01 November 2001
Transcript: State Department Noon Briefing, October 31, 2001
(Anthrax, Consular, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Ukraine,
Taiwan, Afghanistan, Russia/Macedonia, Russia, Israel/Palestinians)
(7880)
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed.
Following is the State Department transcript:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Daily Press Briefing Index
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
BRIEFER: Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Index:
ANTHRAX
-- Contractor in Sterling in Stable Condition
-- Trace Amounts of Anthrax in Mailbag in Embassy in Vilnius,
Lithuania
-- Test Results of Samples in Harry S Truman Building/ Further
Sampling
-- Cleaning Areas That Handle Bulk Mail/ Sealing off Air Vents/
Alternate Site
CONSULAR
-- Visa Processing in Saudi Arabia
-- Questions on Visa Applications/ Rejection Rate in Saudi Arabia for
Visa Applications
-- Visa Application Changes
-- Revoking US Non-Immigrant Visas of Four Colombian Citizens
-- Passport Applications/ Mail Stoppage/ Diversity Lottery Program
SAUDI ARABIA
-- Prince Alwaleed Article/ Rejection of Donation/ Saudi-US Relations
-- UN Resolution 1373/ Joint Treasury-State Department Team/ Saudi
Cooperation
-- Whether Saudi Government Sent US Government Letter Regarding
Parting Ways
GREECE
-- Comments by Ambassador to Greece on Arrest of Terrorists/ List of
Suspects/ Criticizing the Effectiveness of US Federal Agencies
TURKEY
-- Military Cooperation
PAKISTAN
-- Decreasing Demonstrations Against US Presence and Against War in
Afghanistan
UKRAINE
-- Meeting with the Prime Minister/ Gongadze Investigation/ Airplane
Shootdown
TAIWAN
-- Congressman's Invitation to Taiwanese President
AFGHANISTAN
-- Comments by Taliban Education Minister/
-- Usama bin Laden Virtually Claiming Responsibility for September 11
Bombings
RUSSIA/MACEDONIA
-- Russians Sending Troops as Part of NATO Operation in Macedonia
RUSSIA
-- Armitage's Meetings/FM Ivanov's Visit/ Secretary Rumfeld's Trip to
Moscow
-- Oil Pipelines/ Russian Arms Sales to Iran
-- Discussion of Smallpox Risks
ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS
-- Contact Between Secretary Powell and Prime Minister Sharon/
Norwegian Government Offer
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2001
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
MR. BOUCHER: All right, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, for
those who care. It's a pleasure to see you. Glad to answer your
questions. Let's just do it that way.
QUESTION: Anthrax update. First, on the victim in Sterling, and also,
I understand that there are traces of something that you think is
anthrax found in the embassy in a mail pouch in Vilnius, Lithuania.
MR. BOUCHER: I don't have anything particular about Vilnius. We have
had various reports of white powders at embassies all over the world.
I don't know, 40, 50 of them, maybe more by now. And we have checked
all those out. None at this point have proved positive. All have
tested negative, except there are some that are still being tested,
and therefore results are pending.
So at this point, we don't have anything specific about Vilnius. I'll
have to check on that one. But we have not have had any of these
substances at our overseas posts that have tested positive at this
point.
QUESTION: Except for Peru?
MR. BOUCHER: Except for the pouch in Peru, yes.
QUESTION: So this Lithuania is --
MR. BOUCHER: I don't -- I just heard it. I didn't have a chance to
check it specifically, but we have checked out a lot of white powders.
So far they have all tested negative. There are a few that still -- we
are still awaiting results on.
QUESTION: Wait a minute. The guy in Sterling?
MR. BOUCHER: Our contractor in Sterling. He remains in stable
condition, and he is being closely watched in intensive care.
QUESTION: There is a story in The Post today that 15 of the 19
hijackers obtained visas from Saudi Arabia. And there is some
criticism that maybe there should have been some detection or way to
sort it out before they got here. Do you have anything to say about
that?
MR. BOUCHER: I think there is still a lot of confusion about visa
programs and how they work, so if you can give me a moment, let me go
through and talk about them.
Around the world at various locations, we do visa interviews in
different ways, depending on the history of people from that country,
depending on the history of applicants and overstays once they get to
the United States, things like that. We have an active program where
INS reports back to us people who change status and things like that.
So we do have some data on the habits of people that we issue visas
to.
And in many countries, we do interview by exception, it's called,
where we will look at paper applications, where people answer all the
same questions that they have to answer in an interview, including
"Are you a terrorist" and "Are you otherwise ineligible for travel to
the United States". And it's a standard form. It's the same questions
that get asked at the interview. And we look at all the information
available, and decide then whether or not to interview the person.
