Posted on 12/12/2006 4:02:37 PM PST by GretchenM
President Bush had breakfast with Bob Gates, who will be sworn in Monday as the new Secretary of Defense.
He met with Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi in the Oval. Also in the meeting were Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. He participated in a video teleconference, that included Donald Rumsfeld, with combatant commanders and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.
At the State Department, Secretary of State Rice met with Iraq Vice President Tariq Ahmed Baker Al-Hashimi, and also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Australian Secretary of Defense Brendan Nelson and held a news conference with Downer. Rice witnessed the signing of the Joint Strike Fighter Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Australia.
QUOTES: (The president) "The Vice President [of Iraq] suffered unspeakable violence in his family. He's lost loved ones to violent action. And, yet, in spite of his grief and in spite of pain in his heart, he was willing to work for a united Iraq and a peaceful Iraq; an Iraq that can govern itself and sustain itself and defend itself; a free Iraq that will be an ally in the war against extremists and radicals."
(Condoleeza Rice) "I want to thank in particular Australia for its steadfastness in the war on terror, for the work that it does side by side with our forces whether in Iraq or Afghanistan or in humanitarian circumstances as we worked together at the time of the tsunami. This is really a relationship that in both its defense and foreign policy aspects is both broad and deep."
With Iraq's Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi 
Rice witnesses the signing of the Joint Strike Fighter Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Australia in the Treaty Room of the U.S. State Department 
Please wait to post or repost photos till the All Clear.
to AmeriBrit.
Good evening Gretchen
The two men spent their time together talking about the conditions in Iraq and what the United States can do to help the country's government succeed. 
Woo hoo, look who's number one!
I saw the dose before I got a ping. You're fast on the mouse tonight.
Hey there!
Rice said she wanted quick results in North Korean disarmament talks that resume next week, setting a two-year time frame to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program
Just happened to be passing by.
WOO-HOO! You're first!!!!
Congratulations!!!!!
Alexander Downer (C) speaks as Rice, and Australia's Defense Minister Brendan Nelson, listen
GEM, thank you for the Dose.
Tom, CONGRATULATIONS on your win.
QUOTE: (Tony Snow at his press briefing today)
The President has ... been engaged in a series of conversations and consultations with people on Iraq policy. He is moving toward a decision on how to move forward and, in the process, has been pushing a lot of people on the diplomatic side, and also military, security, and economic side, to come back with answers to some very specific and practical questions. I know a lot of you have been curious about when he would be announcing or talking about the way forward. That is not going to happen until the new year. We do not know when, so I can't give you a date, I can't give you a time, I can't give you a place, I can't give you a way in which it will happen. ...
But the most important thing is that the President continues to be engaged in the business of talking about the way forward. He's got some very -- he's assigned some tasks to people to work on and he's got some very clear, practical, tactical and other questions, so certainly the process and consultations will continue. And people are going to be working very hard between now and the time that the President has formulated the policy and is prepared to share his thoughts with the public and the world.
Q Did the military leaders encourage him to just take a little bit more time?
MR. SNOW: No, no, no. The President is the Commander-in-Chief; he issues orders.
That's my second toaster!
Did you ever wonder what "Sorry" looks like? Scroll down.
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