Military

12:30 p.m. EDT

MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. I don't have anything to open up with so we can go right to your questions. Matt.

QUESTION: Have you been able to find out anything more about the questions that were being asked this morning about the Embassy -- Baghdad Embassy?

MR. MCCORMACK: Only a little bit more. I can't speak to exactly what repairs need to be made. But as I understand it, the office that supervises the construction efforts of these kinds of facilities overseas for the State Department went back to the contractor that built the camp and went through with them a list of items that needed to be repaired. Now they tell me that this happens with virtually every building that they construct overseas and the more complex the project the more these so-called punch list items that they're going to have. But the bottom line is that they have this punch list, the contractor's now in the course of fixing these items and the agreement is that they will be fixed by August 1st.

So I can't tell you what percentage are done yet or how complex these things are, but I think that sums everything up and that is that we expect these things to be done by August 1st.

QUESTION: Okay. And is the -- are these fixes going to have any impact on the construction of the rest of the --

MR. MCCORMACK: Not that I'm aware of. The Embassy --

QUESTION: On the Embassy, yes.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, the Embassy is supposed to open up in September. I don't have a specific date for you, but September.

QUESTION: Okay. And this -- you're not aware that this -- that these fixes will take away from or will --

MR. MCCORMACK: Not to my knowledge.

QUESTION: -- hinder that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Not to my knowledge.

QUESTION: According to two of the documents that the Post runs copies of --

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: -- today, one of them is a June 8th State Department response where it says post refusal to move into and operate the camp is not a function of the camp being constructed of poor quality but rather a desire by post for whatever reason not to operate the camp. None of the issues raised in the cable has merit and warrant post not moving into the camp. If none of the issues have merit then why do you have to go back and fix all this stuff?

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't speak to the internal deliberations. You know, I have no idea what two people were saying to each other via our cable system. What I can tell you -- there were problems, there were issues. Those have been listed and they're being fixed and the fix should be completed by August 1st.

QUESTION: And when did they -- when was that agreement on the so-called punch list, which anybody who's ever tried to do anything at their house, you know, knows well? When was that made? Was that -- did that agreement get reached today or --

MR. MCCORMACK: No. It was prior to the publication of this report and even, I think, prior to the reporter receiving said cables.

QUESTION: Okay. Can we talk about the passport issue?

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure.

QUESTION: Were you able to clarify the --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, a bit. Let me get my notes -- my notes here. Essentially we are up around 200 as the number of people who are going to be helping us out, who are either Presidential Management Fellows or Career Entry people, so that number is about 200.

QUESTION: Plus.

MR. MCCORMACK: Plus and -- we may in the future look for others to help out with this, so that number could go up. Look, there's a backlog of passports. The top management of this Department said that's a problem, we need to fix it, and we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that the American people are able to get passports in the timeframe that we have said they should be able to get a passport in. Right now that's not the case and so the Secretary and Deputy Secretary are going to do everything they can, devote all the resources that they need to devote to the problem to fix it. And this is an example of their -- the U.S. Government working on behalf of the American people.

Now, should we have gotten into the backlog situation? No, it shouldn't have happened. But the issue now is: How do you fix it? And this is -- the fix is to apply the manpower and the brainpower that we have in this Department to make sure that we get people their passports.

QUESTION: Just a follow-up, if I may? One is it's my understanding that there was a decision made earlier this week to seek to get an additional 150 Foreign Service officers to pitch in on this. That's beyond the cable that was sent, you know, by Under Secretary Fore. Is that where the additional number comes from or the additional people that you might try to get are going to be more PMFs or CE Program people or people like --

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't know that they have specifically identified the people. I think they have in mind some groups and some people who might be doing this. And I would add, too, that we also have a number of people who stepped up in response to a volunteer request prior to this. Yeah, for example, in my bureau, the Bureau of Public Affairs, we have -- 7 percent of my bureau is involved in some way in volunteering to help fix this problem.

QUESTION: Voluntarily -- 7 percent?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, voluntarily. Yeah, seven percent. And we're going to have more people step up to the plate and -- you know, that's just one small bureau in this department, but it's indicative of the fact that when people are presented a challenge in this department, they're going to step up to meet it.

QUESTION: One last question, what is the backlog? When I -- when we wrote about this back in June when you decided to relax the rules regarding carrying of passport to those particular countries --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- we were told -- and I think it was put on a TQ, but I'm not sure. We were told that it was about 500,000 passport applications that had not been processed with the 10-week guideline.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: I didn't ask you this this morning. I'm sorry, it didn't occur to me, but if you --

MR. MCCORMACK: Don't have that current number.

