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Military

State Department Briefing, August 31

31 August 2005

Baghdad bridge tragedy, Foreign nationals affected by Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Uzbekistan, Iran, China, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, India, Pakistan

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack briefed the press August 31.

Following is the transcript of the State Department briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing Index
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
12:35 p.m. EDT

Briefer:  Sean McCormack, Spokesman

DEPARTMENT
-- Statement on Baghdad bridge tragedy
-- Statement on contacting foreign nationals affected by Hurricane Katrina

IRAQ
-- Statement on Baghdad Bridge tragedy
-- Sunni-Shia tensions
-- Developments on draft Constitution/U.S. support for continued discussions among Iraqi groups

HURRICANE KATRINA
-- Statement on Contacting Foreign Nationals in Disaster Area
-- Foreign offers of disaster assistance to U.S./Status of U.S. passport agency in New Orleans

UZBEKISTAN
-- Trial of Andijan Rebels/International Investigation of Andijan Incident

IRAN
-- Status of Nuclear program/Negotiations with EU-3/U.S. support for both EU-3 and IAEA Engagement with Iran

CHINA
-- Hong Kong democracy advocates discussions in Beijing/U.S. dialogue on Democracy and Human Rights Concerns/President Hu's to Washington

LEBANON
-- U.S. Work with UN Representative Larson on Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559

ETHIOPIA
-- Observations of Election Irregularities/Peaceful Resolution by Political Parties of remaining Questions

ZIMBABWE
-- Changes to Zimbabwe Constitution

EGYPT
-- Upcoming Presidential Elections/Monitoring Election process

INDIA
-- U.S. supports continuing India-Pakistan discussions of Kashmir

PAKISTAN
-- Musharraf's Efforts to Reform Educational System

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

12:35 p.m. EDT

MR. MCCORMACK:  Good afternoon.  I have two brief statements that I'd like to read before we get into questions.  The first is about today's tragedy at a bridge in Baghdad.

The United States deeply regrets the tragic loss of life of worshipers in Kazimiyah, Baghdad, today.  Our sincere condolences, thoughts, and prayers go out to the many Iraqi families who lost loved ones in this tragedy, and also our wishes for a speedy recovery to those who were injured in this tragic event.

Ambassador Khalilzad has spoken with Iraqi Prime Minister Jafaari and offered our assistance.  We pledge every effort by the United States and the Multinational Force in Iraq to aid the victims.

I understand that the Iraqi Government is on the scene with an immediate response in terms of security and medical support.  All reports are that they're doing a great job and we certainly have every confidence that they'll be able to handle the situation, but again, we stand ready to assist in any way possible.

The second statement concerns contacting foreign nationals possibly affected by Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath.  We would like to advise concerned family members of foreign nationals residing or traveling in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina to try to reach their family members by the means available to them, either phone or e-mail or through potentially third-party contacts here in the United States.  If they cannot reach their family members directly, we recommend that they contact their embassy in Washington for assistance.  Reports from the region indicate that some phone lines are working but experiencing heavy call volume, so family members should be encouraged to keep trying.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency at www.fema.gov and the American Red Cross at redcross.org both have websites available that contain information on the current conditions in the region.  And we also try to work as best we can with foreign embassies here in the United States as well as consulates to give them the most up-to-date information that we have.

With that, I'd be happy to take your questions.

QUESTION:  On the first, you said the Ambassador spoke to the Prime Minister.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Yes.

QUESTION:  Do you have -- does the U.S. have any strong notion what caused the stampede?

MR. MCCORMACK:  At this point, Barry, there are a number of different reports as the exact cause and I think it is best to let authorities who are on the ground there speak to that.

QUESTION:  But have they seen, as you know, any evidence of suicide bombing being --

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'm not aware of anybody getting anything.  People on the ground are in the best position to answer that.

QUESTION:  Well, can I jump to the second?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Okay.

