| Daily Press Briefing Sean McCormack, Spokesman October 22, 2007 INDEX:
TRANSCRIPT: Excerpts from the Daily Press Briefing of October 22, 2007, pertaining to Western Hemisphere Affairs. full briefing
QUESTION: Sean, sort of a follow-up on private security contractors, this time military contractors. Can you confirm that the U.S. and Mexico will have a new anti-drug plan where private military contractors will train the Mexican troops? And there's been some concern raised about their role given our experiences in Iraq. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, first of all, on the U.S.-Mexico cooperation on fighting organized crime as well as some other activities -- transport, production of drugs -- there's probably going to be a little bit more on that later on today, so I'm going to not say anything about it. And we can get into the details of any proposals that might come out over the next several days. I don't know if that will come from here or elsewhere. But you know, look -- you know, on the issue of -- the issue of contractors, contractors work to support the U.S. Government in all variety of missions abroad, here domestically, so one thing that people shouldn't do is paint contractor support with a broad brush. There are good contractors. There are bad contractors. Just like there are good U.S. Government employees, there are bad U.S. Government employees. If people are playing outside the lines, breaking the rules, they're going to be held to account whether they're contractors or whether they're U.S. Government employees. Nicholas. QUESTION: Speaking of Mexico, there was a case that was reported last week about a Mexican citizen with a serious case of TB that took quite a few flights, domestic flights, within the U.S. I know that DHS is dealing with this and border authorities, but do you know if his visa -- because apparently he had a valid U.S. visa -- was given to him after he had been diagnosed with -- MR. MCCORMACK: Don't know. QUESTION: You don't? MR. MCCORMACK: I'll check for you. | ||||||
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