QUESTION: -- don't have that, can you get it by the end of the day?

MR. MCCORMACK: We -- well, I'll try to get a fix on what the current backlog is --

QUESTION: Fine.

MR. MCCORMACK: -- and what the current waiting time is.

QUESTION: And the same comparison, if possible, you know, that that was to have -- I think it may have been Secretary -- the Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs who told us that --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right, Maura Harty.

QUESTION: -- but, Maura -- yeah.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. Okay, here's what I'll try to do. I'll try to get you the backlog, how long it takes currently to get a passport and when we expect to be able to meet our self-imposed guidelines of the --

QUESTION: I think 10 weeks.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Yeah. Okay. Thanks.

QUESTION: Sean, do you have a sense of how many people the State Department's going to need to add in total over the next couple of months to meet this?

MR. MCCORMACK: This isn't bringing in people from the outside.

QUESTION: Right. But how many people are you going to need to --

MR. MCCORMACK: How many people are being applied to this?

QUESTION: Right, the total number.

MR. MCCORMACK: We'll try to get you -- try to get you that number. I mean, part of it --

QUESTION: Between the volunteers and then the people that are being sent --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, part of it may be hard because you have volunteers that are, you know, for example when they finish their work, here in the Department, they're going to go over to some place else and work at night to do this, so it may be an issue of, you know, man-hours. I'll see if we can generate that figure for you. It may take a little bit of time.

Yeah.

QUESTION: And was this -- the figure that you gave before the 200, does that include the A-100 class?

MR. MCCORMACK: This includes only Presidential Management Fellows and the Career Entry Program people.

QUESTION: Okay well.

QUESTION: Has a decision been made to mobilize the A-100 class?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you know, that's an issue I think that management's going to be addressing at some point in the not-too-distant future.

QUESTION: Well, I guess the point is because we're trying to figure out what -- there were several different numbers given and the person who -- the point person in charge of this said to several people I know that we're talking about 350 people.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, regardless of the question of the A-100 class, that would not get you up to 350.

QUESTION: Well, it gets you close.

MR. MCCORMACK: No, it wouldn't. No.

QUESTION: No?

MR. MCCORMACK: No.

QUESTION: Why?

MR. MCCORMACK: Because you have 200 now and then there would be, you know, the A-100 class would be about 60 -- 60 people. So I'm not sure -- the number -- but these are the numbers that I was given.

QUESTION: So the 291 number from?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't know where that -- again, I'm not sure. This is why I love so much getting into numbers. We'll try to -- you know, by the end of the day, we'll try to get you a baseline from which everybody can --

QUESTION: (inaudible)

MR. MCCORMACK: Reset.

QUESTION: I have 191 plus 100, so -- which was 291, unless I'm unable to add.

MR. MCCORMACK: We'll try to reboot on this.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK: Get you a baseline number.

QUESTION: Can you voluntarily tell us when a decision is made on the A-100?

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: And in a timely manner, please.

MR. MCCORMACK: As timely as the decision is made, you will have a timely answer.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: A change of subject?

MR. MCCORMACK: Anything else on this? Okay, go ahead.

QUESTION: Do you have any reaction on the speech of al-Zawahiri on -- calling for the removal of the Saudi regime?

MR. MCCORMACK: Zawahiri?

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I don't know. I suppose my reaction isn't going to surprise you that much. I mean, he is a representative of an organization that seeks to not only undermine our way of life but attack friends and allies in the region. And what it does is point out to me the fact that there is a common struggle here between -- on one side those who want to use violent extremism to -- for whatever twisted political ends they may have and those who are interested in a better, more prosperous and more free Middle East. Now, you'll have a variety of views on that side of the line, but still there's a very clear dividing line in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia stands on one side of it and violent extremists like Ayman al-Zawahiri and al-Qaeda stand on the other side of that line.

QUESTION: But it's the first time apparently al-Qaeda calls for violent actions against the Saudi regime.

MR. MCCORMACK: From the Saudis?

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not sure. Check me on this, but I think that there have been a number of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and the -- one of the stated goals as I understood it of al-Qaeda was actually to undermine --

QUESTION: But it was not opening to -- for the change of regime. Do you think it's a threat? It's really (inaudible)?

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't -- I guess the short answer is I can't tell you whether or not qualitatively the Saudi Government feels as though this is different than previous threats. But I think that they have well understood for several years now the threat posed to the Saudi people by al-Qaeda and have taken a lot of steps independently as well as working with others to address that threat. So I don't know. Unless there's something -- something that I'm missing here, I don't think it qualitatively changes al-Qaeda's long-held view of wanting to undermine the existing Saudi Government.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Still on this. I mean, we've seen quite a few tapes from him but we haven't seen anything of bin Laden lately, what do you make of that?