QUESTION:  Have the foreign governments that you can tell us about come forward, possibly with condolences, possibly with offers of assistance in the hurricane aftermath?

MR. MCCORMACK:  We have had a number of offers of government assistance to aid in the search as well as reconstruction efforts.  These are general offers of assistance at this point.  I don't have a complete list here, Barry, so I don't want to start naming off countries and leave somebody off because these offers of assistance are starting to come in.  We appreciate each and every one of them, and we are going to work in the coming days and weeks with foreign governments to see how we can best channel these offers of assistance with relation to what the needs are that are out there.

QUESTION:  On the --

MR. MCCORMACK:  Yeah, Charlie.

QUESTION:  I've got a couple of questions related to Katrina.  First of all, you don't want to start naming names, but can you tell us whether you're talking about two, three, seven, a dozen, two dozen?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I think somewhere in the neighborhood of, you know, ten to twelve at this point.

QUESTION:  And secondly, can you tell us or bring us up to date on the status of the Passport Office in New Orleans, and can you tell us what's being done to alleviate the situation?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Right, right.  As I mentioned yesterday, it's one of our busiest offices in the United States and we have been in contact with a number of the personnel who work at that office to check in on them and make sure that they're okay.  We haven't been able to contact everybody, I think, because of the very difficult circumstances down there.  So but we're thinking (inaudible) of all of our employees down there --

QUESTION:  And -- sorry.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Just so -- let me finish.  We'll come back to you, Barry.

In terms of the facility, the Passport Agency is in a high-rise.  It's located in a high-rise building.  The office is still closed.  It's not in a federal building, but just a private commercial office building.  We understand, through initial reports, that the office space that we occupy, the windows are still there and that there has been some water damage to it.  Again, what "some" means I don't have and I can't tell you exactly, but it would appear that the windows still are intact.

There are, on any given day, in this agency, you'll have tens of thousands of passport cases that they are working through.  I don't have an exact number for you how many are there right now.  But we -- our Consular Affairs Bureau is working actively and I think they started this effort, you know, even as early as yesterday to try to see what cases they have there electronically that they can work on and try to resolve those cases.

We know that there are a lot of people out there who have these passport applications who intend to travel or have other needs for them.  We also understand that people have valuable personal documents there like birth certificates, so we're very much aware of that and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that those people with applications pending are -- that we try to act on those as quickly as possible.  And we're also working to redirect any traffic that might have otherwise gone to the New Orleans Agency to other areas -- other agencies.

QUESTION:  And what do you advise people who have something in process to do?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, we are trying to actively reach out to people who have applications or files, or have some work being -- that's in train at the Passport Agency.  Like I said, at any given time you have tens of thousands of cases there.  And also given that many of those cases are likely from the region, there are some difficulties in terms of contacting individuals.  But we are going to take the active step of trying to reach out to those individuals.

Barry.

QUESTION:  Can you say whether the U.S. has asked some of the oil-rich countries to provide a little more energy, a little more oil, in light of what's going on in New Orleans and elsewhere?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'm not aware of any such requests.

QUESTION:  Nor offers?  Venezuela?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'm not aware of any such offers.

Jonathan.  We'll come back to you, Teri.

QUESTION:  Has there been an offer from NATO?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Excuse me?

QUESTION:  Has there been an offer from NATO?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I believe that through the NATO mechanism there were a couple of countries that approached us with offers of assistance.

QUESTION:  This would be military assets to the region?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I don't have details at this point.  Most of the offers, at this point, are general in nature, kind of a general offer of assistance.  So what needs to happen is we need to take a look at those offers, see what the needs are, and see if we can marry those two things up.

QUESTION:  That would probably answer my question.  The U.S. hasn't made any requests of anyone, have they?  Have you?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'm not aware of us going out specifically to a foreign government to ask for offers of assistance.