In many posts, they will interview third country nationals. In many
posts, they will interview first-time applicants, people who haven't
had visas before, or people that don't clearly and automatically --
clearly qualify for a US visa.
This kind of process is done at our posts in Saudi Arabia. It's called
"Visa Express." Visa applications are reviewed without interviews,
unless the consular officer decides that an interview is necessary.
It's not an uncommon practice in countries with generally favorable
visa histories, and a low rate of fraud.
In either case, whether the person is interviewed or not interviewed,
we do a name check through the best available information that is in
our Lookout System. The name check is done again when the person
enters into the United States. And that is the area where we are now
concentrating on.
The President has directed that agencies cooperate to better identify
potential terrorists, to better identify applicants coming to the
United States, to better track them, to better know whether they show
up at the places they were supposed to show up in terms of schooling.
And we are part of that interagency effort, and indeed we have
improved the information sharing and gotten some legislation to help
us do that from Congress. So we are in a position to have better
information. The better the information, the better the name check.
And every applicant, once again, gets checked, whether they apply in
person or not.
As far as the current process, these processes of interview by
exception are being maintained, but consular officers around the world
have been instructed to be more careful, so they will likely call more
people in for interviews than they might have before. They might
investigate or look a little more closely at some of the applications
and try, with a little more care, to differentiate people who need to
be interviewed from those who don't.
But I think the essence of the system is based on the information we
can make available, and a lot of that comes from law enforcement
agencies.
Now, on those specific applications, there were, I think, 19 people
identified as suspects, terrorists, in these hijackings. We know that
15 of them applied for visas in Saudi Arabia. I'm not sure about the
other four at this point. We know that at least six of those people
were interviewed. But, again, I would stress that all the names were
checked against our best available information at the time, and the
effort underway is to try to make sure we have better, more detailed,
better and more improved information to check names against.
QUESTION: So it's safe to assume that the six that were interviewed,
or the 15, nothing came up?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, yes.
QUESTION: I know that one aspect of the Lookout System checks the
countries' criminal records and information on the individuals. Could
you comment on whether or not you think that Saudi Arabia was
cooperative in this respect in providing all of the information that
they should have provided in this process?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm sorry, the Government of Saudi Arabia doesn't do
visas.
QUESTION: I know, you guys do visas. But part of the information that
you check against, as I understand it -- and I could be wrong -- is
information provided by the host government for these individuals.
It's another trap that you run it through.
MR. BOUCHER: No, I think you're wrong.
QUESTION: That's not right?
MR. BOUCHER: That's not the usual process. There is, obviously,
counterterrorism cooperation with foreign governments, to the extent
that our law enforcement or intelligence people are working with a
foreign government and collective, together with them, exchange
information, identify potential terrorists. Then our law enforcement
or intelligence people would put the names in the database.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, you are required, if you are applying for a
visa from a foreign country, like a student visa or a long-term visa,
to bring a note from the chief of police in the district where you
live, asserting that you are not wanted or have not been convicted of
any crime --
MR. BOUCHER: No, when you get -- that is part of the immigrant visa
process. I am not sure which non-immigrant categories it applies to.
But it is not tourist visas or business visas, and I think that's what
all these people had.
QUESTION: Were you being serious, is the question on the application
-- is there really a question that says, "Are you a terrorist?"
MR. BOUCHER: I forget exactly how it's worded but it lists a number of
ineligibilities and it says, do any of these --
QUESTION: And you actually expect people who have bad intention to
honestly answer these questions?
MR. BOUCHER: No.
QUESTION: So, in other words, it doesn't --
MR. BOUCHER: I mean, some people might, in some places, obviously.
There are two reasons to do it. One is, some people are honest, to a
surprising degree.
QUESTION: You mean, there have actually been visa applications where
someone has checked "yes"?
MR. BOUCHER: Nobody is going to write, "I am a terrorist," but there
are all sorts of ineligibilities --
QUESTION: Is this on there so you can get them for lying, perjury --
MR. BOUCHER: Can I finish my answer?
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. BOUCHER: And the other reason is so we can get them for lying.
QUESTION: On the 15 of 19 who applied for visas in Saudi Arabia, that
doesn't necessarily imply, does it, that all 15 were Saudi citizens?
They just applied there; is that correct?
MR. BOUCHER: That's right. I'd have to double check and make sure that
-- I would have to double check and see if they are all -- if all 15
of those are Saudi citizens.
QUESTION: Could you, please? Because there has been -- I have done
some checking and nobody, at least so far, has been able to tell me
conclusively --
MR. BOUCHER: The other question is that I think the FBI has not yet
resolved the issue of whether these are actually actual names of
people. So if there were assumed identities, the assumed identity
might have checked out better than the real. But that's another issue
with these. So it is not definitive by any means. It is not definitive
information on the whole process at this point.
