Posted on 02/17/2005 10:18:13 AM PST by Arnold Zephel
BUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate you're coming here.
I'm pleased to announce my decision to nominate Ambassador John Negroponte as director of national intelligence.
The director's responsibility is straightforward and demanding. John will make sure that those whose duty it is to defend America have the information they need to make the right decisions.
John understands America's global intelligence needs, because he spent the better part of his life in our Foreign Service, and is now serving with distinction in the sensitive post of our nation's first ambassador to a free Iraq (news - web sites).
John's nomination comes at an historic moment for our intelligence services.
In the war against terrorists who target innocent civilians and continue to seek weapons of mass murder, intelligence is our first line of defense.
If we're going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise.
And that's why I supported and Congress passed reform legislation creating the job of director of national intelligence.
As DNI, John will lead a unified intelligence community and will serve as the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters.
He will have the authority to order the collection of new intelligence, to ensure the sharing of information among agencies, and to establish common standards for the intelligence community's personnel.
It will be John's responsibility to determine the annual budgets for all national intelligence agencies and offices and to direct how these funds are spent.
Vesting these in a single official who reports directly to me will make our intelligence efforts better coordinated, more efficient and more effective.
The director of the CIA (news - web sites) will report to John. The CIA will retain its core of responsibilities for collecting human intelligence, analyzing intelligence from all sources, and supporting American interests abroad at the direction of the president.
The law establishing John's position preserves the existing chain of command and leaves all our intelligence agencies, organizations and offices in their current departments. Our military commanders will continue to have quick access to the intelligence they need to achieve victory on the battlefield.
And the new structure will help ensure greater information sharing among federal departments and agencies and also with appropriate state and local authorities.
John brings a unique set of skills to these challenges.
Over the course of a long career, John Negroponte has served his nation in eight countries spanning three continents. He's held important leadership posts at both the State Department and the White House. As my representative to the United Nations (news - web sites), John defended our interests vigorously. He spoke eloquently about America's intention to spread freedom and peace throughout the world.
And his service in Iraq during these past few historic months has given him something that will prove an incalculable advantage for an intelligence chief: an unvarnished and up-close look at a deadly enemy. Today I'm pleased, as well, to announce that joining John as his deputy will be Lieutenant General Michael Hayden. As a career Air Force intelligence officer, General Hayden now serves as director of the National Security Agency, America's largest intelligence service, and chief of the Central Security Service. In these critical roles, Mike has already demonstrated an ability to adapt our intelligence services to meet the new threats of a new century. I appreciate the willingness of these men to take on these tough new assignments in an extraordinary moment in our nation's history. I'd like to thank the thousands of men and women already serving in our intelligence services as people go to work each day to keep Americans safe. We live in a dangerous world and often times they take great risk to their own lives. These men and women are going to be pleased to have leaders such as Ambassador John Negroponte and General Mike Hayden. John, I want to thank you for being here today. Congratulations. Godspeed. NEGROPONTE: Thank you, Mr. President. I'm honored that you would select me to be the first director of national intelligence. Providing timely and objective national intelligence to you, the Congress, the departments and agencies, and to our uniformed military services, is a critical national task: critical to our international posture, critical to the prevention of international terrorism and critical to our homeland security. Equally important will be the reform of the intelligence community in ways designed to best meet the intelligence needs of the 21st century.
If confirmed, I look forward to supporting you, Mr. President, in working to the best of my ability toward achievement of these objectives, so vital to the protection of our country. I appreciate your confidence in choosing me for what will no doubt be the most challenging assignment I have undertaken in more than 40 years of government service. Thank you very much. BUSH: I'll be glad to take some questions. Q: Can you tell us if you believe that Syria is linked to the assassination of Mr. Hariri? And further, how willing are you to expel Syria from Lebanon and stop its involvement in Iraq? BUSH: First, we support the international investigation that will be going on to determine the killers of Mr. Hariri. We've recalled our ambassador, which indicates that the relationship is not moving forward; that Syria's out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East; that democracy is on the move, and this is a country that isn't moving with the democratic movement. We've talked clearly to Syria about, one, making sure that their territory's not used by former Iraqi Baathists to spread havoc and kill innocent lives. We expect them to find and turn over former Saddam regime supporters and send them back to Iraq.
