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 Ungoverned Spaces - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 4/13/09 — Monday, April 13, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Do you have one more follow-up on this?Q No, I’m thinking about pirates. MR. GIBBS: All right. Well, thank you. MR. RESTREPO: Thank you, sir. Q So, pirates. MR. GIBBS: Yes, what's next? Q Well, the President talked, both in his statement yesterday and in his remarks today about addressing the bigger picture here, the increasingly problematic situation off the Horn of Africa. In his briefing over at the Pentagon, the Defense Secretary said, you know, some language, something like we're going to have to figure out what in the world to do, which implies that there really isn't much -- a plan or a strategy yet to figure out how to attack this problem. Can you talk about what's going on here? MR. GIBBS: When you say that, you mean the -- do you mean specifically maritime or do you mean -- I mean, obviously, you've got -- look, I think you've got a number of problems. Q Well, I mean, the maritime piracy problem, which I think is what the President was referring to when he said -- MR. GIBBS: Right. Well, I think also -- you know, the President has spoken about this before, and I'm sure will continue to speak about and work on the issue also of ungoverned spaces. And I don't think that can be in any way really minimized here. That's something that -- that trip when -- when he went to Africa in 2006, we spent some time in this region of the world and -- (Cell phone interruption.) MR. GIBBS: At least it's a normal ring. (Laughter.) We spent some time in this region of the world, and you quickly understand some of the challenges that lay before you. I think some of the things that we can -- that we have done and can continue to do to ensure maritime safety is to work for sustained international cooperation in order to coordinate security. Q Does that mean more military power on the part of the U.S.? MR. GIBBS: I think that is certainly -- operationally, I would point you over to the Pentagon, but I know in terms of the increased risk that we had over the past few days, you saw more resources and assets. Obviously this is a -- it's also a very huge expanse of space that has to be patrolled. I think also what has to happen is we do have to evaluate and be prepared to take stronger action interdicting acts of piracy. And I think another thing is to encourage greater efforts to bring individuals and groups suspected of these type of acts, to bring those to justice. We have seen an increase in this type of violence and I know the President is concerned about the safety and security of men and women that are in that area. Africa | Military | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Africa, Military, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:41 PM
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