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November 17, 1998

PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART

11:40 P.M. EST

                                THE WHITE HOUSE
                         Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                 November 17, 1998
                                 PRESS BRIEFING
                                       BY
                                  JOE LOCKHART
                               The Briefing Room
11:40 P.M. EST
	Q	Who else, Joe?  Who else is on the trip?
	MR. LOCKHART:  Who's going?  The National Security Advisor, Sandy 
Berger, Gene, Larry, we'll get a manifest for you.
	Q	Albright is not going?
	MR. LOCKHART:  We'll get a -- she is not, not that I am aware of.
	Q	Just take us through, if you would, whether there was any 
thinking at all, any concern at all about Iraq when you were weighing whether 
the President should go on this trip or not.
	MR. LOCKHART:  Well, obviously, as you can tell by looking back, we take 
a lot of things into consideration, including the situation around the world, 
into account when we look at the President's travel.  But we've made the 
judgment here that the situation is such that it's appropriate for the President 
to make this trip.
	Q	What do you hear from Iraq today?  Are the inspectors going back 
to work?
	MR. LOCKHART:  Yes, my understanding is that they've gone back in today 
and they'll spend some time -- 
	Q	We know what the news report is.  What does the Administration 
know?  Does Butler report back to the United Nations or to you or to --
	MR. LOCKHART:  Mr. Butler reports back as appropriate to the United 
Nations.  Our representatives there keep Sandy Berger here fully briefed on the 
situation.
	My understanding, from talking to some of my colleagues, is that they 
are back in today but it will take a short time for them to do the logistical 
work they need to do before the get back out and are back into the inspection 
business.  But I think that that's something that's a matter of days.
	Q	Is that why you're confident that it's appropriate for the 
President to make this trip at this time, because it's going to take as much 
time as the trip will take for UNSCOM to really put Iraq to the test?
	     MR. LOCKHART:  I think it's impossible to try to predict 
in advance if Saddam Hussein decides he's not going to cooperate how 
that will manifest itself.  But I think given what we know about how 
UNSCOM works, that is not a situation I think that we'll see within 
the next couple of days.
............
             END                          11:54 P.M. EST