in their own words
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 The Gravest Security Danger - Prague Press Gaggle by Robert Gibbs 4/5/09 — Tuesday, April 07, 2009 —  Q So the President has not yet been told whether this was in fact a satellite launch, or a missile test, or something in between?MR. GIBBS: I won't get into that during this briefing. I will say this: The President has -- the launch today was not a surprise by any means. The President has been involved in several meetings about this situation over the course of the past three to four weeks. So this was something that had long been planned for. And had at any moment we determined that this launched posed a threat to the United States of America, we would have taken whatever steps were necessary to ensure the safety and security of the American people. Q At any time were America's defenses placed on alert? MR. GIBBS: I think it is safe to say that defenses were monitoring the situation. Q Has the President reached out yet to -- directly to any allies -- Japan or South Korea? MR. GIBBS: The President hasn't spoken yet with Aso or with Lee. Not yet. Q So just to back up, he was woken up? MR. GIBBS: Yes. Q Who woke him up? MR. GIBBS: I did. Q What was his first reaction? MR. GIBBS: Again, it wasn't completely unexpected. He asked me for a rundown of the situation. Obviously at that point there wasn't a ton of detail, and not long after we went back and gave him more up-to-date information about what to -- what defense came back with. Q Did he stay up then to -- get on the phone from that point on? MR. GIBBS: He was up at that point, yes. Q Obviously this makes a big impact on the speech, it ties into the speech, but it overshadows it in some ways. What is he going to say -- MR. GIBBS: I don't think -- I don't think it overshadows it, because I don't think -- I think it makes even more urgent, as the President said, the agenda and the policies that he'll lay out today: The spread of this technology, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and the threat of -- the threat that those weapons pose are the most -- are the gravest security danger our country faces. And I think what the President will outline today is a robust agenda to deal with the problems and the security threats that they pose. North Korea | President Obama | Press Gaggle | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: North Korea, President Obama, Press Gaggle, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:35 AM
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