Exerpts: August 26 Press Briefing

Question: I know this was on Thursday, but Tom DeLay in Houston gave a rather nasty speech where he accused the State Department of having more loyalties to the European Union, and the President even repeated some of the charges on Sunday on the Fox News show, with regards to the President's policy of regime change in Iraq. So I thought this would be a great opportunity for you to tack off all the ways you're supporting the President's policy of regime change in Iraq diplomatically with lots of other countries to respond to the Majority Whip's perceptions.

Mr. Boucher: I appreciate the opportunity. You know, if I didn't just get back from vacation, I'm sure I would have all the ways in my head, but no, the answer is the President's policy of regime change in Iraq is our policy of regime change in Iraq.

We are doing our utmost to work with the Iraqi opposition groups. We're doing our utmost to support efforts, any efforts the United States can make internationally. And we're doing utmost to, not only to get UN Inspectors back to Iraq, but also to work with other governments around the world so they understand the kind of danger that Iraq poses to all of us.

This has been a subject of the Secretary's consultations with foreign ministers for many months now, to make absolutely clear that when the President talked about the "Axis of Evil," when he talked about the dangers that the Iraqi regime poses to us all, that this is a real problem that we're going to have to do something about. And that has been the subject of our diplomacy from the Secretary on down for many months now.

Question: So we're regularly telling foreign governments, I guess, foreign embassies and also through the Secretary that we would -- we are actually pursuing change in regime in Iraq?

Mr. Boucher: Yes.

Question: Good.

Question: Did the US have any -- did the State Department have any role, advisory or otherwise, in the Wrestling Federation's decision to cancel its participation in this wrestling matches in Iran?

Mr. Boucher: I don't know.

Question: World Wrestling Federation?

Question: No, not the World Wresting Federation. No, it's real wresting.

Mr. Boucher: I don't know, is the answer.

Judy.

Question: What else are we doing now in public diplomacy? I understand that the number three guy in the State Department -- excuse me, Pentagon, talked over Radio Sawa on Friday.

Mr. Boucher: Number three?

Question: Feith.

Mr. Boucher: Oh, Doug Feith?

Question: Yes. And we're inviting dissidents to come to the State Department to teach them how to communicate better?

Mr. Boucher: Yeah. We have, I think, first on Radio Sawa, we've certainly encouraged US officials to make themselves available to this outlet, as they do to other media outlets, and to try to get the US message out in a variety of ways to the region -- again, the basic message being that Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the way he's acted in the past towards his own people and his neighbors are a problem, are a danger to the region and to the rest of us, and it's not a danger that we can allow to fester. It's a problem that we have to do something about and we have been talking to variety of governments about that.

As far as the media training, this will be from August 27 to 30th. We'll have 17 prominent Iraqi expatriates from North America and Europe, hosted here at the State Department for four days of media outreach and public diplomacy training. All of these individuals have a story to tell regarding the brutality of the Saddam Hussein regime and the ways in which the Iraqi people would benefit from a change in that regime.

The training we're providing will help them become more effective spokesmen and spokeswomen on behalf of the real people of Iraq.

Question: Does that mean that you're going to be bringing them in here to see how the --

Mr. Boucher: We'll share not only what we have learned in this process, but I think we'll also bring in outside experts and people from other departments to help with this training.

Question: So you're training them, basically, to be spokespeople for the -- for an Iraqi -- whatever regime may follow?

Mr. Boucher: I think we're training people to tell their story. We're training people to tell their real stories of their experience with the brutality of the regime. We're helping train people to conduct television interviews, to write op-ed pieces, to just get their story out about what they've experienced and what they've seen in their own voice about Iraq and about the situation.

Question: You're teaching them the art of spin?

Mr. Boucher: No, we're teaching them the art of getting the truth out.

Question: Well, these people have been telling their stories for some time now. Is there some reason they --

Mr. Boucher: Some of them have and some of them haven't.

Question: But you think they could do a better job of it, so you want the --

Mr. Boucher: I'm sure we could all do a better job of it.

Question: Right. Well, what I mean --

Mr. Boucher: Periodic refresher training might be necessary for others.

Question: What is this? How to do television? Don't look at the camera, look at the interviewer? What is--

Mr. Boucher: It's actually the other way around.

Question: Isn't this part of Charlotte Beers' new campaign?

Mr. Boucher: No, this is part of the work that we've always done with the Iraqi opposition. We, as you know, have a variety of contacts with Iraqi opposition figures, and the goal is to give them a bit of experience and training in how they can interact with you all to tell their story.

Question: Right, so can I just go back? Specifically, what does that mean?