QUESTION: Is that for some of them or all of them? I mean, has Saudi
Arabia been willing to hand over the files of those that they have
determined are actual people and not potential aliases?
MR. BOUCHER: Are you asking the same question? They are not involved
in the visa process, Saudi Arabia.
QUESTION: No, I'm talking about the hijackers. I'm talking --
MR. BOUCHER: That is a law enforcement question. That is a question of
law enforcement cooperation. I don't know what files the Saudi Arabian
Government might have on individuals.
QUESTION: Richard, so where did things fall through the cracks? Did
they fall through because law enforcement in this country was not
sharing with the State Department?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know that things fell through the cracks. The
issue is always, how do you know, how do you find out. If somebody has
a track record or a history, then hopefully your law enforcement,
intelligence agencies, in cooperation with foreign governments, can
give you some indication of who the people are that you need to keep
out of the United States. But if people don't have a history, if you
don't have intelligence information on them, it is very hard to find
them.
The second issue is the one of assumed identity. We do fraud
investigations around the world and we often find out things about
people when they apply for visas by holding up the application,
sending out investigators and things like that. But you can't always
find out those things.
QUESTION: Richard, do you know anything about the rejection rate in
Saudi Arabia for visa applicants?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't have anything. I don't have a specific number.
It's very low. All I can say is it's very low, and that is one of the
reasons why they don't interview everybody, is because most Saudis
qualify for visas; they're traveling for pleasure, they're traveling
for business, they have substantial assets or reasons to return to
Saudi Arabia, they have no particular history; they may have good
jobs, businesses, family situations, and therefore many, many Saudis
qualify easily for visas.
QUESTION: Richard, speaking of people like that, did you see the piece
that Prince Alwaleed wrote in today's New York Times talking about how
he understands why his donation was rejected and calling for an
improvement of Saudi-US -- for this to be an event -- the tragedy to
be an event to bring the Saudis and the US together?
MR. BOUCHER: Did I see the piece?
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
QUESTION: And if you did, what do you make of it?
MR. BOUCHER: I leave that to you guys. I think we left that whole
matter between him and the City of New York.
QUESTION: On Saudi Arabia, can you say that Saudi Arabia is abiding by
UN Resolution 1373 concerning the area of suppressing financing of
terrorist activities?
MR. BOUCHER: There is a UN committee that was established to track
compliance and cooperation with UN resolutions. What I would say is
what we've said before: We have very good cooperation with Saudi
Arabia against terrorism; we're cooperating with Saudi Arabia in any
number of areas -- law enforcement, finance, as well as other areas. I
leave it to them to describe the specifics, but our cooperation with
Saudi Arabia remains very, very good, and they have continued to agree
to everything we've needed from them.
QUESTION: On this issue, can you get -- I asked the question a few
days ago about a joint Treasury-State Department team that I
understand was supposed to go over or is planning to go over to Saudi
Arabia. Do you have anything on that?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think we -- I'll double check again. They weren't
immediately forthcoming.
QUESTION: Didn't the United States seek to interview the people who
were accused of bombing the Khobar Towers, and didn't the Saudis
behead them, without allowing the US to interview them?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know.
QUESTION: You don't know?
MR. BOUCHER: But that's not a question about current cooperation, is
it?
QUESTION: Well, it's about -- you said that they have given us
everything that we needed from them.
MR. BOUCHER: In this current situation. I haven't gone through every
bit of history in the past of the US-Saudi relationship. We have been
asked repeatedly, are we cooperating, are the Saudis cooperating with
us, are we working well with them; and the answer is, yes, absolutely.
QUESTION: Richard, how will the visa check (inaudible) applications,
or whatever be changed? Obviously, it's kind of a sieve. And if it's
because you have family in the country and you have plenty of money
behind you and you might go home, bin Laden certainly qualifies under
those kinds of characteristics. So what will change so that you know
who you're giving them to?
MR. BOUCHER: I think there are several things that change. First of
all, our consular officers on the ground who talk to people or look at
these applications, are exercising already more scrutiny to make sure
that anything that is unusual or suspect gets looked at before people
get visas.
So they are being more careful and following up on things that may
have seemed incidental in the past. But you can't rely on that sort of
indication. You can't rely on talking to somebody to know whether they
are a terrorist or not. I mean, most terrorists are not likely to say,
Hi, I'm a terrorist, I want to go to the United States.