QUESTION:  And on the information about foreigners who may have been in the region, is that information going through the State Department to be disseminated to the embassies or are embassies calling the Red Cross themselves?  Is there any --

MR. MCCORMACK:  Right now you have FEMA that's the lead U.S. Government agency on this issue, so they're really the central coordination mechanism along with the White House.  We will work here at the State Department to help out any foreign embassies in the best way that we can.  Those -- you know, again, the Red Cross and FEMA right now are probably the best places to look in terms of information.  There are still ongoing rescue efforts and the situation is a very difficult situation there now, so information is hard to come by in some cases and we encourage people to keep on trying.

QUESTION:  I was just thinking, there's no reverse sort of welfare and whereabouts calls like there are when Americans are missing?

MR. MCCORMACK:  What we're doing at this point is working our best to help out in ways -- in the best way that we can with all these foreign governments.

Yes.

QUESTION:  Have any governments come forward with lists of people who are missing because New Orleans is a very big tourist destination, especially among Europeans?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Right.

QUESTION:  Have they presented any lists; for example, a party of school kids traveling or jazz fans?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'm not aware of any lists being presented.  But if we do hear something like that, I'll try to pass it along to you.

Let's move it around.

QUESTION:  Change of subject?

QUESTION:  No.

MR. MCCORMACK:  No.  Same subject.

QUESTION:  Same subject.  I forgot the thing.  (Laughter.)  Never mind.

MR. MCCORMACK:  You threw him off.  You threw him off.  I'm going to have to call on you more often so we can get Charlie off course.  (Laughter.)

QUESTION:  Secretary Chertoff has invoked a new thing in the Department of Homeland Security, I think.  And my question is declaring this situation a national emergency catastrophe.  I forget the exact language.  But does the State Department have any role in that or does anything under his declaration, anything at the State Department, come under that?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'll check for you, Charlie.

QUESTION:  Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK:  I'm not aware of anything offhand.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION:  Okay.  Uzbek President said today that the first trial of Andijan would open on September 20.  He also accused foreign countries of launching an "information war" against the Uzbek Government.  Do you have any comment for it?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Information war against the Uzbek Government?  Look, you know, we've been very clear that the Uzbek Government needs to let in an international team, needs to be fully transparent in investigating and in allowing an international investigation of what happened at Andijan.  Further that, the Secretary has talked about the need for reform in Uzbekistan.  You know, very basically the Uzbekistan Government needs to trust its people.  And we have been very clear in our call for changes that allow more political freedoms, economic freedoms and respect for human rights.

QUESTION:  On Iran?

QUESTION:  On Uzbekistan still?

MR. MCCORMACK:  On Uzbekistan.

QUESTION:  Have you and international colleagues made any progress in getting the Uzbek Government to allow an international investigation or is that effort pretty much gone by the wayside?

MR. MCCORMACK:  We continue to call for them to allow an international investigation.  To this point, they have not allowed -- they have not agreed to let an international investigation team in.

QUESTION:  No change in that position whatsoever?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Not --

QUESTION:  Not that you can tell?

MR. MCCORMACK:  No.  Okay.  Yes, sir.

QUESTION:  On Iran.  Today, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said in India that Iran is going to -- Iran wants to cooperate in a serious way with the IAEA, and is obligated to comply with global nuclear regulations.  Do you take this as Iranians heeding U.S. and EU-3 call for more cooperation with IAEA or is this just another tactic by the Iranian Government?

MR. MCCORMACK:  You know, it sounds like a lot more words and not backed up by any actions.  What Iran needs to do is to reengage with the EU-3 in serious, constructive negotiations and we would encourage them to take the deal that is on the table now.  It's a good deal.

They have repeatedly violated their obligations, whether that's through the NPT or to the EU-3 in breaking the Paris accord which called for them to not engage in any conversion activities.  They, themselves, have made it very clear that they are going to -- they don't intend to abide by the Paris agreement.  So we would call upon them to negotiate with the EU-3.

