The President’s Press Conference

Just finished watching the Press Conference today by President Bush. What a great job. Here are a few segments that stand out in the Question & Answer segment:

Q Mr. President, thank you, sir. Are you going to order a leaks investigation into the disclosure of the NSA surveillance program? And why did you skip the basic safeguard of asking courts for permission for these intercepts?

THE PRESIDENT: Let me start with the first question. There is a process that goes on inside the Justice Department about leaks, and I presume that process is moving forward. My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we’re discussing this program is helping the enemy.

You’ve got to understand — and I hope the American people understand — there is still an enemy that would like to strike the United States of America, and they’re very dangerous. And the discussion about how we try to find them will enable them to adjust. Now, I can understand you asking these questions and if I were you, I’d be asking me these questions, too. But it is a shameful act by somebody who has got secrets of the United States government and feels like they need to disclose them publicly.

President George W. Bush emphasizes a point as he responds to a reporter’s question Monday, Dec. 19, 2005, during a news conference in the East Room of the White House. White House photo by Kimberlee Hewitt Let me give you an example about my concerns about letting the enemy know what may or may not be happening. In the late 1990s, our government was following Osama bin Laden because he was using a certain type of telephone. And then the fact that we were following Osama bin Laden because he was using a certain type of telephone made it into the press as the result of a leak. And guess what happened? Saddam — Osama bin Laden changed his behavior. He began to change how he communicated.

We’re at war, and we must protect America’s secrets. And so the Justice Department, I presume, will proceed forward with a full investigation. I haven’t ordered one, because I understand there’s kind of a natural progression that will take place when this kind of leak emerges. […]

Shameful indeed! Where is the crys for an investigation into this leak? Where? Those on the left who were all aghast at the name of a desk jockey being spread in the media is nowhere to be found now regarding a leak of a much more damaging nature. Typical leftards.

Q Mr. President, you have hailed the Iraqi elections as a success, but some lawmakers say you are not focusing on the threat of civil war. Do you fear a civil war? And how hard will you push Iraq’s competing political parties to get a government and a constitutional compromise?

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. We look at all contingencies, but my optimism about a unified Iraq moving forward was confirmed when over 10 million people went to the polls under a — and voted for a government under a new constitution. Constitutions tend to bind societies.

Now, there are some things we’ve got to watch, Adam, for certain. One, is we’ve got to help the Iraqi government as best as they need help, to stand up a government as quickly as possible. In other words, we’re urging them: don’t delay, move as quickly as you can, solve the — get the political parties — once the vote is completed, get the political parties together and come up with a government.

[…]And the reason why is based upon the fact that the Iraqis have shown incredible courage. Think about what has happened in a brief period of time — relatively brief. I know with all the TV stations and stuff in America, two-and-a-half years seems like an eternity. But in the march of history, it’s not all that long. They have gone from tyranny to an amazing election last December. If I’d have stood up here a year ago, in one of my many press conferences, and told you that in the — next year I make this prediction to you, that over 10 million Iraqis, including many Sunnis, will vote for a permanent government, I think you probably would have said, there he goes again.

But it happened. And it happened because the Iraqis want to live in a free society. And what’s important about this election is that Iraq will become an ally in the war on terror, and Iraq will serve as a beacon for what is possible; a beacon of freedom in a part of the world that is desperate for freedom and liberty. And as I say in my speeches, a free Iraq will serve as such an optimistic and hopeful example for reformers from Tehran to Damascus. And that’s an important part of a strategy to help lay the foundation of peace for generations.

What a great line. Iraq is becoming that beacon because of the courage of our President in his decisions and the courage of our troops. But do you hear about that courage in the MSM? No. All we hear about are numbers being thrown at us such as “6 servicemen died today from a roadside bomb”. This news is important, but so is the other things going on in Iraq, and believe me, there are many many other noble things going on over there.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. If you believe that present law needs to be faster, more agile concerning the surveillance of conversations from someone in the United States to someone outside the country —

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q — why, in the four years since 9/11, has your administration not sought to get changes in the law instead of bypassing it, as some of your critics have said?

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, I want to make clear to the people listening that this program is limited in nature to those that are known al Qaeda ties and/or affiliates. That’s important. So it’s a program that’s limited, and you brought up something that I want to stress, and that is, is that these calls are not intercepted within the country. They are from outside the country to in the country, or vice versa. So in other words, this is not a — if you’re calling from Houston to L.A., that call is not monitored. And if there was ever any need to monitor, there would be a process to do that.

I think I’ve got the authority to move forward, Kelly. I mean, this is what — and the Attorney General was out briefing this morning about why it’s legal to make the decisions I’m making. I can fully understand why members of Congress are expressing concerns about civil liberties. I know that. And it’s — I share the same concerns. I want to make sure the American people understand, however, that we have an obligation to protect you, and we’re doing that and, at the same time, protecting your civil liberties.

Secondly, an open debate about law would say to the enemy, here is what we’re going to do. And this is an enemy which adjusts. We monitor this program carefully. We have consulted with members of the Congress over a dozen times. We are constantly reviewing the program. Those of us who review the program have a duty to uphold the laws of the United States, and we take that duty very seriously.