We've made it very clear from the beginning of my administration that Syria should not use its territory to support international terrorist groups. We expect them to adhered to U.N. Security Counsel Resolution 1559, which calls for the removal of troops from Lebanon. And we expect them to help free and fair elections to take place in Lebanon. These are very reasonable requests. They're requests all aimed at making the world more peaceful. I look forward to working with our European friends on my upcoming trip to talk about how we can work together to convince the Syrians to make rational decisions. Q: Europeans want more support from the U.S. in their negotiations with Iran. Would the U.S. consider joining these talks? BUSH: Well, first, a couple of points. One, we are a party to the talks or a party to the process as a result of being a member of the IAEA. In other words, we're on the IAEA board with some 30 odd nations. So we've been very much involved with working with the Iranians and the world to achieve a goal that we share with the Europeans, and that is for Iran not to develop a nuclear weapon. I look forward to, again on this trip, discussing strategies, ways forward with the Europeans to make sure we continue to speak with one voice, and that is Iran should not have a nuclear weapon and how to work together to make sure they don't. Q: Mr. President, in your answer to Jennifer's question I heard several reasons for recalling the ambassador from Syria, but not an indication of whether you believe Syria bears some responsibility for the assassination. BUSH: Well, I can't tell you that. I don't know yet because the investigation is ongoing. And so, I'm going to withhold judgment until we find out what the facts are.
You know, hopefully by the time I get overseas, we'll have a clearer understanding of who killed Mr. Hariri and it'll be an opportune time to talk with our friends to determine what to do about it. But it's important that this investigation go on in a thoughtful way. And I'm convinced it will. We supported the international ... Q: Would you like it to be an international investigation? BUSH: Yes, we support the international investigation. Q: Mr. President, I recall a conversation a small group of us had with a very senior administration official about a year ago and in that conversation the subject of Iran and Israel came up. And I'm just wondering, what's your level of concern that if Iran does go down the road to building a nuclear weapon that Israel will attack Iran to try to prevent that from happening? BUSH: Well, of course, first of all, Iran has made it clear, you know, they don't like Israel, to put it bluntly. And the Israelis are concerned about whether or not Iran develops a nuclear weapon, as are we, as should everybody. And so the objective is to solve this issue diplomatically, is to work with friends, like we're doing with France, Germany and Great Britain, to continue making it clear to the Iranians that developing a nuclear weapon will be unacceptable. But clearly, if I was the leader of Israel and I'd listened to some of the statements by the Iranian ayatollahs that regarded the security of my country, I'd be concerned about Iran having a nuclear weapon as well.
And in that Israel is our ally and in that we've made a very strong commitment to support Israel, we will support Israel if her security is threatened. Q: Do you believe there's a real possibility Israel could attack? BUSH: Oh, I think that there's — the need for us to work together to convince the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon. And we will work with the Europeans and the Israelis to develop a strategy and a plan that is effective. And that's one of the reasons I'm going to Europe. Q: Mr. President, you've made clear that Social Security (news - web sites) reform is your top legislative priority.
The top Republican leader in the House has said you cannot jam change down people's throats. And in your interviews with the regional newspapers, you made very clear that you would not rule out raising the cap on payroll taxes. If you were to do that, why would that not be seen as going back on your pledge not to raise taxes? BUSH: A couple questions there. One, I agree, you can't cram an issue down people's throats. As a matter of fact, the best way to get this issue addressed in the halls of Congress is for the American people to say, Why don't we come together and do something? And so the first priority of mine is to convince the people we have a problem, and I'm going to do that a lot. As a matter of fact, I enjoy traveling the country, and I hope you do, too, because I'm going to be doing a lot of it. And I fully understand that nothing will happen if the members of Congress don't believe there's a problem that needs to be solved. And so you'll see a lot of travel. And the problem is plain to me: You got baby boomers getting ready to retire, they've been promised greater benefits than the current generation, they're living longer, and there are fewer people paying into the system. And the system goes negative starting in 2018 and continues to do so. There's the problem.