We support the efforts of the EU-3 to try to achieve a solution to this issue.  Iran cannot be allowed to pursue a nuclear weapon under cover of a civilian nuclear program, which is what they're trying to do.  And we certainly encourage Iran to work with the IAEA in resolving the questions the IAEA has about their pursuit of nuclear weapons.  But the proper venue and I think the widely recognized proper venue for negotiations to resolve the issue is with the EU-3.  This has been a process that's gone on for quite some time, so I'm not sure what they hope to gain by restarting negotiations other than to divert attention from the real subject at hand, which is their behavior.

Yes.

QUESTION:  Sean, in today's New York Times, there's an article with respect to democracy advocates --

(Cell phone rings.)

MR. MCCORMACK:  Is somebody going to answer their phone?  They gave up.  Okay.  Sorry, Joel.

QUESTION:  In today's New York Times, there's an article with respect to democratic advocates from Hong Kong that have been invited to Beijing for discussions -- Martin Lee and Lee Wing-tat -- and they are talking and there's a plan by the new Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, the plan that's going to be introduced in October.  And the article in today's Times talks about U.S. pressure.  Could you say what that pressure has been and how you think these talks concerning Hong Kong will go over in Beijing?  Of course, there's an official visit coming in the first week of September here to the White House.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, you know, with respect to Hong Kong, our views are unchanged.  And, you know, with respect to the wider question of political freedoms and respect for human rights and religious freedom, those are issues that we do speak about frequently to the Chinese Government.  It is part of our relationship with China.  It's a big, complex relationship, as the Secretary has said.  There are some good parts to that relationship and parts that are less good.  But what we try to do is work through the difficult issues through dialogue.  We have -- with Deputy Secretary Zoellick leading a senior dialogue, he works through -- he is working through the -- with the Chinese Government on a number of these issues.

As you point out, President Bush is going to meeting with President Hu next week.  I think the White House will talk a little bit more in the near future about what is on the agenda, but I expect a wide variety of issues from economic and trade issues to human rights and religious freedom to be on the agenda for discussion.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION:  Can we go back to Iraq for a moment?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Sure.

QUESTION:  The tragedy today led to a new verbal war between Sunnis and Shia, with the Shia minister accusing a Sunni minister to be responsible of this.  Do you think that's -- are you still optimistic about the future of this government in Iraq?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I think that this is a government that is working hard on behalf of the Iraqi people.  It is a government that is working under difficult conditions and real pressures that we see everyday.  They are doing a fine job on behalf of the Iraqi people.  And we have to remember that this is a country that is emerging from the shadow of decades of tyranny and oppression, that you are seeing the birth of a political culture, you're seeing the birth of a democracy.

You know, often times the path forward in terms of building a political class and that political class coming together and building a democracy is not a path that is straight and true.  There are going to be bumps in the road.  But what we have seen is the Iraqis, despite some differences among the various groups, and not just between Shia and Kurd or Shia and Sunni, but even among those different groupings, a real effort to work out any differences in a peaceful way through dialogue and through political compromise.

So I think that the political process continues to move forward.  There are going to be bumps on the road, but it does continue to move forward.

QUESTION:  Is Secretary Rice in the building today and will she be here --

MR. MCCORMACK:  No, she is out of the office.

QUESTION:  Because the schedule just says no appointments.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Right.  She is out of the office this week.

QUESTION:  Will she be out of the office for the rest of the week?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Yes.

QUESTION:  Could it be properly called a bit of a vacation?

MR. MCCORMACK:  She's taking a few days out of Washington.

QUESTION:  Actually, on that, Sean, there are reports out there that the Secretary was interrupting her vacation to meet with Terje Larsen on the Hariri investigation in Lebanon.  Is there anything to that?

MR. MCCORMACK:  She has been for the past couple days working from home.  She is now taking a few days out of Washington.  In terms of Terje Larsen, he is somebody with whom we work very well on issues related to the implementation of UN Security Council 1559.  We have contact with him at a variety of different levels.  I would -- I'm not going to get into a catalog of all those contacts.  But I would say that certainly the issue of Lebanon and the implementation of UN Security Council 1559 is an issue that the Secretary follows and she follows it closely.