So you have to use your other resources, and the other resources are
the information that we can generate, together with out foreign
colleagues and with our domestic colleagues in intelligence and law
enforcement. And so the goal is to further improve the system that we
have for getting information on terrorists, what they might be up to,
who might be traveling, and to use that to deny people entry into the
United States, so that either we, when people apply for visas, or the
INS, when they apply for entry, can identify people, can know who they
are really, and can find out if they have any history or any
indications of evil intent.
QUESTION: And so how did that change, besides being more careful? I
mean, what are you doing?
MR. BOUCHER: It means -- better than -- what is more important than
"be more careful" is "get better information." And that is where the
resources of the US Government will be applied especially.
QUESTION: When you reject somebody because you suspect that they are a
terrorist, do you tell them that?
MR. BOUCHER: Not always.
QUESTION: Is there an appeal process?
MR. BOUCHER: No, not really.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. BOUCHER: Okay, one more on Saudi, and then he gets to change the
subject.
QUESTION: Did the Saudi Government send this government a letter
suggesting that both governments might want to part ways on certain
areas of cooperation?
MR. BOUCHER: I haven't heard of anything like that. You would have to
ask the Saudis.
QUESTION: Your Ambassador to Greece --
MR. BOUCHER: Our esteemed Ambassador to Greece.
QUESTION: Yes, still. Still, I don't know. But he's still ambassador
anyway -- opened the front with the Greek Government regarding
November 17 terrorist organization saying, who in the US arrested
terrorists for September 11 attacks, and wondered why not you for
November 17. The Simitis government, in the meantime, answered
promptly today, we are not going to arrest anyone without evidence or
hard indication. Could you please comment?
MR. BOUCHER: My first comment is that I want to check out exactly what
our Ambassador said, because I have had things quoted to me in the
past which were not entirely accurate. I would be glad to look into
it.
QUESTION: And do you know if they are going to proceed with a list of
suspects, the process which was started by the Clinton Administration,
and characterized by the entire Greek press, totally fabricated?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. I will have to look into it.
QUESTION: And the last one. I'm wondering why you do not criticize the
effectiveness of various very advanced US federal intelligence
agencies like CIA and FBI, which already are functioning free in
Greece with full cooperation with the government to arrest the
criminals November 17, but so far succeed in nothing to this effect.
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think our people have arrest authority in Greece.
QUESTION: Did you instead ask Turkey to send any troops or military
special forces --
MR. BOUCHER: I'm afraid that's the kind of question we haven't been
answering about any country -- what we have asked or what they have
offered. We have left it to individual countries to describe what they
are willing to do. Turkey is obviously a partner in NATO, as well as a
good ally. We have been cooperating with Turkey in many, many ways, as
well as through NATO, but on specifics of military matters, I think
I'll leave that to the Turkish Government.
QUESTION: The Government of Pakistan today said that they believe that
the demonstrations against the US presence and against the war in
Afghanistan are decreasing. Is it your view that the Government of
Pakistan has sort of weathered the worst of this crisis?
MR. BOUCHER: I haven't gotten reports on the exact numbers. I suppose
they would know a lot better than we do, so I would take their word
for it.
QUESTION: Do you have more details about a Colombian citizen who were
revoking their visas, and what kind -- what are their names or --
MR. BOUCHER: No, we put up an answer yesterday, I think, that we are
not in a position to describe those people or to give their names.
QUESTION: Do you know what kind of visa they -- if they are in the
United States or some more information about who they are?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I'm not able to do that. We are prevented, I think,
by law from doing that.
QUESTION: Were you able to check on what's going on in terms of people
applying for passports from the US Government?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes. Our passport offices have generally stopped taking
in mail. Some of them, I think, are still --
QUESTION: All of them?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, stopped taking in mail. Some of them may still be
doing a few things under controlled circumstances. They are, I think,
open generally to the public, to people who come in to present their
applications in person. And we are working with the Postal Service and
others to try to get this back up and running as soon as possible
because most passport applications are handed in at the Post Office,
and so once you see it there you can put it in an envelope and know
it's safe. So we are going to try to work to get that back up and
running very, very quickly.
QUESTION: Do you know specifically whether that is true of the
Kentucky center that handles the millions of visa applicants?
MR. BOUCHER: The diversity lottery program, none of that mail comes
through the State Department or through the Sterling, Virginia,
facility, so that mail has been going in by the millions. Today,
actually I think about an hour or two ago, was the last moment to get
in one's application for the 2003 diversity visa lottery, and the
letters are being opened carefully.
QUESTION: So when you say the agencies have stopped taking mail, you
mean the passport agencies that are in other cities, that are in San
Francisco and Houston?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes. They have generally stopped taking mail and so they
have not been able to process applications submitted through the mail.
QUESTION: Isn't that a problem, wouldn't you think? I mean, people
need to travel.
