes is necessary
to protect America will now move forward to a final vote in the
Senate.
The President praises the Senate for this vote, for this action.
He hopes it will, indeed, pave the way to final action so he can
sign this bill into law. It appears that the lame duck Congress is
accomplishing substantial good for the American people. The lame
duck Congress will shortly turn -- if all goes according to plan --
to the terrorism insurance bill, which means that this Congress will
have taken action on homeland security, on terrorism insurance, on
9/11 commission, as well as a port security measure.
So the president is pleased with this vote on the amendment. It
literally took place within the hour. And we'll ultimately see and
we'll try to keep you updated back here about what the next step in
the Senate is. But by all indications, it looks like the Senate will
take up the final bill and pass it today. That could get derailed,
we'll see, but progress has been made.
Q Any senators that the President reached out to by phone by the
vote? And/or is the Vice President doing that back home?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know. The President did not make any phone
calls from Air Force One today. Others, of course, made phone calls
and the President may have made calls prior to today; I don't have
the list.
Q So the sequence is they're going to do homeland today and
terrorism tomorrow?
MR. FLEISCHER: The sequence is now that this amendment is
defeated, the next step -- unless there's a filibuster or other use
of parliamentary time -- the homeland security measure will be voted
on, up or down vote, similar to the House, the bill is passed. Then
the ySenate would proceed to terrorism insurance.
Q An up or down vote could be today --
MR. BARTLETT: Senator Byrd did a point of order, the very next
move after that, the amendment was defeated. So there will be a lot
of procedural votes to take place. So it may take some time. But
they're projecting to sometime today.
Q Moving on to the summit, what do you hope to see
on Iraq out of this summit, Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, one, the President hopes to see out of the
summit an expansion of NATO. That's the purpose of the summit, in
that sense. This really is an historical summit. The fact that
expansion, which of course will get announced Thursday, could
include a number of new nations, it's a very exciting time and a
very exciting moment for NATO.
The President will likely discuss Iraq with NATO leaders and
we'll see what, if anything, comes out of the summit vis--vis Iraq,
see what those conversations lead to.
Q There's talk of a formal statement of some sort, admittedly
general. Is there going to be that statement, or is that in some
doubt?
MR. FLEISCHER: There very well could be.
Q But you're not going to handicap it?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, I mean, you go into these summits, there's
always lots of paper that gets talked about, and I think usually
there is paper -- usually there's lots of paper and we will, of
course, distribute all that paper. So I think --
Q People often get married and they get so cautious all of a
sudden; what is this? (Laughter.)
Q Ari, you said the President is going to talk to world leaders
about Iraq. What does he hope to accomplish from that? What is he
looking for from world leaders?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, again, this is something that the United
Nations has already voted on and discussed and these nations, some
of them are on the Security Council, of course they all belong to
the United Nations. And so the President, as he leads and builds a
coalition, he always wants to make certain that the world has a
chance to discuss the threat that Saddam Hussein presents.
Q Will he be discussing current issues, the exchange of fire in
ythe no-fly zones, that sort of thing?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know at what level of detail they're going
to talk about it. Again, the purpose of the summit is to focus on
expansion and transformation within NATO. And that is the purpose of
the summit. And from my experience at these summits now, I can tell
you that the purpose of the summit does dominate the summit, that is
most of their time.
Now, I think it's likely there will be conversations about Iraq,
and I'll do my best to give you a read as events warrant.
Q How are you treating right now the Iraqi firing on the U.S.
planes in the no-fly zones?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's always a serious incident, any time anybody
fires on American planes. It's a material breach of the United
Nations resolutions. It can endanger the lives of Americans and
British who patrol to enforce the no-fly zone to protect people on
the ground. So these are serious violations.
Q And as such? As a material breach, what's your response, your
next step?
MR. FLEISCHER: Our response is what you see played out before
you, the pilots respond as events warrant. We always reserve the
right to discuss this further with the Security Council.
Q No immediate plans to do so?
MR. FLEISCHER: We always reserve that right. No immediate plans.
Q How will he address -- you were talking about the
transformation of NATO -- the fact that many of these seven
incoming countries, let's be honest, if there was a need for
military action, couldn't exactly hold up their end. How do you
nudge people along in that way and say, this has to change to be
worth our while?
MR. FLEISCHER: One of the interesting facts about NATO
transformation and NATO enlargement is many of the individual
countries have particular strengths, niche abilities to perform
combat-ready missions. And each of these individual nations,
therefore, contributes in a concrete and discernable way to NATO's
overall success. And you will continue to see that developed as NATO
expands.
Q What are you expecting on Saturday, do you think we'll see any
sort of joint press conference or statement or anything out of
Putin? I mean, maybe it's Friday -- Putin and the
President?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't recall if we're going to have paper out of
Putin and the President. We will?
MS. PEREZ: Yes. There's a couple of fact sheets on the
Russia-U.S. energy, so you'll see a couple of things.