QUESTION:  So did she meet with Larsen or is she going to meet with him today?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Certainly nothing today.

QUESTION:  But perhaps this week?

MR. MCCORMACK:  No, not this week.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION:  One on Nigeria and one on Ethiopia.  Nigerian Vice President house in Maryland have been searched.  There is ongoing investigation.  Do you have anything on that?  And about the Ethiopian election, if you have --

MR. MCCORMACK:  On the question of Nigeria and any matters of law enforcement, I would refer you to the appropriate law enforcement authorities here in the United States.

On the Ethiopian election, we would say that administrative and procedural irregularities such as ballot shortages, slow lines and problems with voter registration lists were observed in various locations during the course of the election.  There are ongoing mechanisms to look into these irregularities as well as resolve any questions surrounding those irregularities and that process continues to move forward.

And we expect during this process that all political parties work through the future phases of the process, including the formation of a new government, in a peaceful, transparent, and democratic manner.  That's the key.  All parties -- political parties, government -- need to work together in a peaceful way to resolve any questions that they may have regarding the election and let the process that is now in place unfold to resolve any remaining questions.

QUESTION:  The government declared that they won the majority seat, but the European Union report or the election observers indicated that there is voters intimidation, unnecessary delay of vote counting, and assassination of, you know, candidates and opponents.  Do you have anything on that or?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, I know that they've put out a report and I understand that it was a preliminary report.  And it does cite a number of irregularities, some of which I went through as well.  But it is a preliminary report and I think that before there are any final pronouncements about the election or the election process, that we are going to let the ballot reconciliation, the process by which they're looking into these irregularities, unfold before we have any final pronouncements.

Let's move -- yes, Michel.

QUESTION:  Do you have any update on the freezing of assets of the Palestinian Authority by the federal court in Rhode Island?

MR. MCCORMACK:  No, no.  The place to get updated information about the status of any court orders or what effect they may have on attaching, seizing, freezing assets are best put to the parties involved in the lawsuit, which would be the claimants, the Palestinians or the court itself.

QUESTION:  Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Yes, sir.

QUESTION:  Just a daily New York channel check, Sean.  Are there any updates on exchanges or diplomatic contacts there?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I have no updates for you today.

QUESTION:  Thank you.

QUESTION:  Did the Chinese come back from Pyongyang with a date, a specific date?

MR. MCCORMACK:  No date announced yet.

QUESTION:  We have a week, but we don't the date?  Well, I mean, theoretically.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, there has been a proposal for the week of September 12th.  It will be up to the Chinese to work bilaterally with the other members of the six-party talks to come up with a date that's mutually convenient.  We urge that date to be as soon as possible.

We're going to move -- keep moving back and work up to the front.  Yes.

QUESTION:  Sean, there were a couple of questions from yesterday about Zimbabwe and its constitution and I was wondering if you had generated a response.

MR. MCCORMACK:  I would -- we looked into this and I think that some of the changes as well as the process used to implement these changes in the constitution are troubling.  I think that, overall, without going to cataloguing all of these, and say that it's a sad step backwards for personal freedom as well as the rule of law.

QUESTION:  On the Iraqi constitution.  It seems like the U.S. position or the -- U.S. officials are holding out hope that the Sunnis will be able to sign on to this constitution, that they won't walk away from the process and that they'll, you know, maybe more changes will be made that could make that constitution acceptable to the disgruntled Sunnis.  And I'm wondering, is there anything that the United States can do or is doing that can encourage Sunnis to accept the constitution; for instance, to talk to Sunnis about the benefits of federalism for them, about autonomous area for them that they would control rather than being controlled by a Shia-dominated Baghdad and in other scenarios?  So I'm just wondering, are there efforts being -- you know, what are the efforts that are on -- what are the tools that are on the table or the efforts that are being made by the U.S. and their, you know, Iraqi partners to get Sunnis to agree?