MR. BOUCHER: It is a problem, but travelers who need to travel
urgently can go down to the local office and do it. It is obviously
inconvenient. It's not as convenient as going to your Post Office.
QUESTION: Well, there are only 16 of them.
MR. BOUCHER: But we are trying to get it up and running again as soon
as we can.
QUESTION: Do you have any numbers on the number of people who have
applied for the lottery?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think we have numbers yet. Some years, it is as
many as 10 or 12 million. But I don't think we have numbers yet this
year, no. An incredible volume of mail.
QUESTION: Can I ask something on a different subject?
QUESTION: Can we stay on the lottery for one second? Are people
undergoing more stringent background checks before the lottery? Or do
they -- do you do background checks if they win the lottery for the
visa? How does that work?
MR. BOUCHER: It works with -- anybody can send in a request, an
application. And then if you are chosen, then you have to meet all the
requirements of an immigrant visa, and that means health checks, that
means police records, it means a lot of careful scrutiny for anybody
who intends to immigrate to the United States.
QUESTION: Can I ask just quickly on Ukraine, do you have any comments
from the meeting yesterday with the Prime Minister, anything to say?
MR. BOUCHER: Outcomes. It was a very good discussion with the
Ukrainian Prime Minister yesterday that the Secretary had. They talked
clearly about the campaign against terrorism, and the Prime Minister
expressed full solidarity and support. They talked about areas where
Ukraine can cooperate with the United States or cooperate with other
NATO governments. They also talked about the economic progress of
Ukraine and the progress of Ukraine in terms of becoming a more open,
transparent society. The Secretary, once again, emphasizing the need
for openness and transparency as well as the rule of law and
especially anti-corruption efforts as they go forward.
QUESTION: Did you get anywhere in terms of getting an FBI team in
there to help with the Gongadze investigation?
MR. BOUCHER: That wasn't discussed -- the FBI team kind of idea wasn't
discussed in specifics. I would have to check on where we are on that.
The Secretary did raise the issue of the Gongadze investigation, as
well as the missile shoot down, the airplane shoot down as examples
where it was important to be open, to be transparent, to issue as much
information as possible so that the public could understand exactly
what had gone on in these situations.
QUESTION: Is that -- relating to the shoot down of the plane, is that
the only thing that was discussed?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, that was --
QUESTION: Just tell the truth and tell it quickly? Is that basically
it?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
QUESTION: China? (Inaudible) to Taiwan on Tuesday, 288 million. Can
you comment on that?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I wasn't aware of that going up. I will have to check
on it.
QUESTION: One more. A congressman has invited the Taiwanese President
to come to Washington, DC. Do you know about that?
MR. BOUCHER: I wasn't aware of that particular invitation. I am not
aware of any visa applications, though.
QUESTION: The Taliban education minister said today, "Afghans do not
want to fight with America." That's the message to Americans. "We do
not want to fight; we will negotiate, but talk to us like a sovereign
country. We are not a province of the United States to be issued
orders to. We have asked for proof of Usama's involvement, but they
have refused." Why?
MR. BOUCHER: Does he want to come and ask me himself? I think this is
the kind of stuff we've heard before. Everybody knows the United
States is not the only one that has a problem with their harboring
foreign terrorists. They say they don't want to fight with the
American people, and yet they harbor and support people who killed
5,000 Americans and people from 80 other countries. It is ridiculous
to say things like that. They have been under UN order for years to
turn over Usama bin Laden, his leadership and dismantle the networks.
There is abundant information on the network's responsibility for the
attacks on the embassies in Africa, and all one has to do is watch
television to find Usama bin Laden claiming responsibility for the
September 11th bombings.
There is no question of responsibility. There is no question of the
responsibility of the Taliban. And there is no question of what they
should do.
QUESTION: Richard, is there something -- I mean, yesterday you said he
"virtually" claimed responsibility. Is that what you meant to say just
now?
MR. BOUCHER: That is what I said just now. I would have to go back
over the exact language. It was "virtually." It was about as certain
as I could make out. I'll say "virtually."
QUESTION: There was some new -- I just wanted to know if there was
some new appearance of him on television.
MR. BOUCHER: No, there is not a new piece of information. I am
describing the same interview that we saw before, where he virtually,
or I would say in fact admitted responsibility.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) Russians prepared to send their troops as a part
of the NATO operation in Macedonia. This came out after the visit of
Macedonian President to Moscow this week. What is your comment and
position?
MR. BOUCHER: I wasn't aware of the news. I don't think I'm going to
comment on any particular offer from Russia. But certainly we have
tried to work with Russia, as well as others, in Macedonia. What
happens in Macedonia is very important to us, and we continue to look
to the Macedonian parliament, actually, to continue moving forward
with the constitutional changes. That seems to be the operative
question right now.
