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White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 4/23/08 (Helen and Torture)
— Wednesday, April 23, 2008 — MS. PERINO: Helen. Q The President has said publicly several times, in two consecutive news conferences a few months ago, and you have said over and over again, we do not torture. Now he has admitted that he did sign off on torture, he did know about it. So how do you reconcile this credibility gap? MS. PERINO: Helen, you're taking liberties with the what the President said. The United States has not, is not torturing any detainees in the global war on terror. And General Hayden, amongst others, have spoken on Capitol Hill fully in this regard, and it is -- I'll leave it where it is. The President is accurate in saying what he said. Q That's not my question. My question is, why did he state publicly, we do not torture -- MS. PERINO: Because we do not. Q -- when he really did know that we do? MS. PERINO: No, that's what I mean, Helen. We've talked about the legal authorities -- Q Are you saying that we did not? MS. PERINO: I am saying we did not, yes. Q How can you when you have photographs and everything else? I mean, how can you say that when he admits that he knew about it? MS. PERINO: Helen, I think that you're -- again, I think you're conflating some issues and you're misconstruing what the President said. Q I'm asking for the credibility of this country, not just this administration. MS. PERINO: And what I'm telling you is we have -- torture has not occurred. And you can go back through all the public record. Just make sure -- I would just respectfully ask you not to misconstrue what the President said. Q You're denying, in this room, that we torture and we have tortured? MS. PERINO: Yes, I am denying that. Dana Perino | Helen | Interrogation | President Bush | Press Briefing | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Helen, Interrogation, President Bush, Press Briefing, War on Terror, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:03 PM  White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 4/7/08 (General Petraeus Iraq Testimony) — Monday, April 07, 2008 — MR. FRATTO: Yes, Helen. Q You acted like the President wouldn't know what Petraeus and Crocker are going to testify. Do you mean he's going to be surprised tomorrow -- MR. FRATTO: No, I hope I didn't leave -- Q -- when they say the surge is working and all? MR. FRATTO: No, I hope I didn't leave that impression. I think he has a good sense of what the thinking of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker is. Obviously they speak on a fairly regular basis and the President is briefed by General Petraeus. And he's also briefed by lots of -- Q But he's the President, isn't he calling the policy? I mean, we don't have President Petraeus, do we? We have President -- MR. FRATTO: No, we don't. We have commander Petraeus, who is running the operations on the ground in Iraq and he's closest to the military operations. He knows the capabilities of his forces, the coalition forces, and what the Iraqi security forces can do, and has a good sense of what's needed to complete his mission. And it's a mission that he designed. So we want to look forward to his testimony and hear how he thinks it's going and what the requirements are to complete that mission for the remainder of the year. Q What is the mission? MR. FRATTO: Well, it's pretty clear, says to bring -- is to bring -- Q Are you asking -- to continue the occupation of Iraq? MR. FRATTO: -- security in Iraq, sufficient security, so that the political leadership can continue to make gains. And they've made some very impressive gains, whether it's with the budget and reconstruction funding and the Baathist legislation and provincial elections. These are all very, very important elements of political reconciliation in Iraq. We'd like to see more. We want to see more action on oil revenue law. And so there's more to be done. We're going to keep a very close eye on implementation of the laws that have been passed. But I think it's clear General Petraeus's mission was to reduce violence in Baghdad and in Iraq, more broadly, and I think it's hard to deny -- it would be hard for anybody to deny that he hasn't been successful in that mission. Now, we know that it's a -- the reduction of violence is fragile and it's reversible, but we like the trend and we like what the Iraqi political leadership has shown about their ability to take action. Q And paying off 90,000 Iraqis not to fight? MR. FRATTO: Kathleen. General Petraeus | Helen | Iraq | Middle East | President Bush | Press Briefing | Tony Fratto | White House Press Corps Labels: General Petraeus, Helen, Iraq, Middle East, President Bush, Press Briefing, Tony Fratto, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:55 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 3/24/08 (4,000 U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq) — Monday, March 24, 2008 —
 Q The 4,000 U.S. deaths in Iraq -- does the President regard that as a significant milestone? What's it mean to him?MS. PERINO: President Bush thinks that every single loss is tragic, from the very first several years ago to the ones that sacrificed yesterday. And he's extremely proud of the courageous men and women in uniform and all that they've done to help protect Iraqis, to protect each other and to protect this country. Most of the families of the fallen that he meets with have one request of the President, which is: Do not let my loved one's sacrifice be in vain. And the President assures them that he is committed to staying and fighting and winning. And one of the reasons he's taking such careful deliberation over the next few weeks as we lead up to the April time frame is because he wants to make sure that the gains that we have secured over this past year are cemented and that we lay the foundation for Iraq to have