MR. MCCORMACK:  We talked a little bit about this yesterday, but the most important efforts being made are among the Iraqis themselves who continue to move the political process forward.  There was a -- some announcements on Sunday, as we all know, about the draft constitution.  Even after the ceremony at President Talabani's residence, they were continuing discussions among the various groups about some remaining items in the constitution.  We've talked about this here.  Ambassador Khalilzad has talked about that.  We are going to remain engaged with all the parties, as appropriate, and as they move forward in the political process.

If there are to be any edits or amendments to the draft constitution that is currently in place, those are going to be made by the Iraqis and any decisions to edit the constitution will be made by the Iraqis themselves.  The TAL is silent on this issue.  So it's going to be a question for the Iraqis to consider, if and how they do that.

And, one final point.  When we often slip into the shorthand talking about Sunnis or Shias or Kurds and we talk about them as if they're sort of a monolithic bloc with a monolithic set of views.  It's just not the case.  There are some Sunnis who have expressed support for the constitution, some less support, and some have come out in opposition to it.  I think that you can find the same holds true for Shia political leaders and Kurdish political leaders.

So that is to say that it is now up to the Iraqis and their political leadership and their emerging political class to look at the constitution, read it, debate it, and decide whether it is the right document, the right framework, for them.  And they'll make that decision on October 15th.

QUESTION:  But is there any -- is there anyone out there making the case to the Sunnis that federalism can benefit them and that they could have their own autonomously controlled area?  Is anybody out there making that case?  Would the U.S. support that kind of case being made?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Ann, these are discussions that the Iraqis have been having and they continue to have these discussions.  And the issue you talk about -- federalism -- it's, I believe, a topic of active debate among Iraqis, including the Sunnis.  Ambassador Khalilzad is on the ground there, along with his team at Embassy Baghdad.  We continue to remain engaged with all different Iraqi groups concerning the important political issues that are before them, including the constitution.  And we will continue to work with them as they want and as appropriate.

QUESTION:  Well, Sean, that's not a direct answer, but are you saying that Ambassador Khalilzad and his team are not making the case?

MR. MCCORMACK:  No.  It's not a matter for the U.S. or the UN or somebody else to make the case.  These are decisions that they have to arrive at.  They have to arrive at political accommodations, political compromises that they think are the right ones for the Iraqi people.  We are there to provide advice, assistance, to facilitate, if needed, contact and dialogue among them.  But these are questions that they are going to have to decide on.

QUESTION:  I understand that these are questions they have to decide on, but is not the Ambassador encouraging them to support the constitution?

MR. MCCORMACK:  What we encourage is for every Iraqi to read the constitution, talk about it, talk about it with their family, talk about it with their friends, debate it, and then decide for themselves whether this is the right document for them.  I think, in our view, it is a constitution that is quite far-reaching in its protections for minorities, for women's rights, for religious freedoms, for the rule of law as well as a number of different issues that are all important to democracies.  But it doesn't matter.  You know, nobody in the United States Government has a vote in this constitution; the Iraqi people have a vote.

QUESTION:  But the United States Government (inaudible) this a far-reaching constitution and therefore it would be a good thing, a step forward, if it were to pass?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Again, this is for the Iraqi people to decide.  We can certainly -- other countries can look at the document and look at the process of negotiation, comment on the constitution and its provisions as they comport or not to international standards with regard to human rights and individual freedoms and minority rights.  So certainly, you know, international organizations, the United States, countries around the world can offer opinions about that.  But at the end of the day, the only opinion that matters is the opinion of each individual Iraqi as they put the ballot in the box to say yes or no on the constitution.

QUESTION:  But in your view, would it be setback for Iraq if this constitution were to be rejected?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Again, let's take one step at a time here.  The Iraqis have to debate among themselves what they think about this constitution.  We certainly encourage an active debate on that matter.  There are different paths ahead if the Iraqis decide this is not the right constitution.  It's laid out in the TAL according to the law.