Nothing will happen — I repeat — unless that Congress thinks there's a problem. But once Congress — once the people say to Congress, There's a problem, fix it, then I have a duty to say to members of Congress, bring forth your ideas. And I clarified a variety of ideas that people should be encouraged to bring forward, without political retribution. It used to be in the past people would step up and say, Well, here's an interesting idea. Then they would take that idea and clobber the person politically. What I'm saying to members of Congress is that, we have a problem, come together and let's fix it, and bring your ideas forward, and I'm willing to discuss them with you.
And so, that's why I said what I said and will continue to say it. And I've got some ideas of my own, obviously. I think personal accounts are an important part of the mix and want to continue working with members of Congress to understand the wisdom of why personal accounts make sense to be a part of a long-term solution for Social Security. Q: Regarding the director of national intelligence, in this town power is often measured in a couple of ways: by who controls the money and how close that person is to the president, sometimes physically. So let me ask you about that. You said that Mr. Negroponte will determine budgets for all intelligence agencies. A lot of people feel the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s going to fight that, that the Pentagon wants to control its intelligence money. Would you address that? And also, where is Mr. Negroponte going to work? Will he be in the White House complex close to you? Will he give you your intelligence briefings every day? BUSH: I think your assessment's right. People who control the money, people who have access to the president generally have a lot of influence. And that's why John Negroponte is going to have a lot of influence. He will set the budgets.
Listen, this is going to take a while to get a new culture in place, a different way of approaching the budget process. That's why I selected John. He's a diplomat. He understands the — and he's an experienced person. He understands the power centers in Washington. He's been a consumer of intelligence in the past. And so he's got a good feel for how to move this process forward in a way that addresses the different interests. Now, as to where he offices, you know, I don't know. It's not going to be in the White House. Remember the early debate about should this man or person be a member of the Cabinet? I said no, I didn't think so. I thought it was very important for the DNI to be apart from the White House. Nevertheless, he will have access on a daily basis in that he'll be my primary briefer. In other words, when the intelligence briefings start in the morning, John'll be there. And John and I'll work to determine how much exposure the CIA will have in the Oval Office. I would hope more rather than less. The relationship between John and the CIA director's going to be a vital relationship. The relationship between the CIA and the White House is a vital relationship. John and I both know that change — it can be unsettling. And so therefore, I'm sure there's some people out there wondering right now what this means for their jobs and the influence of a particular agency into the White House.
And the answer is everybody will be given fair access and everybody's ideas will be given a chance to make it to John's office. And if he thinks it's appropriate I see it, I'll see it. And if he thinks it's a waste of my time I won't see it. And obviously — therefore the conclusion is I trust his judgment. And I'm looking forward to working with him. It's going to be an interesting opportunity. Q: Will you back him when he goes up against Don Rumsfeld? Rumsfeld wants a certain amount of money for his intelligence budget, Negroponte says, I don't think so ? BUSH: You know, I don't think it necessarily works. I know that's how the press sometimes likes to play discussions inside the White House, you know, X versus Y, you know, butting of heads and sharp elbows.
Didn't see the press conference and don't know the President's demeanor in answering the questions. However, the answers are clear and generally to the point of the question (or as much as he can diplomatically say). Contrary to the left and MSM, the President CAN think on his feet and respond coherently to questions. From what I read here, he did a good job.
He usually sounds good. You'd think he was Yale and Harvard educated.
Nah. Never happen. Must be you're thinking about Kerry and Kennedy.
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