a democracy where they can govern, sustain and defend itself right there in the Middle East. The enemy we face is brutal. They have killed thousands of people around the world, innocent men, women and children. And they have killed our soldiers as well. And the President believes that taking the fight to the enemy is the best way to combat them for our own national security. But he definitely feels the loss. He gets a report about every single soldier who passes away, and he always pauses a moment to think about them and to offer a prayer for their loved ones and their family and friends. Q Aren't there also families of the bereaved who ask him to stop the war? MS. PERINO: There have been, but the vast majority have all asked him not to allow that sacrifice to be in vain. But certainly there are some. Q The "vast majority"? Can you say that with certainty? MS. PERINO: Well, he has said that repeatedly, and that is true for the I think almost nearly a thousand families of the fallen that he's met with. Q Does he take responsibility for a war he started without provocation that led to 4,000 deaths and 30,000 dramatically injured for life? MS. PERINO: Helen, as you know, as he said many times, he was the one responsible for making the decision to go to war. He didn't make it lightly. And as Commander-in-Chief, the hardest thing that you do and that he's done, and that any Commander-in-Chief before him and those in the future, the hardest thing that they will do is decide to commit our men and women to harm's way. Q Did he foresee this kind of catastrophe? MS. PERINO: I think that he knew that the war was going to require sacrifices and that -- Q By who? MS. PERINO: Well, of course by our soldiers. Q There's nobody in his family or this administration in this war. MS. PERINO: Helen, these are all questions we have dealt with before. I've given you an answer in the President's reaction to the 4,000 and I'm going to move on. Dana Perino | Helen | Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Helen, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, War on Terror, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:57 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 3/20/08 (Government by Public Opinion Polls) — Thursday, March 20, 2008 —
 Q Dana, can I just follow on our colleague Martha Raddatz's interview with the Vice President? Let's set aside the meaning of the word "so" for a second, and get to something the Vice President then said about fluctuations in the public opinion polls: "You can't be blown off course by fluctuations in public opinion polls." That would suggest that at any point in recent memory that the American public has been behind the war. It's not that there's been fluctuations in polls; it's been different degrees of opposition to the war. So is the Vice President saying it really doesn't matter what the American public thinks about the war?MS. PERINO: No, I don't think that's what he's saying, and obviously I haven't spoken to the Vice President since he's traveling today and was in Kabul visiting with President Karzai at the request of the President. But what he went on to say is that President should not make decisions based on polls. And we fully recognize that people across America are unhappy with the war; possibly they didn't agree with the decision in the first place. They might have been unhappy with the conduct of the war. They might have disagreed with the President's decision to send in more troops, which was a very unpopular decision across the board. But what the President has said is that while people might not like the decisions that he makes, he has to do what he thinks is right for the country, and he cannot try to chase an opinion poll and try to make things better that way. He has to act on what he thinks is right, and that's what he's done. Q So at what point -- I mean, I guess I just -- there is the impression that the Vice President doesn't care about what the American people think in policy like that. Is that a wrong impression? And does the President share that impression? MS. PERINO: I think that is the wrong impression. I think that the Vice President and the President both, together, all of us across the administration, would like for people to support the President's decisions. We realize that that's unrealistic, especially in a time of war -- and in particular this war. And while we're not able to change public opinion, we also have to follow a principle and stand on principle. And you have to ask yourself, what kind of a person do you want in the Oval Office? And America will have this choice to make in November of 2008 -- before I get ahead of myself. So we believe that the President stood on his principle. He hasn't chased public opinion polls. He's aware of them, but he hasn't made decisions because of them, and I think there's a distinction. Just because you don't make decisions based on opinion polls doesn't mean you don't care what people think. We are all Americans. We care deeply about what people think. Helen. Q The American people are being asked to die and pay for this, and you're saying they have no say in this war? MS. PERINO: I didn't say that, Helen. But, Helen, this President was elected -- Q Well, what it amounts to is you saying we have no input at all. MS. PERINO: You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that's the way our system is set up. Q Every four years. MS. PERINO: And we listen to -- Q It sounds familiar. MS. PERINO: -- different points of view. The President, in fact, had many meetings with members of Congress leading up to his decision about the surge. Q Supposed to be a government for the people, of the people, by the people? MS. PERINO: I would submit to you that people across America, if asked what type of a President do you want: one that stands on principle or that one that chases polls? And I think that they would want -- Q