Key sentence there being “We have consulted with members of the Congress over a dozen times.” But they raised no objections any of those times. They never said one word but now feel they should. If this isn’t blantant political backstabbing I don’t know what is.

Q You talked about your decision to go to war and the bad intelligence, and you’ve carefully separated the intelligence from the decision, saying that it was the right decision to go to war despite the problems with the intelligence, sir. But, with respect, the intelligence helped you build public support for the war. And so I wonder if now, as you look back, if you look at that intelligence and feel that the intelligence and your use of it might bear some responsibility for the current divisions in the country over the war, and what can you do about it?

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First of all, I can understand why people were — well, wait a minute. Everybody thought there was weapons of mass destruction, and there weren’t any. I felt the same way. We looked at the intelligence and felt certain that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Intelligence agencies around the world felt the same way, by the way. Members of the United States Congress looked at the National Intelligence Estimate — same intelligence estimate I looked at — and came to the same conclusion, Wendell.

So in other words, there was universal — there was a universal feeling that he had weapons of mass destruction. As a matter of fact, it was so universal that the United Nations Security Council passed numerous resolutions. And so when the weapons weren’t there, like many Americans, I was concerned and wondered why. That’s why we set up the Silberman-Robb Commission to address intelligence shortfalls, to hopefully see to it that this kind of situation didn’t arise.

Now, having said all that, what we did find after the war was that Saddam Hussein had the desire to — or the liberation — Saddam had the desire to reconstitute his weapons programs. In other words, he had the capacity to reconstitute them. America was still his enemy. And of course, he manipulated the oil-for-food program in the hopes of ending sanctions. In our view, he was just waiting for the world to turn its head, to look away, in order to reconstitute the programs. He was dangerous then. It’s the right decision to have removed Saddam.

Now, the American people — I will continue to speak to the American people on this issue, to not only describe the decision-making process but also the way forward. I gave a speech prior to the liberation of Iraq, when I talked about a broader strategic objective, which is the establishment of democracy. And I’ve talked about democracy in Iraq. Certainly it’s not the only rationale; I’m not claiming that. But I also want you to review that speech so that you get a sense for not only the desire to remove a threat, but also the desire to help establish democracy. And the amazing thing about — in Iraq, as a part of a broader strategy, to help what I call “lay the foundation of peace,” democracies don’t war; democracies are peaceful countries.

And what you’re seeing now is an historic moment, because I believe democracies will spread. I believe when people get the taste for freedom or see a neighbor with a taste for freedom, they will demand the same thing, because I believe in the universality of freedom. I believe everybody has the desire to be free. I recognize some don’t believe that, which basically condemns some to tyranny. I strongly believe that deep in everybody’s soul is the desire to live in liberty, and if given a chance, they will choose that path. And it’s not easy to do that. The other day, I gave a speech and talked about how our road to our Constitution, which got amended shortly after it was approved, was pretty bumpy. We tried the Articles of Confederation. It didn’t work. There was a lot of, kind of, civil unrest. But, nevertheless, deep in the soul is the desire to live in liberty, people — make the — have got the patience and the steadfastness to achieve that objective. And that is what we’re seeing in Iraq.

And it’s not going to be easy. It’s still going to be hard, because we’re getting rid of decades of bitterness. If you’re a — you know, you find these secret prisons where people have been tortured, that’s unacceptable. And, yet, there are some who still want to have retribution against people who harmed them.

Now, I’ll tell you an amazing story — at least I thought it was amazing. We had people — first-time voters, or voters in the Iraqi election come in to see me in the Oval. They had just voted that day, and they came in. It was exciting to talk to people. And one person said, how come you’re giving Saddam Hussein a trial? I said, first of all, it’s your government, not ours. She said, he doesn’t deserve a trial; he deserves immediate death for what he did to my people. And it just struck me about how strongly she felt about the need to not have a rule of law, that there needed to be quick retribution, that he didn’t deserve it. And I said to her, don’t you see that the trial, itself, stands in such contrast to the tyrant that that in itself is a victory for freedom and a defeat for tyranny — just the trial alone. And it’s important that there be rule of law.

My only point to you is there’s a lot of work to get rid of the past, yet we’re headed in the right direction. And it’s an exciting moment in history.

He summed it up quite clearly there by stating the fact that the world believed he had WMD’s and the fact that during his speeches prior to the war he did not state the WMD’s were the ONLY reason for war, but one of them. The left cues in on the WMD’s because they know people can be lazy. Too lazy to fact check their lies, so after time those lies become fact for the leftards.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. I wonder if you can tell us today, sir, what, if any, limits you believe there are or should be on the powers of a President during a war, at wartime? And if the global war on terror is going to last for decades, as has been forecast, does that mean that we’re going to see, therefore, a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive in American society?

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I disagree with your assertion of “unchecked power.”

