Interview on WJBK TV with Sandra Ali

SECRETARY POWELL: What I would like to say to them is that the Arab world has political needs. It has a political need for peace and reconciliation. We need to find a way to create peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis and create a Palestinian state. But what's going to be needed beyond that is the economic dimension of this. They're going to need jobs. They're going to need trade.

And what I would say to all the Arab-Americans in the Detroit area is follow developments closely do what you can to find investments in the Arab world. Because those young people who are unemployed and who are so frustrated and so at the end of their wit that they might pick up a gun or bomb, they're not going to do that if they saw the opportunity ahead of a job, of a better life for themselves and the family they want to create. So don't think you're just doing it for yourself; you're really doing it for the homes that you have over there, just as Arab-Americans call the country in the Arab world home just as I call Jamaica, where my parents came from, home. Never lose that connection. Do what you can to help.

MS. ALI: Right. And now, I know last December when you announced the Mideast initiative, you said hope begins with a paycheck.

SECRETARY POWELL: Right.

MS. ALI: How do you trickle down? How do they get a paycheck?

SECRETARY POWELL: They get a paycheck by, first, creating economic circumstances that people want to invest in. Aid isn't the answer. The United States gives away a great deal of aid, and we're pleased to do that; we're a generous nation. But aid is only good if it creates economic conditions that will draw trade. So we have to have transparent economic systems, we have to end corruption, we have to have open market systems, we've got to have the rule of law in every one of these countries. And if you put those conditions in place and create those political, economic and legal conditions that will attract companies from the United States to put money in and create jobs, and those jobs will be for young people.

Now, what we talked about in the initiative you just made reference to is those young people have to be educated, and civil society has to be created so that people living in a democratic civil society will place demands on their leaders to create the kind of economic conditions which are needed.

MS. ALI: Now, what can be accomplished, realistically, in two days? I know we can't cure all the problems in two days.

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, you can't cure all the problems, but in two days you can bring together a large group of leaders, as was done by ACCESS, and they can share ideas, they can even share proposals for investment. Conferences of this kind are very, very important. I'm so pleased that Detroit is serving as the host of this conference, as it should.

MS. ALI: Now, the big story of the day, obviously, everyone is talking about this alleged White House leak. Any comment at all on that?

SECRETARY POWELL: No, I know nothing about it other than what I've read in the paper, and I was a little surprised to see it on Sunday morning in the newspapers. But it is a serious matter, if it's true, and that's why it's being dealt with as a serious matter by the White House, the Justice Department and the CIA.

When somebody is undercover, you don't want that cover blown. It puts the person at risk, but it also puts the people they have worked with undercover at risk. So we are viewing it as a very serious matter, but I don't know the truth of the allegations. All we have is a press story.

MS. ALI: Now, do you think any specific announcements will be made this -- in the two days here at all?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I don't know. I am merely one of the presenters, so I can't say what might be going on in other parts of this place. I hope some deals might be announced. There's some very important people there. Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard and Phil Condit of Boeing, and a lot of other corporate leaders are here, and a lot of leaders from the Arab world. So maybe a deal or two might be consummated and announced.

I plan to review our Middle East policy and some of the hopes that we have for the Middle East and for all of the Arab world.

MS. ALI: What are you hoping that people walk away with that have come to this for the two days?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, from my presentation, anyway, I hope people will walk away with a clear understanding that President Bush and his Administration are committed to the Middle East, committed to the Arab nations. I'll be talking about our Middle East Partnership Initiative. I'll be talking about a free trade area for the whole Middle East. I'll be talking about bilateral trade agreements that we have formed with a number of countries, and more to come. And I'll be talking about how the United States plans to use aid funds to generate trade within the Arab world.

MS. ALI: Now, what will you be talking about tonight over at COBO?

SECRETARY POWELL: Everything I just described.

MS. ALI: Everything?

SECRETARY POWELL: Plus, I'll talk about Iraq, and the fact that we have freed 25 million people from one of the most horrible, dictatorial regimes on the face of the Earth, led by Saddam Hussein. They're gone. These people can now look forward to a better life. There's a lot of work ahead, and we need to help them. We need to help them with the security we're providing with our troops and we need to help them create their own institutions of government and then turn it over to those institutions, and we need to help them with the money that the President has asked the Congress for.

MS. ALI: Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate it, Mr. Secretary.