What's the principle of going to war against the people who did nothing to us? MS. PERINO: Helen, the President went to war to remove Saddam Hussein. He talked all about this yesterday in his speech. I'll refer you to that. Dana Perino | Dick Cheney | Helen | Iraq | Polls | Press Briefing | Vice President | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Dick Cheney, Helen, Iraq, Polls, Press Briefing, Vice President, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:34 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 2/25/08 (FISA Bill and Telecom Retroactive Immunity) — Monday, February 25, 2008 — Q Is the President's position that he would veto it without retroactive immunity? MS. PERINO: That has been his position for a long time, and the reason is because you can't have -- without the cooperation of the companies, we won't have a program. You know, if we had a nationalized telecommunication system, then we -- the government could do it on its own, but in our system of government and the way that we are set up as a capitalist-style country, we have to have the cooperation of the private sector. They have the technology, they have the means, and they want to cooperate, but they have been burdened with over 40 lawsuits, class-action lawsuits that would -- that, one, already are costing them lots of money to deal with. And if the suits were to go forward, it could cost them possibly billions. And that cost is going to be borne by the consumers of those businesses, the customers of those businesses. But more importantly, the companies at this point are saying that they are growing increasingly reluctant to continue to work with us because, even though they want to, they are concerned about the trial lawyer lawsuits that are pending. Q Dana, critics would say that -- MS. PERINO: Reluctantly so. And it took a lot of work on behalf of the Justice Department and the office of Director of National Intelligence to work with the companies to work with companies to -- work with them to tell them what we need, and to tell them that we are going to continue to push for prospective and, more importantly, retroactive liability protection. Q Who gave them the right to break the law? MS. PERINO: Nobody broke the law, Helen. That might be your opinion, but nobody broke the law. Q When these companies -- when no warrant is given, and they didn't break the law? MS. PERINO: Helen, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to your own set of facts. Q Oh, come on, let's -- MS. PERINO: And the facts are that companies were asked to help, and they were helped -- Q Why can't they get -- MS. PERINO: -- and they allowed -- they helped with a legal program that has helped save lives. Q Who told them they could break the law? MS. PERINO: That is just -- that's not true, Helen. Q Is it not the case, as the writers of the op-ed in today's Post claim, that the law protects all of this until August? MS. PERINO: There are -- it's a little bit more complex than that, but there are certainly directives that were approved last August when the Protect America Act was passed. Q For how long? MS. PERINO: For one year. But it's not for -- it's not necessarily -- that does not necessarily apply to all the new targets. And it doesn't apply necessarily to maybe new companies or new providers that we would need to work with in the future, that might not already be under a directive that we're -- Q But one of your complaints of prospective. They don't affect anything that's going on right now. MS. PERINO: That's not necessarily the case. As you heard in the letter -- you didn't hear from him, but in the letter that Attorney General Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence McConnell sent on Friday -- that there were several days last week where we lost information. Late Friday night there was a company that agreed reluctantly to continue to cooperate with us. But one of the things you have to understand is in the world -- Q They lost information because companies wouldn't cooperate. MS. PERINO: Correct. There was -- they are reluctant to cooperate. And during that time frame when they were trying to work with them to get them to cooperate, and to give them the comfort that they needed to be willing partners, it just took a little while. And then once that was given on Saturday morning, that the Justice Department and the Office of Director -- the DNI, put out a statement saying that they had gotten this cooperation. But this is not the kind -- this is not the way we should be running an intelligence program where you are trying to track terrorists who are calling into or out of America. We don't want to have to be having our lawyers and other professionals in the intelligence community having to coax companies to cooperate. These companies want to cooperate. I mean, all they're saying is that they want the retroactive liability protection which passed the Senate 68-29. Dana Perino | FISA | Helen | President Bush | Press Briefing | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, FISA, Helen, President Bush, Press Briefing, Vetoes, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:14 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/6/07 (President Bush and President Musharraf) — Tuesday, November 06, 2007 — MS. PERINO: Helen. Q Why is the President dodging a personal phone call to Musharraf? MS. PERINO: The President has had his Secretary of State -- Q I'm asking you directly why doesn't he call him? MS. PERINO: The President feels very strongly that President Musharraf knows exactly how he feels about the situation. Q That isn't the point. MS. PERINO: It is the point. Q Dana, does the White House believe that Musharraf is now a dictator? MS. PERINO: Look, I think that that is -- it's premature to say that. This is a President -- Q Well, why is premature when the First Lady -- MS. PERINO: -- who has worked closely with an ally in the