QUESTION: Richard, on Russia for a second. Is it too early to have
anything back yet from Mr. Armitage? I don't even know if these
meetings have begun. It's too early for that?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, he is meeting today and tomorrow.
QUESTION: Okay, can you give us just a very brief preview of what you
expect the Secretary and Foreign Minister Ivanov to talk about
tomorrow?
MR. BOUCHER: The Secretary and Foreign Minister Ivanov will meet
tomorrow. I don't have exact times yet, or length of meetings. But I
expect they will have extensive discussions of all the issues in the
US-Russia relationship, especially the strategic framework issues of
offensive missiles, nonproliferation, defensive systems, and continue
their work on the strategic framework.
There is any number of areas of cooperation against terrorism that the
US and Russia will want to discuss. But the whole meeting should be
seen in the context of expanding cooperation, working together in all
these areas, as well as economically, and looking to feed that process
into the meetings the President will have with President Putin next
week in Washington and Crawford. So it is really working on all these
issues and trying to move them forward towards the President's meeting
next week.
QUESTION: I know this isn't your bailiwick, but does Secretary
Rumsfeld's trip to Moscow also play into this?
MR. BOUCHER: That is certainly part of preparing for the President's
meeting with President Putin next week, but I will leave it to Defense
to describe it. Two weeks. Thank you. Two weeks from now.
QUESTION: Following up on this? You said "economic issues." Are they
discussing -- have they discussed and are they going to be discussing
pipeline issues or oil issues? The United States has long tried to
block pipelines --
MR. BOUCHER: No, we have long supported the diversity of routes, a
number of different routes, to bring oil out of Siberia and the Far
East, Kazakhstan, Caspian areas. We have always supported multiple
routes, and that has been part of it.
Generally, when the Secretary has talked -- he always talks with the
Russians, with Foreign Minister Ivanov through their eight or nine
meetings about economics, about economic relationships -- generally
have been on two sides. One is the issue of sort of the investment
climate in Russia and how to improve the investment climate, including
issues like rule of law and anti-corruption policies, as well as more
information and openness. Media information is part of it.
And then the second part has been to look at sometimes specific
opportunities where there might be American companies involved, or
where there are sectors that are undergoing privatization or such
things.
QUESTION: On the question of oil pipelines, has something changed
since September 11th regarding the US views towards the diversity?
MR. BOUCHER: No, we have always supported multiple pipelines. That
remains the situation now.
QUESTION: Will the Secretary and Foreign Minister Ivanov discuss an
arms arrangement -- I guess it was completed about a month ago --
between Russia and Iran?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know they'll discuss a specific arrangement.
Clearly, the issue of nonproliferation and Russian arms sales to Iran
has been on our agenda. It is something we have discussed, I think,
just about every time they have gotten together, so I would expect
they would have an opportunity to talk about it tomorrow as well.
QUESTION: Has the State Department been given -- has the Secretary
been given assurances from the Russians that the latest, I guess,
manifestation of this arms deal does not involve any new contracts,
which has been the Russian line since they sort of backed out of the
Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement, that it's only completing old contracts
and that no new agreements have been made?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't remember the exact nature of the announcements
that Russia and Iran made at the time, but I would leave it to them to
announce what is involved. Clearly, our concerns about the kind of
weaponry that might be sold and our concerns about nuclear cooperation
and things like that have not diminished, and we will continue to
raise those.
QUESTION: Well, if I could just have one more on US concerns about
these kinds of issues. Is the US concerned about Russia simply making
good on old contracts that it had with Iran or --
MR. BOUCHER: For us, it's not so much a matter of contracts; it's a
matter of what is sold. We think we have always said that nuclear
cooperation with Iran is inadvisable because we think it leads to
other potential nuclear developments, and that we have always said
that the sale of advanced weaponry is not in Russia's security
interests, nor is it in ours.
QUESTION: So nuclear power technology is just as bad as nuclear --
MR. BOUCHER: We think nuclear cooperation with Iran is ill-advised.
QUESTION: Any nuclear cooperation. Okay.
QUESTION: Nuclear cooperation is what?
MR. BOUCHER: Ill-advised.
QUESTION: On Iraq, I suppose you expect that to come up as well.
MR. BOUCHER: I don't want to -- I mean, I could do a list of 25 likely
topics, including the UN resolution on Iraq. That has been something
they have discussed, they discussed a bit in Shanghai, they'll want to
discuss more and more as the time approaches for the renewal of the UN
resolution, yes.
QUESTION: Earlier this morning, apparently, Under Secretary Bolton
talked to a group of writers in town. According to an AP story, he
says that he said that if the terrorists had had nuclear weapons, they
would have used them on September 11th. Is that the official
Administration view?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. It sounds speculative to me. I would have
to check and see if we want to do that, but I don't have any way of
saying yes or no on that.