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't tell you. I can tell you probably that it's very difficult for bin Laden to try to communicate with the outside world. And the reason for that is he knows very well that there are a lot of people hunting for him. Beyond that I can't really make any deductions.

QUESTION: But what the propaganda aspects of this? I mean, the tape's quite sophisticated. It shows images of, you know, about American shows and about the Bob Woodward book, things like this. Is this a step up in the propaganda war do you think -- they're getting more sophisticated?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think that we have seen over time that they have become more sophisticated in their propaganda. I think we've seen that with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the various videos and internet images that they have produced which are, you know, really awful and twisted and it underscores the kind of long struggle that we're in. It underscores the fact that this is not only a struggle that necessarily has to involve the use of force but it's also an ideological struggle. And inasmuch as they are attempting to appeal to some population around the world, it is our job to point out exactly what kind of twisted and nihilistic violent ideology and what sort of world these people want to create. And make sure that people understand that and make sure that people understand there's a choice to be made here and that that choice has to be made every single day because they're not going to give up and we certainly aren't going to give up. And it underscores the importance of what people like Karen Hughes are doing around the world.

So it's not going to be a problem that's solved overnight, certainly. We -- you can see that and it shows exactly how determined these people are. We have to be equally determined.

Yeah, Kirit.

QUESTION: Do you have -- on Venezuelan -- these two DS agents who were, I guess, detained for a couple of hours when they were just going to the soccer team down there?

MR. MCCORMACK: I heard about this. And I guess it's, in a way, not completely surprising coming from the Chavez government. They have sought various ways to harass U.S. Government officials and our Ambassador down there was subject to -- has been subject to periodic harassment over time, so it's just another step in that direction. You know, again, I can only say that we remain committed to engaging the Venezuelan people and the fact that, you know, we have a soccer team down there is indication of that. So we're going to continue reaching out to the Venezuelan people and doing it the best way that we can.

QUESTION: Do you have any more details about how the event played out and whether you've -- well, filed any sort of protest with the Venezuelan Government?

MR. MCCORMACK: I think they're aware of the fact that we think that this is not the kind of behavior one would expect from a country with which you have diplomatic relations. We've made that clear. But on the other hand, we've seen similar kinds of harassment, although I don't -- I'm not sure that we've seen exactly this kind of harassment in the past.

QUESTION: Simply stated, what happened to these two agents and how did you make clear --

MR. MCCORMACK: Essentially -- I don't want to oversimplify this story, but essentially, these agents were down in Venezuela as part of an effort to help provide some security for the soccer team.

QUESTION: DS agents?

MR. MCCORMACK: I believe so, DS agents -- DS agents. And those agents and our Ambassador were waylaid for a period of time. And then the Venezuelan Government, I think, issued some decree that made it more difficult for our security people to operate in the country, but nonetheless, they're going to continue to operate in the country.

QUESTION: Waylaid, meaning they were detained or they were --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. They were held up.

QUESTION: You said the Ambassador was (inaudible).

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, the Ambassador was.

QUESTION: For how long?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, the Ambassador was?

MR. CASEY: No, just the agent --

MR. MCCORMACK: Just the DS agent, sorry.

MR. CASEY: -- in Maracaibo for approximately two hours.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. CASEY: We're not talking about a particularly extensive period of time, which was on arrival in the country.

QUESTION: And then what'd they do to make their lives more --

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't want to get into that just because that gets into what our guys do to help protect American citizens down there.

QUESTION: And when you say you've made clear that this was not something you would expect of a country with whom you have diplomatic relations, did the Ambassador issue a protest? Did you talk to their ambassador here or --

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't tell you whether or not Bill Brownfield went in, but our embassy went in and let them know.

QUESTION: Just a follow-on, you said that their lives and jobs are made more difficult. Were they able to recover that as they were down there to protect the soccer team?

MR. MCCORMACK: They're still down there helping out with the protection of the soccer team.

QUESTION: But they were able to do everything they expected to do or --

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not going to get into that.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Can I ask you about Pakistan? This ongoing siege at the Red Mosque, how seriously are you taking this? Is it -- are you regarding it to their mass or purely for the local authorities to deal with or is there a wider problem here?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, I think this is something for the Pakistani local authorities to deal with.

QUESTION: Can I continue?

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure.