Q Well —

THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second, please. There is the check of people being sworn to uphold the law, for starters. There is oversight. We’re talking to Congress all the time, and on this program, to suggest there’s unchecked power is not listening to what I’m telling you. I’m telling you, we have briefed the United States Congress on this program a dozen times.

This is an awesome responsibility to make decisions on behalf of the American people, and I understand that, Peter. And we’ll continue to work with the Congress, as well as people within our own administration, to constantly monitor programs such as the one I described to you, to make sure that we’re protecting the civil liberties of the United States. To say “unchecked power” basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the President, which I strongly reject.

Q What limits do you —

THE PRESIDENT: I just described limits on this particular program, Peter. And that’s what’s important for the American people to understand. I am doing what you expect me to do, and at the same time, safeguarding the civil liberties of the country.

Nice! Basically bitch slapped this idiot to the last century with that answer. “unchecked”, give me a break. How is it unchecked if Congress gets briefed on it and every 45 days the cases are reviewed?

Q Mr. President, you said last night that there were only two options in Iraq — withdraw or victory. And you asked Americans, especially opponents of the war, to reject partisan politics. Do you really expect congressional Democrats to end their partisan warfare and embrace your war strategy? And what can you do about that to make that happen?

THE PRESIDENT: Actually, I said that victory in Iraq is much larger than a person, a President, or a political party. And I’ve had some good visits with Senate and House Democrats about the way forward. They share the same concerns I share. You know, they want our troops out of Iraq as quickly as possible, but they don’t want to do so without achieving a victory. These are good, solid Americans that agree that we must win for the sake of our security. And I’m interested in, Joe, their ideas, and will continue to listen carefully to their ideas.

[…]Let me say something about the Patriot Act, if you don’t mind. It is inexcusable for the United States Senate to let this Patriot Act expire. You know, there’s an interesting debate in Washington, and you’re part of it, that says, well, they didn’t connect the dots prior to September the 11th — “they” being not only my administration, but previous administrations. And I understand that debate. I’m not being critical of you bringing this issue up and discussing it, but there was a — you might remember, if you take a step back, people were pretty adamant about hauling people up to testify, and wondering how come the dots weren’t connected.

Well, the Patriot Act helps us connect the dots. And now the United States Senate is going to let this bill expire. Not the Senate — a minority of senators. And I want senators from New York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas to go home and explain why these cities are safer. It is inexcusable to say, on the one hand, connect the dots, and not give us a chance to do so. We’ve connected the dots, or trying to connect the dots with the NSA program. And, again, I understand the press and members of the United States Congress saying, are you sure you’re safeguarding civil liberties. That’s a legitimate question, and an important question. And today I hope I’ll help answer that. But we’re connecting dots as best as we possibly can.I

Amazing isn’t it? Everyone blames the CIA and our Government in their failure to connect the dots regarding Al-Qaeda but now when push comes to shove they deny us the ability to connect these dots. How incredibly ignorant can these people be?

Q Mr. President, in making the case for domestic spying, could you tell us about the planned attacks on the U.S. that were thwarted through your domestic spying plan? […]

[…]THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I got you. Yes, sorry. No, I’m not going to talk about that, because it would help give the enemy notification and/or, perhaps, signal to them methods and uses and sources. And we’re not going to do that, which is — it’s really important for people to understand that the protection of sources and the protections of methods and how we use information to understand the nature of the enemy is secret. And the reason it’s secret is because if it’s not secret, the enemy knows about it, and if the enemy knows about it, adjusts.

And again, I want to repeat what I said about Osama bin Laden, the man who ordered the attack that killed 3,000 Americans. We were listening to him. He was using a type of cell phone, or a type of phone, and we put it in the newspaper — somebody put it in the newspaper that this was the type of device he was using to communicate with his team, and he changed. I don’t know how I can make the point more clear that any time we give up — and this is before they attacked us, by the way — revealing sources, methods, and what we use the information for simply says to the enemy: change.

Now, if you don’t think there’s an enemy out there, then I can understand why you ought to say, just tell us all you know. I happen to know there’s an enemy there. And the enemy wants to attack us. That is why I hope you can feel my passion about the Patriot Act. It is inexcusable to say to the American people, we’re going to be tough on terror, but take away the very tools necessary to help fight these people. And by the way, the tools exist still to fight medical fraud, in some cases, or other — drug dealers. But with the expiration of the Patriot Act, it prevents us from using them to fight the terrorists. Now, that is just unbelievable. And I’m going to continue talking about this issue and reminding the American people about the importance of the Patriot Act and how necessary it is for us in Washington, D.C. to do our job to protect you.

All I have to say his Bush opened up a can of whoop ass on the reporters today

Other’s Blogging:

Sister Toldjah
Ankle Biting Pundits
Michelle Malkin
Joe’s Dartblog
Blogs For Bush
Instapundit
The Political Teen
Small Town Veteran
Mike’s America
The Strata-Sphere
The Political Pitbull
Kokonut Pundits
Macsmind
The World According To Carl
Robert Mcnickle
Donkey Stomp
Ace of Spades HQ

All I have to say his Bush opened up a can of whoop ass on the reporters and the left today

Curt

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