QUESTION:  Sean, I'm sorry to keep asking this question.  It has far-reaching consequences for U.S. security in Iraq.  If federalism happens in Iraq, does that mean that there's going to be a national Iraqi army or no national Iraqi army?  I mean, will we -- will it not impact the U.S. ability to train an Iraqi national army that can take over from the United States so that the United States can leave?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, again, I'm not sure you're drawing the connection between federalism and the chain of command in an army and I'm not sure I would draw that same connection.  But what we have said in the past, and this applies to any democracy, is it has to be one gun and one rule.  The state needs to have a monopoly on the use of force.  You can't have armed militias operating outside the rule of a law in a democracy.  So what that chain of command looks like and how they organize themselves, those are decisions for the Iraqis to make and they'll -- I'm quite confident that they will make those decisions.

Yes.  Coming back here.

MR. MCCORMACK:  The Muslim scholar, Tariq Ramadan, has been appointed to a British Government task force, which is looking at how to tackle Islamic extremism.  And last year he was, I think, given a visa and then the visa was revoked to come to the United States to teach at a university here.  I just wondered, seeing as he's seemingly being trusted by the British Government to be involved in this task force, would he now be welcome in the United States?  What would the situation be with his visa now, sort of what your reaction would be?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Let me check on the facts surrounding this visa issue.

QUESTION:  On Egypt.  Is the Administration going to have anything further to say on President Mubarak's apparent lack of compliance with the standards that the Secretary set out for Egyptian elections in the speech that she made in Cairo?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, I think the election process continues.  I think that it is a positive step forward that there are multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt.  It's certainly positive that these candidates have in some way or another access to the media and are able to get their agenda out.  That's -- we'll see how, when looking back on the lead-up to the election as well as the actual election day and the process of counting ballots, what the whole process looks like.

Certainly, it is not enough just to hold an election.  How that election unfolds is very important.  We've called for international election observers in Egypt.  So thus far, I don't think that there's been an invitation extended to observers, but this is something that we would encourage and continue to urge.  It's something that the United States has done itself in its last presidential election.  It happens in countries around the world.  It's not a judgment about a country or its electoral process.  It's just one additional element of transparency that gives the world an insight to how the election process unfolded in a given country.

QUESTION:  But is the United States going to be able to be confident that these were free and fair elections once it's all over and these standards haven't been met?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, you're presuming a particular outcome.  Let's see what happens.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION:  On the Secretary working from home, any information on conversations Secretary Rice has had about the hurricane with members of the international community?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I have nothing for you on that.

Nicholas.

QUESTION:  Something more specific on the hurricane again.  There actually has been an offer (inaudible) Venezuela.  I wondered why the -- you would be willing to accept the offer and actually it does it even have to go through the federal government and, you know, can the states themselves just accept offers from foreign countries, if you know that?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Don't have anything for you on that.

QUESTION:  So what is that -- so you don't have anything on, what, on Venezuela or on the states being able to accept?

MR. MCCORMACK:  On the fact of an offer.  I haven't seen anything.

QUESTION:  You haven't heard about any specific offer?

MR. MCCORMACK:  I haven't seen those news reports yet.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION:  Sean, my question:  What is your view or the Department view about Prime Minister Singh of India willing and going to talk with rebels up in Kashmir?

And secondly, President Musharraf in Pakistan is now putting an edict out that says any persons taking part in madras-type schools there are then barred from entering into politics.  Is that a good -- are these two situations good from the State Department's view?

MR. MCCORMACK:  Well, President Musharraf has been working to reform the education system in Pakistan, which includes the curriculum at madrasas, and that's an ongoing effort.

As for the issue of Kashmir, this is an issue of ongoing discussion in the international community.  I know that India and Pakistan have talked about it.  Certainly, we encourage those discussions and they're continuing to take steps that build up trust and confidence to address the differences they have on this issue.

QUESTION:  Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK:  Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:11 p.m.)

(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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