QUESTION: I mean, Islamabad is supposed to -- you know, basically this unrest is happening right under Musharraf's nose in Islamabad and very close to the government. Aren't you concerned that this kind -- I mean, this is a very serious situation. There's 800 people holed up in this mosque, you know, heavily armed --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, look, the --

QUESTION: I mean, to be used as human shields, the --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. Well, first of all, you know, people using human shields, I mean, it's not civilized behavior, certainly. The threat from extremism in Pakistan is one that's been around for some time. And actually, General Musharraf has taken a lot of steps to try to address it and to try to open up the Pakistani political system, try to implement economic reforms. There's still a lot more to do in that regard. But we support him in those efforts. He is as much under threat from violent extremism as we or any of Pakistan's neighbors might be.

QUESTION: But this kind of unrest has been escalating over the past several months. I mean, surely you must be concerned about the prospects of Musharraf not being able to hold on to power. Are you making preparations for that scenario?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not sure that that would be our assessment.

QUESTION: Sean.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: You said General Musharraf. It's been your practice for some time now to call him President Musharraf. Is --

MR. MCCORMACK: President Musharraf.

Sylvie.

QUESTION: Can you confirm that there is a meeting of the Quartet at the Welch level on Tuesday in London?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm sorry.

QUESTION: No?

MR. MCCORMACK: I forgot to check.

QUESTION: You forgot to check.

MR. MCCORMACK: I'll check.

QUESTION: Okay. And I have another question about Kosovo.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: At the beginning of the week in Kennebunkeport, the Secretary and Minister Lavrov spoke about Kosovo, according to Stephen Hadley.

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: I wanted to know if they made progress -- to rather an agreement or --

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not sure how much progress they made. It's a tough issue and it's being played out in capitals in Europe and up in New York. At this point, I don't -- I can't tell you that there's any progress in bridging the differences between Russia and other -- some other members of the Security Council and certainly some of the European states. But it's an important issue certainly for the Europeans. And inasmuch as it is important to them it's important to us as well. So we're going keep working on it.

QUESTION: And what about the resolution text that you are pushing? Is it still in the cards in the UN?

MR. MCCORMACK: They're still working away at it at the UN.

Yeah, Charles.

QUESTION: No deadline?

MR. MCCORMACK: No.

QUESTION: In the wake of the events last week in London in Glasgow is the U.S. or is the Administration doing anything differently, looking at visas of foreign professionals wanting to come here?

MR. MCCORMACK: We -- not that I'm aware. I can tell you upfront we have -- rely on our consular officers based on the information that is provided them to make a lot of tough judgments. I can't tell you if there -- Charlie, any lessons learned out of those with respect to professionals who might be applying for visas. If there are I'm sure the intelligence people will look at that to see if there are any patterns, identifiable patterns. And they're usually very good about providing that to our people on the front lines dealing with the consular issues. I can't -- that's just as a matter of general practice. I can't tell you, standing here right now, that they have been able to draw any lessons learned that they might be able to pass onto our folks.

Look, our people are already very vigilant and there are now in the wake of September 11th improved safeguards in terms of accessed information and databases that they can use in their decision making.

Yeah, Joel.

QUESTION: Sean, on July the 2nd you came out with an adjustment status for I-485 -- this is the visa situation that Charlie basically has just spoken about and it concerns a lot of the employers here in the United States as well as a lot of the high-tech professionals that are working here.

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: And you've adjusted it from July to October; in other words, the new fiscal year. It's causing grave concerns. Do you have any comments concerning that?

MR. MCCORMACK: That's one I'll have to look into for you, Joel.

QUESTION: All right.

MR. MCCORMACK: Mr. Shanker.

QUESTION: Missile defense if I could. Sergei Ivanov was quoted over night saying that if the United States did not rebase from Poland -- the Czech Republic accept the Russian plan.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Russia was going -- moving its missiles forward to Kaliningrad, certainly a very provocative action. Any specific government response to that? I'm curious as well when President Putin met with Secretary Rice and President Bush at Kennebunkport, did he deliver any kind of threat like that along with the new offer?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you can check with the White House. I'm not sure that he did. Actually, I asked Dan Fried about this and he told that the response that one of my Polish counterparts had to it about Kaliningrad, which I think is instructive. And he talked about the fact that, you know, ten years ago during a debate about an arms control treaty the Russians made a similar threat and they never followed through on it. Now, of course, when you have the Russian -- a senior Russian official talking in those terms, let's -- I guess you could say not constructive. But my read from the Kennebunkport meetings was that there was actually a good discussion on the issue of missile defense and I think towards -- at the end of those meetings you had President Putin talking about -- talking in terms of a discussion on a regional architecture for dealing with missile defense and also acknowledging the fact that there is a threat. So that's positive. And while we have not bridged what our obvious differences on the issue of missile defense, I think that there's a very constructive conversation that's going on now and that's going to take place at a couple different -- several different levels. The experts are going to get together and then Secretaries Rice and Gates are also going to engage their counterparts over the next few months on the issue.

