pd15ap02 Remarks on the Citizens Corps in Knoxville...

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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page i]
 
Monday, April 15, 2002


[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents



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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page i-ii]
 
Pages 571-618
 
 Contents

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 Addresses and Remarks

    See also Meetings With Foreign Leaders
    ``Charity Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment Act of 2002,'' proposed--
        611
    Connecticut
        ``Citizen Service Act,'' remarks on proposed legislation in 
            Bridgeport--597
         Republican luncheon in Greenwich--602
    Human cloning legislation--608
    Radio address--576
    Tennessee
         Citizens Corps in Knoxville--582
        Citizens Police Academy tour in Knoxville--582
        Middle East, remarks in Knoxville--582
    ``Terrorism Risk Protection Act,'' proposed--586

 Communications to Congress

    India-U.S. treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters 
        with documentation, message transmitting--597

Interviews With the News Media

     Interviews
         United Kingdom's ITV television network--571
         Wall Street Journal--589

Interviews With the News Media--Continued

    News conference with Prime Minister Blair of the United Kingdom in 
        Crawford, TX, April 6--577

Meetings With Foreign Leaders

    North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Secretary General Lord 
        Robertson--607
    United Kingdom, Prime Minister Blair--577

Proclamations

    National D.A.R.E. Day--610

Statements by the President

    House of Representatives action on pension reform legislation--615
    Senate action on election reform legislation--614

Supplementary Materials

     Acts approved by the President--618
     Checklist of White House press releases--617
     Digest of other White House announcements--615
     Nominations submitted to the Senate--616
  

  Editor's Note: The President was at Camp David, MD, on April 12, the 
closing date of this issue. Releases and announcements issued by the 
Office of the Press Secretary but not received in time for inclusion in 
this issue will be printed next week.


              WEEKLY COMPILATION OF
          ------------------------------
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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page 571-576]
 
Pages 571-618
 
Week Ending Friday, April 12, 2002
 
Interview With the United Kingdom's ITV Television Network


April 4, 2002

Situation in the Middle East

    Trevor McDonald. Mr. President, the situation in the Middle East is 
desperate beyond words. How far are you prepared to go to resolve the 
crisis?
    The President. Well, today, I gave a speech which shows my resolve 
to work with all parties concerned to try to achieve a lasting peace. On 
the one hand, I called upon the Arab world to fight to cut off the 
money, to stop this business about glorifying suicide bombers by calling 
them martyrs, to make sure that the press does encourage violence and 
killing and murder. And on the other hand, I said Israel has a right to 
defend herself--I fully understand that--but that it's time for her to 
withdraw from the occupied territory.
    And the reason I feel that way is that I began to worry that the 
foundations necessary to achieve lasting peace were becoming eroded. In 
order for Israel to be able to exist, it requires the Arab world's 
willingness to encourage the conditions so that she can exist. And in 
order for there to be a Palestinian state, which I support, there needs 
to be the conditions so that a Palestinian state can exist. And those 
conditions were becoming eroded, so we acted strong.
    I'm sending our very capable Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to 
the region. He goes there with the mandate of working with the 
leadership in that part of the world, as well as with the European Union 
and others, to implement what the U.N. resolution--a recent U.N. 
Resolution 1042, which lays out the steps necessary to eventually get to 
a political solution.
    Mr. McDonald. But has this come a little late, Mr. President? The 
Secretary of State has been there before; the Vice President has been in 
the region; you've had General Zinni there.
    The President. I thought my speech came right about the right time.
    Mr. McDonald. But for so long now, for many, many days, if not 
weeks, people could see this situation spiraling rapidly out of control.
    The President. Well, the problem is, you can't see the killers. You 
can't see the suicide bombers. And what we're trying to do is to rally 
the world to expose them and to expose those who are funding them and to 
say to Iran, ``Stop it,'' and to Syria, ``You must choose.''
    That's the problem. The invisible part of everything that you 
thought you could see, you can't see, which is killers who are going 
into Passover-type celebrations and killing people, killing innocent 
people. And we've got to stop that, Trevor; we just have to. In order 
for there to be peace, there must be--there must be a world effort to 
stop the suicide and the killers. Those people kill for one reason: to 
stop the peace, to stop a plan from coming into effect.
    And this silly notion about somehow our Government hasn't been 
involved is just silly. I mean, we've had Zinni there, as you said, the 
Vice President's there. The Secretary of State has been there in the 
past; he's going back.
    Mr. McDonald. So what is different this time?
    The President. Well, this time hopefully there is a resolve. 
Hopefully, there's a resolve to the needless killing and the loss of 
innocent life that responsible citizens stand up and say, ``Enough is 
enough.'' That's what I said today, ``Enough is enough.'' And I believe 
that.
    I'll tell you something else that is different. Crown Prince 
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia laid out his initiative that essentially says 
the Arab world must recognize Israel's right to exist,

[[Page 572]]

which was a significant change, and we've got to seize on that bold 
initiative.

Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority

    Mr. McDonald. Will Secretary of State Colin Powell meet Yasser 
Arafat?
    The President. I have no idea yet. I'll tell you what he is going to 
do. He's going to go work with the leadership to bring people together. 
My worry is, is that Yasser Arafat can't perform. He's been given plenty 
of opportunities.
    Mr. McDonald. Has he forfeited your trust?
    The President. He certainly hasn't earned it. Here's a man who said 
that he has signed onto Oslo, that he was going to fight off terror. We 
thought we had a cease-fire arranged. We were that close to a cease-
fire, and the next thing we know, there's a suicide bomber that hits. We 
thought a couple of months ago that we thought we had an agreement. The 
next thing we know, he's ordered a shipment of arms from Iran.
    Now, he's got a long way to go, and it starts with him proving that 
he can lead. He has let his people down, and there are others in the 
region who can lead and those who have called upon those others in the 
region to lead. And Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has taken a 
leadership role. President Mubarak of Egypt is a leader. King Abdullah 
of Jordan is a leader.
    And so Colin Powell is going to go to the region to gather those 
leaders up and to start a process hopefully that will lead to lasting 
peace.
    Mr. McDonald. You come pretty close to suggesting that Palestinians 
should look for another leader.
    The President. It's up to them. Far be it from the American 
President to get to decide who leads what country. I'm just telling you 
since I've been the President, the man hasn't performed.

Situation in the Middle East

    Mr. McDonald. Is there an emerging difference between the United 
States and Britain about how this should be solved?
    The President. No, I don't think so.
    Mr. McDonald. Let me tell you, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack 
Straw, says sending in tanks to Ramallah and to Bethlehem is no response 
to suicide bombers. You seem to imply that anything should be done to 
counter terrorism. That's the difference.
    The President. No, actually----
    Mr. McDonald. And a significant one.
    The President. I think I just told you that I asked for Israel to 
withdraw the cities which she now occupies, so the extent that that's 
what the Foreign Secretary says, that's fine. The man I talked to is 
Tony Blair, and I talked to him this morning and informed him about what 
I was going to say. And I gave him--he was the first foreign leader, by 
the way, I called to detail the speech that I delivered at 11 a.m. here 
in the U.S. And he was, one, appreciative of the phone call, it seemed 
like, and two, applauded what was going to be in the speech. He thought, 
at least--I hate to put words in somebody else's mouth, but from my 
perspective----
    Mr. McDonald. [Inaudible]--that it was about time, did he----
    The President. Those are your words, not his.

War on Terrorism

    Mr. McDonald. Mr. President, turning to the war on terror, which you 
declared in the aftermath of the events of September 11th, hasn't it 
reached something of a stalemate?
    The President. Is that a serious question?
    Mr. McDonald. I meant it as a serious question.
    The President. Well, it's not. Well, no. Of course, we haven't had a 
stalemate. We're winning. I mean, we just arrested a guy named Abu 
Zubaydah. We crushed the Taliban; they're no longer in office. We've got 
schools open for the first time in Afghanistan, where girls are going. 
For the first time, young girls are going to school. It's been a 
glorious series of victories, thanks to friends such as the British.
    We've got a lot more work to do--don't get me wrong--but I don't 
think there's any stalemate to it.

[[Page 573]]

Afghanistan

    Mr. McDonald. At your request, the British are sending 1,700 more 
troops to Afghanistan. Is there a danger that they might become sucked 
into a never-ending commitment?
    The President. No. No, it's not, because we've got a plan on how to 
get out. But first things first. We've got to find those Al Qaida 
killers and bring them to justice. What the world needs to know is there 
are still a lot of these murderers on the loose. And that's what they 
are. And anybody who thinks that we can rehabilitate them just simply 
doesn't know the nature of the enemy.

Usama bin Laden

    Mr. McDonald. And their leaders--on the loose, too.
    The President. Well, there's one less on the loose. And we don't 
know if Mr. bin Laden is on the loose. I don't know if you know, but I 

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