30 June 2003
Powell Expects Israel and Palestinians to Take More Steps Soon
(Says U.S. forcces unlikely to be deployed as peacekeepers) (1400)
Following is a transcript of Secretary of State Colin Powell's June
30, interview on the U.S. television morning news program Today Show
on NBC.
(begin transcript)
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
On NBC's Today Show with Katie Couric
June 30, 2003
Washington, D.C.
MS. COURIC: Mr. Secretary, good morning. Thanks so much for joining
us.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you. Good morning, Katie.
MS. COURIC: So, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have announced a three-month
ceasefire agreement. Fatah, Yasser Arafat's mainstream faction, has
announced a six-month ceasefire. What do you think, Secretary Powell,
is their motivation for doing this at this point in time?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think they realize that the policies they were
following were not getting them anywhere, and I think they realize
that the entire international community had come together on the
roadmap put forward by President Bush and the Quartet. They also
realized that the Palestinian leaders, the new leaders, Prime Minister
Abbas and his cabinet, wanted to move forward.
What brought the situation to a positive point in Gaza was really not
the ceasefire, as much as it was the Israelis and Palestinians talking
to one another and agreeing that the Israeli Army Defense Forces would
leave Gaza, turn it over to the Palestinian Authority under Prime
Minister Abbas, and allow the people of Gaza to have free access in
Gaza. And then when you match that up with the ceasefires that were
announced, this is a positive development.
But the ceasefires alone won't be enough. We ultimately have to reach
a point where the capability for terrorism that exists in these
organizations is removed. You can't have people with guns, armed
militias, inside of a state. So if we are going to have a Palestinian
state, all the weapons, all the force within that state, has to be
under the government and these terrorist organizations have to be
dismantled.
MS. COURIC: Do you think that the Israelis will do, Secretary Powell,
everything they need to do to keep this process moving forward?
SECRETARY POWELL: I hope they will and I expect that they will. At the
Aqaba summit a couple of weeks ago, both leaders, Prime Minister
Sharon and Prime Minister Abbas, stood there, committed themselves to
the roadmap and what the roadmap required. Prime Minister Sharon has
started to remove the unauthorized outposts and he has started to
release prisoners, and he will take other steps to make life easier
for the Palestinian people.
And he entered into this security arrangement which allowed Gaza to go
back to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority has said
it is ready to take over Gaza and has made commitments with respect to
making sure no more terror comes from that region. And hopefully, this
will now shift to Bethlehem and we can see a transfer of authority in
Bethlehem, and as confidence and trust are developed, hopefully the
other cities and towns in the West Bank.
MS. COURIC: Could the United States, in your view, Secretary Powell,
do even more? For example, could the CIA play a larger role in
dismantling some of these terrorist organizations? And can you ever
envision a time when U.S. forces might actually be deployed to be used
as peacekeepers?
SECRETARY POWELL: The CIA is doing a great deal, as are other agencies
of the United States Government. The Treasury Department, Commerce
Department -- everybody is involved in this comprehensive approach to
the problem. We have put in place a small monitoring group under
Ambassador John Wolf to help the two sides talk to one another and to
break down some of the barriers to trust and confidence that have
existed.
I don't anticipate, though, United States Armed Forces actually going
in as some sort of peacekeeping force. Monitors, yes. And they're not
necessarily military personnel. But we can help the two sides. We can
be facilitators, monitors, evaluators of what's going on, but I don't
see a role for United States Armed Forces in the region.
MS. COURIC: Let's talk about Iraq for a moment, if we could, Secretary
Powell. As you know, since the war ended, or since the military action
ended, 64 U.S. soldiers have been killed. President Bush has said
dangerous pockets of Saddam's old regime are still in place. Knowing
what the United States knows now, were enough -- were adequate plans
made for a post-Saddam Iraq and some of the security issues that have
come up?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think there were good plans in place, and we do
have a large force in the region. I mean, it is not as if we are
without troops in the region. We have quite a significant force there.
We are, perhaps, seeing more disorder and looting and criminal
activity and activities of remnant elements of the regime than might
have been expected, but it is not something that is out of control. We
can get on top of it. Ambassador Bremer and the military commanders
there are quite confident of that.
We are not seeing a nationwide, coherent, organized resistance. We are
seeing pockets of resistance -- criminals, looters, former members of
the Baath Party, former members of the Hussein regime -- but I don't
yet see, nor do any of my colleagues see this as some nationwide,
organized resistance.
MS. COURIC: But wouldn't it have been --
SECRETARY POWELL: I think as the situation improves and as people see
that the economy is starting and as the political process picks up and
Iraqis start to take responsibility for their own future, I think this
will come under control.
MS. COURIC: You, of course, know very well, Secretary Powell that you
went to the United Nations to make the case about weapons of mass
destruction. If no weapons of mass destruction are found in Iraq, how
damaging will that be to your credibility and the credibility of the
United States?
SECRETARY POWELL: I reviewed that presentation that I made on the 5th
of February a number of times, as you might imagine, over recent
weeks, and it holds up very well. It was the solid, coordinated
judgment of the intelligence community. Some of the things that I
talked about that day we have now seen in reality. We have found the
mobile biological weapons labs that I could only show cartoons of that
day. We now have them.
I also talked about the nuclear weapons program and how they were
retaining the infrastructure of such a program, and one of their
scientists came forward recently and acknowledged that and provided
documentation and components of centrifuges that the Iraqis had
retained in order to start up the program again when they had the
opportunity to do so, which was also part of my presentation.
And as our experts continue to work in Iraq under Mr. Kay and under
General Dayton, I think more such evidence will come forward that will
make the case. Keep in mind --
MS. COURIC: So you don't --
SECRETARY POWELL: Keep in mind, Katie, it wasn't just my presentation.
The fact that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and such
programs to develop more was the considered judgment of UN inspectors
who had been in there previous, was the considered judgment of the
entire international community. When Resolution 1441 was passed last
November, all 15 nations voted yes in the knowledge and in the certain
knowledge that Saddam Hussein had such programs that had to be dealt
with.
MS. COURIC: So real quickly, you don't feel like intelligence was
skewed or manipulated to come to that conclusion?
SECRETARY POWELL: No. And my presentation was very carefully done. It
was vetted entirely. All the analysts -- not just the senior people
within the international community -- I had the analysts in a room
with me for almost four straight days preparing that, and they could
make sure that I knew exactly what they knew. And they are still
behind what I presented and we were not putting any pressure on them.
I wanted the best out of them. That's what we got. That's what I
presented on the 5th of February.
MS. COURIC: Secretary of State Colin Powell. As always, Secretary
Powell, thanks so much for your time.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Katie.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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