I think once -- there's a lot to -- a lot of grist for the mill in terms of technical details and technical assessments that need to be done in terms of what Russian capabilities are and assessing some of the Russians' suggestions. And then once you have that assessment then maybe you can have a higher level political dialogue on the issue. So that's how I see it unfolding over the coming months I think that -- you know, and Mr. Ivanov's comments were unfortunate. But I don't think it distracts us from the fact that we are having a constructive conversation with the Russians on the issue now.

QUESTION: Is there a start date yet for the technical experts' review and is the 2+2 still set for September as far as you know?

MR. MCCORMACK: We're still looking at the fall time. I think September, October timeframe for the 2+2. I don't think we've set an exact date yet, but it's -- you know, plus or minus a couple of weeks -- September, October.

The technical assessment -- I'll have to check for you, Tom.

QUESTION: Thanks.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: Can I ask follow up?

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: When you cited the anecdote about Dan Fried recalling that ten years ago a similar threat had been made and --

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, the Polish counterpart did.

QUESTION: Right. Did -- you know, by making that allusion are you trying to suggest that -- you know, maybe Mr. Ivanov doesn't really mean what he says and maybe and they --

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't know. You're going to have to ask him.

QUESTION: No, but you raised it and you made an allusion and it suggests that you're questioning whether he's actually going to do it. Is that -- was that your intent?

MR. MCCORMACK: No. I -- you know, I don't know what their intentions are. It was merely to point out that this is not something new -- a new gambit, if you will. And it's, you know, reminds me of -- to borrow a line from the Cold War, from our own domestic politics, "there they go again."

Look, you know, you're going to have some of this rhetoric in public, but what's important is that we try to come up with a constructive dialogue and try to come up with some constructive solutions to addressing what is a very real threat.

Lambros.

QUESTION: Mr. McCormack, on Turkey. (Inaudible) days prior to the election in Turkey and the military yesterday insisted again for an invasion of Northern Iraq, by the Prime Minister Recep Erdogan (inaudible) insisted on diplomacy. And the Turkish opposition leader Deniz Baykal stated he would support in favor of an invasion supporting the General. Any comment, Mr. McCormack, since the situation affects the security and the unity of Iraq for which the U.S. Government is very concerned?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. It's -- you can look back at the transcripts when I've answered this question from you, as well as others, many times over the past couple of weeks. It hasn't changed.

QUESTION: I'm wondering was there any communication between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Special Envoy Robert Joseph's comment about the atomic bomb dropped to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, does the State Department share his view that the atomic bombs have brought to the -- brought to close the war that would have cost millions more lives?

MR. MCCORMACK: This is -- it's an issue that many people over the years have addressed. I'm certainly not -- I don't have anything to add to that dialogue that's taken place over the past 60 years since the event. The question came up in the context of what the United States is doing with regard to nonproliferation. And I don't think you're going to find another country that has been a more aggressive advocate for strict controls over those technologies, personnel, as well as know-how that could help states illicitly develop weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. And the fact that you have the United States and Russia drawing down to very, very low levels -- levels that have not in terms of nuclear weapons, that haven't been seen since the Eisenhower Administration. It's an indication of how seriously we take this. And we're going to continue to be strong advocates for the Nonproliferation Treaty and we believe that the steps that we are taking are actually steps towards fulfilling our obligations under the Nonproliferation Treaty.

QUESTION: at this point, do you either support or decline (inaudible?)

MR. MCCORMACK: I think -- again, I think that this is a topic that has been much discussed over the years. I don't really have anything to add to that discussion.

Yes.

QUESTION: About the human rights lawyer in China, Gao Zhisheng. According to some media report, he was taken into police custody again and -- because there are soldiers was trying to prevent him to come to the United States to get the award from a legal professional organization. Have you seen the report and do you have anything on this?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I'm just looking at the information they provided me on this. We are concerned by this report, but -- and we're working to confirm it at the moment, but we don't have confirmation of it at this point. And certainly if it were true, it would be a source of real concern for us and something about which in any case we're going to be engaged with the Chinese Government on.

QUESTION: Engage the Chinese --

MR. MCCORMACK: Thanks.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:05 p.m.)

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