Mr. Boucher: It means hold your head up, don't mumble, talk to the camera -- all the things they told me before I stood out here the first day.

Question: Okay.

Mr. Boucher: It means how to write something that's clear and effective, and it means tell the truth.

Question: Okay.

Mr. Boucher: And it means tell your story honestly, and emotionally and clearly to people.

Question: How much -- how much is this costing?

Mr. Boucher: Don't know.

Question: You said prominent -- I think you said prominent once. Can you tell us, give us more details as to who these people are? I mean, they are so prominent, maybe we know them.

Mr. Boucher: I can't give you a list at this point. They have -- we have to talk to them first about which -- who among them would like to be named or who would like to be able to go about his or her business in their own private fashion.

Question: Could we do that tomorrow, perhaps?

Mr. Boucher: We'll see at some point during the week whether we can't either tell you who they are or allow you to meet some of them.

Question: Is this primarily directed at a foreign audience or is it primarily directed at an American audience? With the media training, and then they go out in the world and then they're writing op-ed pieces for the New York Times or the Amman Jordan --

Mr. Boucher: I don't think we're going to choose their audiences. As you know, there's no such thing as single-audience media anymore. You write or read around the world and the same thing -- you read foreign newspapers and what appears in Arab World or else, or comes back here.

But as I said, the basic idea is to help people tell their stories. These are real stories of people who have firsthand experience with the brutality of this regime, and we don't think there's anything unusual in us helping them learn how to tell their stories.

George.

Question: Still on Iraq. Do you have any comment on Secretary Baker's piece in the New York Times yesterday, specifically as it relates to his proposal for a UN Security Council resolution on inspections?

Mr. Boucher: Not much beyond what the President already said. You know, Iraq is already under requirements of UN Security Council resolutions to allow immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access for inspectors. Iraq has not complied with those requirements. The UN Security Council certainly plays an important role. And we have, as the President said, looked at the views of Secretary Baker, and the President said he welcomes -- or the White House said, I guess on his behalf, the President welcomes the views of people with experience in these matters.

Question: One other question on this broadcast training. If these people are, as Eli suggested --

Mr. Boucher: It's not just broadcast. It's print, as well. Just to make sure that group is discriminated against.

Question: If these people are going to aim their information at an American audience, wouldn't that possibly be a violation of the Smith-Mundt Act?

Mr. Boucher: No. I will check with the lawyer for the precise definition, but we have always operated under Smith-Mundt that materials and information that's prepared by the US government for foreign audiences can't be distributed domestically. This is training people to do whatever they do, wherever they want to do it, not specifically any materials developed for an audience.

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Question: Is the so-called Bethlehem-Gaza deal dead? Israeli Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer has said that as far as he's concerned it's on hold, and thereafter both the Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Now, they said they won't exit from Hebron, but they've just gone after and seized a senior terrorist in Jenin who apparently has been active in the bus suicide bombings. Many of -- some of the people who have been injured are Americans.

Do you want extradition for those terrorists?

Mr. Boucher: Let's try to separate this into three parts. On the Bethlehem-Gaza deal, we've seen different statements coming out. But I think what we would say is we were pleased with the arrangement and we are pleased that the sides took steps fairly quickly on implementation of the arrangement. We continue to consider this a positive development that the Israelis withdrew from Bethlehem. It's imperative that Palestinian security forces take full command of the positions that have been recently vacated by the Israelis so that they can prevent the recurrence of violence and terror.

So we have been urging both sides to remain committed to their agreement and continued security contacts, including contacts by local commanders. Regular detailed discussions will be critical to ensuring the long-term success of this initiative and improvement in the Palestinian humanitarian situation. So that remains something that's important to us and we continue to urge both sides to move, continue to move, down that road that they started with.

On the question of Jenin, you'd have to get details from the Israelis about seizing, according to reports, a Hamas figure in Jenin.

On the question of extradition, really, the bombing at the Hebrew University, I think that this relates to, is under investigation now by Israeli authorities and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They have been working very closely together. We've been talking in close consultation with the Israeli Government. It is just premature at this point to talk about extradition.

Question: Richard, can you talk about Satterfield's trip to the region?

Mr. Boucher: Sure. I think you've all seen the readout of the Task Force meetings that were held last week in Paris, 22 and 23rd, second meeting of the International Task Forces. They got reports from the working groups and they'll continue that effort.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Satterfield was out for that meeting. He is now traveling to the region on a series of regional consultations in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and he'll have discussions with Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem.

He was in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. He's now in Egypt and will be on to Jordan tomorrow.

During his visit he'll consult with the parties and regional leaders regarding how best to advance the cause of civil reform and maintain active security cooperation and work towards restoration of political dialogue between the parties.