QUESTION: Can we go back to anthrax for a minute? Have you received
the results of the remaining --
MR. BOUCHER: I've got Vilnius, by the way.
QUESTION: Pardon me?
MR. BOUCHER: I'll talk about Vilnius, but answer your question first.
QUESTION: Oh, I'm --
MR. BOUCHER: Of which test?
QUESTION: Of the remaining samples in this building.
MR. BOUCHER: Let me see if we've got them all in. I'm not sure we have
them all yet, but none of them have -- nothing has shown up positive.
Nothing more has shown up positive.
QUESTION: In regards to some of the concerns expressed yesterday in
the town hall meeting by a number of employees who asked that the
whole building offices, including offices that receive mail from all
of the mail rooms, be tested and perhaps that the entire building be
shut down for cleaning, have there been any new decisions made on
that?
MR. BOUCHER: I think there have been a number of things that come out
of listening to our employees yesterday. The first one is that we will
be sampling more broadly in the building, that we will be looking not
only in mail facilities but we'll be looking in other offices as well,
other offices that might get small amounts of mail or otherwise
randomly be sampled. So there will be random sampling in the building.
And also, we're looking to make this a continuous program to monitor
our mail system especially, so that we do have a good idea at any
given moment if there is any exposure.
In addition to that, listening to the questions yesterday, it was
clear that our employees have a lot of concerns and a lot of questions
that needed to be answered, and there wasn't time to answer them all
yesterday. So I think there are six question-and-answer sessions being
scheduled for today and a few more tomorrow, where the medical staff
will be out trying to take care of everybody and answer all the
questions they might have.
QUESTION: So that is a change in policy. The doctor said yesterday and
you had told us that there would be no further environmental sampling
done. So that is something you are completely changing?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes. The decision originally was not to do further
sampling of mail rooms and facilities, just put everybody that might
be exposed on antibiotics. And that certainly is going ahead for all
the employees, even the ones who aren't specifically in those mail
rooms, but all the employees who handle any large amount of mail.
But we have decided in addition to that to do random sampling around
the building, and then to do it --
QUESTION: Is that a scientific decision or a decision just based on
public opinion in this building, because the doctor said that they had
already gone beyond CDC standards, the CDC said no further sampling
needs to be done --
MR. BOUCHER: I think we have probably gone even farther beyond the
specific recommendations. It is both. As the doctor said, very low
levels of spores may be in this building outside the mail room, not in
a hazardous way, very small amounts that wouldn't be a hazard for
inhalational anthrax. But people want to know and we want to test to
make sure. And so a random sampling program is one way of finding out,
just making sure that it is not spreading anywhere else.
QUESTION: But this is only being done because of the concerns
expressed yesterday, and not because you suspect that there is --
there are deposits of anthrax elsewhere in the building that could get
people sick, right?
MR. BOUCHER: That's right. It is being done because of the scientific
assumption that few spores, minor quantities, can spread farther. But
also because of the concerns of the employees that we have listened
to, that we do testing to make sure.
QUESTION: Can you do Vilnius now?
MR. BOUCHER: Let me add on Vilnius -- here is the deal in Vilnius. We
were informed by the microbiology laboratory of the Vilnius Public
Health Center that preliminary results showed trace amounts of what
appears to be anthrax present in two of five mail bags that were sent
to the laboratory for examination. Because other bacilli resemble
anthrax, a final determination can only be made when the samples are
cultured, and that will require 48 to 72 hours.
So they have sealed the embassy mail room, and embassy employees have
been informed, and antibiotics are being provided to any of their
employees who think -- who will want to take them.
QUESTION: Was there any suspicious mail found there?
MR. BOUCHER: I think they tested the mail bags. I'm not sure if they
have gone through the mail at this point. So not that I'm aware of.
QUESTION: So the antibiotics will be taken by people who --
MR. BOUCHER: Who wish to take them.
QUESTION: Who wish to take it?
MR. BOUCHER: So presumably already, as at all embassies, employees who
work handling mail were already being given those antibiotics.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) section this week that I'm sure you have seen.
The only remaining smallpox risks are in laboratories in Russia and
the United States. Do you know whether Secretary Powell and Foreign
Minister Ivanov will be discussing protection of that, since it's no
longer unthinkable? And according to The Post --
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know if they will be discussing that. I really --
I just don't know if it will come up or not. We'll see. Ask me
tomorrow.
QUESTION: Tomorrow?
MR. BOUCHER: Ask him tomorrow.
QUESTION: I had one before we switched over to Vilnius I just wanted
to clear up. Can you say that there is no consideration being given to
cleaning up the entire building?