Q But will we see them appear together and take any questions?
MR. DICKENS: Yes. They'll have their meeting and then they'll
step out and take questions.
Q Looking at the schedule, the only meeting, the bilat where
there is coverage, can we look at opening up the other ones for pool
sprays?
MR. FLEISCHER: Do we have anything else open?
MR. DICKENS: We do in the next stops. That day, in that series of
bilats, that is the only bilat that is open.
Q But in Prague, it's just Havel, it's not the Turkish Prime
Minister, it's not Chirac. Can we get those opened?
MR. FLEISCHER: As you know, that is our standard practice.
There's usually one press avail a day. We don't open up every one,
otherwise there wouldn't be time for the President to have any
meetings.
MR. DICKENS: We're sticking to the procedure, this has been the
formula we've used on almost every foreign trip.
MR. FLEISCHER: I would like to just note that we have broken a
record, this is now a four-person, on the record gaggle. We have
four administration spokespeople at your disposal. The reason for
that, it takes four of us to equal one McQuillan -- I mean
McClellan. McClellan. (Laughter.) That was not a McQuillan, that was
a McClellan. (Laughter.)
Q Is North Korea going to come up in any of
the discussions at NATO or during Russia?
MR. FLEISCHER: Again, you never rule anything out as far as
coming up. The agenda for NATO is, as I earlier indicated, about
enlargement. And of course South Korea and Japan are not NATO
members; Russia is not a NATO member. Those are the nations that we
need most immediately focus with, but you can never rule it out.
Q In terms of dealing with weapons of mass destruction, that
being one of the new drives for NATO, is it likely to come up?
MR. FLEISCHER: It's not an agenda item, but you never know what
comes up any time such a large number of leaders gather. And
particularly during the evening sessions, it's designed for some
informality where the President can talk more freely, in a
tug-on-a-sleeve basis with leaders.
Q Ari, some of these new members have talked about possibly actually participating militarily in Iraq
military action, should it come to that. Is that something
that the President expects to talk about with them, informally or
otherwise?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the President has made no secret of the fact
that if it is necessary to go to war with Iraq that the United
States will assemble a coalition of the willing. And I'm not going
to be able to predict with certainty what the exact composition of
that coalition of the willing may or may not be, but certainly there
are many nations who see things as the President does, that Iraq
possesses a serious threat to the United States, to the western
world, to the region, and the world spoke powerfully through the
United Nations.
Q And will he be speaking to some of the NATO allies, especially
the new ones, about that here?
MR. FLEISCHER: Again, as I indicated earlier, we'll see what
those individual conversations are. I would suspect the topic will
come up.
Q Ari, even though there's no formal bilat between Bush and
Schroeder, is the President going to try to make some time, at least
to have a one-on-one conversation with him at the summit?
MR. FLEISCHER: It would not surprise me. There are many leaders
here who the President, as I just indicated, has the ability to chat
with informally. So you never know at these large gatherings.
Q Any particular message he'd convey in a session like that?
MR. FLEISCHER: It just depends on who he's talking to. For
example, the Italian President, many different leaders --
Q -- Schroeder?
MR. FLEISCHER: It could be any number of issues.
Anything else?
Q Yes. Can you look ahead to the speech
tomorrow, what is his message there? Will we get to see
excerpts or anything in advance?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know about excerpts because I think the
timing is going to work out very well for your deadlines, in terms
of --
Q -- the overnight cycle.
MR. FLEISCHER: I can do this for the overnights now. The speech
will welcome the enlargement of NATO. It will signify the
advancement for liberty and freedom that NATO's enlargement
represents. And it will also be a very appropriate follow-up to the
President's speech in Warsaw last year, about the importance of a
Europe free, at peace, and at whole.
Q I didn't hear --
MR. FLEISCHER: A follow-up to the President's remarks in Warsaw
last year about a Europe that's a whole, at peace and is free. This
is a real historical marker in Prague. The fact that NATO is
expanding, nations that once may have fought us are now joining with
us. People in these nations who were once oppressed, they now see
their freedom, as best expressed by an alliance with the west and
with NATO, is a very powerful curtain raiser under a peaceful 21st
century.
That stands in contrast to a divided Europe in the 20th century.
A Europe in the 21st century now is at peace and is whole, in
contrast to a Europe that so many people grew up with in the 20th
century that was sharply divided down the middle between those who
sought peace and those who engaged in totalitarianism and communism.
And it's a stirring tribute to people's desire to be free.
Q But what's his message? I mean, other than, this is historic? I
mean, does he pledge the United States to do something?
MR. FLEISCHER: His message is, this is the future of the world,
this is the future of Europe, as being at peace and whole and free.
And what a stirring tribute it is to human liberty that this is the
path that these nations are taking -- when the 20th century showed a
path that was so different.
Okay. Thanks, everybody.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END 12:21 P.M. EST
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