war on terror, President Musharraf. We're doing two things with them: on the one hand, working cooperatively to take the fight to the enemy, to fight against terrorists; and on the other hand, trying to help President Musharraf and the other members of the Pakistani government to move along the path to democracy, because ultimately what's going to help solve this problem is a free society, a democratic society. And yes, President Musharraf, we believe, has made a mistake. We are gravely concerned about the situation. We are calling for an immediate return back to -- Q But wait a minute, why are you calling it a mistake? You seem to be giving Musharraf the benefit of the doubt. MS. PERINO: -- we are calling for an immediate return to civilian rule, and we are in communication with them because we have a lot of cooperative interests. We have a broad relationship, and we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have very serious counterterrorism operations that are currently underway in Pakistan as well. Q Why did -- the First Lady was very clear in her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about Burma, Myanmar, saying it's a military dictatorship; what they're doing is wrong. We're not hearing the First Lady, we're not hearing the President being that sharp either on Pakistan. Why do you seem to be giving Musharraf the -- MS. PERINO: And what you have heard -- what you have heard from the President and this administration is that we were made aware that this state of emergency could possibly be declared. We have averted it before, in trying to work cooperatively with President Musharraf. This time the President of Pakistan decided that this is the direction he wanted to go in. We disagree with it. We want him to return to civilian rule. We want the normalcy of the democracy to come back. We're in the early stages of this crisis, and it's going to evolve. We're assessing the situation, and we're reviewing our aid packages. Q But why is it evolving? It's been days that he basically said, no more constitution, and we're going to round up political -- MS. PERINO: We have condemned the action. We have condemned the action. We cannot support any means that are happening outside of the constitution. And that's why we are calling for him to return to the constitution. But remember, this is a country that we want to see democracy. There is a way to get them back on that path. It would be in the best interests of not just the Pakistani people but for people like those of us in the United States, who want to work with an ally in order to fight against terrorists. Q But why should Musharraf believe that you guys are really serious about what you're saying from this podium when the President doesn't actually pick up the phone and call him to let him know personally? That carries a lot more weight than having Condoleezza Rice or somebody else talk to him. MS. PERINO: Well, we disagree. The President has made his points very clear with Musharraf; he's had many meetings with President Musharraf. And Secretary Rice has delivered those messages. And we feel that we are going to keep pressuring them to get back to that rule of law, working with our Ambassador, Anne Patterson, who is in constant contact with President Musharraf. Q It still does not carry the same weight as the President having direct contact with Musharraf -- (inaudible). MS. PERINO: Well, I'll let you -- I'll let that be your opinion. I'll let that be your opinion. Q But what is the tactic? I mean, what is the strategic reason for President Bush not to actually pick up the phone and talk to him? MS. PERINO: I feel confident that the President is being well served and advised by his senior national security team. The decision has been made to have Secretary Rice be the one directed to have this communication. Q Why shouldn't we see this as double standard? I mean, it's not the same standard as applied to Burma. MS. PERINO: I can understand why that question would be asked, but I think everyone has to remember that we are in the early days of a crisis, looking at a country who had decided to try to move down the path to democracy in establishing freedom of the press, civil societies, improving the education system, the public health system, allowing for freedom of expression and assembly. Democracies take time to develop. It is not easy. And this is certainly a setback, and we're -- Q Well, they certainly don't have freedom of the press or assembly at the moment. MS. PERINO: And we have called for a return to it. Burma | Dana Perino | Democracy | First Lady | Helen | Musharraf | Pakistan | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Burma, Dana Perino, Democracy, First Lady, Helen, Musharraf, Pakistan, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:58 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/9/07 (Nuclear Arms in the Middle East) — Tuesday, October 09, 2007 — MS. PERINO: Helen. Q -- White House has a driving interest in keeping nuclear arms out of Iran. I'd like to ask you, does any country in the Middle East have nuclear arms? MS. PERINO: Oh, I would leave it to those countries to announce whether they do or not. I think that there's public information about that, Helen. Q No, no, no, I want to know if the White House knows that there -- what do you mean? They're not going to announce it. MS. PERINO: I'm not prepared to say anything beyond what has been publicly stated -- Q You don't know whether any other country in the Middle East has nuclear arms? MS. PERINO: Helen, I will let those countries speak for themselves. Q Or do you refuse to say? MS. PERINO: I'll just refuse to say it. Dana Perino | Helen | Iran | Middle East | Nuclear Arms | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Helen, Iran, Middle East, Nuclear Arms, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:46 PM
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