MR. BOUCHER: The decision at this point is to clean all those areas
which handle bulk mail. That is not the entire building, but that's
all the areas where it's possible that there would be any significant
concentration, any concentration beyond a few spores or a very small
amount.
QUESTION: Can you say (inaudible) for example air vents in all those
rooms been sealed completely?
MR. BOUCHER: Those rooms, the mail rooms, have been completely closed
off.
QUESTION: Are you at all concerned that by increasing the scope of the
environmental sampling, you could be adding to a kind of anthrax
hysteria, given what Dr. Dumont said yesterday, which was that there
could be anthrax, but it's in such a low level that it wouldn't have
an effect. There is anthrax in the soil in Texas, after all.
MR. BOUCHER: Well, we work here, you work here, our people in the
building want to know. If it's found in small quantities, we will tell
them it's found in small quantities; it can't hurt you. If it's found
in larger quantities, we want to know that, too. What they want to
know is what -- as much as the facts as we can get for all of us, and
that's what we are going to try to do.
QUESTION: But didn't the CDC -- I mean, I know this isn't really your
bailiwick, but isn't the CDC now saying that it's not clear how many
spores you would need to get infected, and they're learning new things
every day. So, I mean --
MR. BOUCHER: So we are going to learn new things every day, too. We
are going to find what concentrations there are. We're going to track
this.
As you all know, most -- almost all the cases -- I think the CDC has
said this -- of inhalational anthrax have occurred in people who
worked directly with bulk mail and mail sorting equipment, places
where there would be higher concentrations, not somewhere three or
four steps down the chain of distribution.
Nonetheless, we do want to go beyond specific recommendations and make
sure we test widely so that we know as much of the facts as we can.
QUESTION: Is there any thought being given to putting all the
employees on the floor where the mail rooms were found to have anthrax
on antibiotics? I mean, this woman that died at a Manhattan hospital,
everybody, even patients that visited the hospital for an hour now are
on antibiotics.
MR. BOUCHER: I mean, right now, we are standing on the floor -- on the
same floor as a mail room that had found traces of anthrax. But it's a
quarter mile away -- maybe not that far -- 300 yards. And so it is
going to vary from building to building. It is going to vary,
depending on the building, depending on the ventilation system,
depending on how things move around in the building.
And I think doing random sampling throughout our building and making
the antibiotics available to employees, every employee in this
building who has any concern can go into the medical units and talk to
people and see if a regimen of antibiotics is appropriate.
QUESTION: Richard, was the decision to expand the testing made
yesterday or was it made today? Do you know?
MR. BOUCHER: I believe it was made yesterday afternoon.
QUESTION: Can I ask, the amount that was found in the mail rooms, is
the assumption that that particular amount is not dangerous?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think we have any specific assumption about that
at this point. I'm not sure that -- I don't think they actually know
concentrations at this point. They just know existence of spores at
those two locations. So they are not able to make a judgment.
QUESTION: The Secretary said yesterday that the State Department
operations would be moved elsewhere if the building is found not to be
safe. Is a search going on for an alternate site if worse comes to
worst?
MR. BOUCHER: We have contingency plans for being able to operate in
alternate locations, should we not be able to operate here. We have
always had those for any variety of contingencies, and we would use
them if we had to.
QUESTION: Can I ask one Middle East question? Has there been any
contact between the Secretary and anyone else lately? And do you have
any reaction to the apparent rumblings that there are now that Sharon
has said that he is willing to talk with the Palestinians, and the
Palestinians replying somewhat favorably to that?
MR. BOUCHER: I haven't seen the apparent rumblings. I saw actually
quite different rumblings, so maybe I'm not up to speed. But I would
say that the --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Very early this morning. I mean, overnight.
MR. BOUCHER: Well, we may be reading the same things differently. But
in any case, no, I don't have comments on rumblings.
I can tell you the Secretary spoke with Prime Minister Sharon this
morning, and they had a good discussion. They will continue to talk as
he continues to stay in touch with the parties. Ambassador Kurtzer and
Consul General Schlicher, of course, are working with the parties in
the field and reporting regularly back to Washington.
So we're working very closely with people out there to see if we can't
find a way for both sides to take steps against the violence. Clearly,
we want to see the Israelis withdraw completely and we want to see
Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to take immediate steps
to identify and to bring to justice those responsible for the
violence.
QUESTION: Was part of the message to encourage him to take part in a
peace process that Norway is offering again to host?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. I don't know if that came up or not. I
don't have any particular comment at this point.
QUESTION: About the Norwegian Government offer?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes. Thank you.
(The briefing was concluded at 1:47 P.M.)
(end State Department transcript)
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