06 December 2002
White House Report, Dec. 6: North Korea, Iraq, Islam
(Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed) (1060) BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS NORTH KOREA IN PHONE CALL President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke chiefly about North Korea in a 14-minute phone conversation December 6, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters. "President Putin has just returned from a trip he had taken to China, India and Kyrgyzstan. The two of them discussed the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the importance of North Korea making certain that they comply with the international community in a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. And the two discussed the importance of continuing our joint efforts to make that the case," Fleischer said. "The heart of their discussion" was North Korea, but the two did "very briefly" talk about India-Pakistan because Putin had just been in India, the press secretary said. Bush and Putin did not discuss Iraq in the phone conversation, he said. SADDAM HUSSEIN OBLIGATED TO DISARM, WHITE HOUSE SAYS As demanded by the United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq, "the obligation is on Saddam Hussein to disarm," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer repeated December 6. "I think there's been no secret and everybody has recognized this -- including Democrats, Republicans, previous administrations, arms experts, United Nations officials -- that Saddam Hussein has claimed that he didn't have weapons of mass destruction when it was obviously the conclusion of all that he did," Fleischer said. "Those conclusions are based on a variety of information that is available to administrations, and there is always the issue about protecting the sources and methods of how we receive that information," the press secretary said. "But I don't know anybody who takes what the administration and administrations and people in both parties have said, and the United Nations experts have said that Iraq does, indeed, have weapons of mass destruction, and thinks it's inaccurate or discounts it. And the president has made it perfectly plain, and I refer you to his Cincinnati speech where he walked people through why we believe and have concluded that they have weapons of mass destruction," the press secretary added. Discussing the report -- expected to be voluminous and largely in Arabic -- that Iraq has said it will present December 7 to the United Nations on its weapons of mass destruction as required by Security Council Resolution 1441, Fleischer said: "Well, I don't think the language is going to be a particular impediment. It has to be translated; there are translators who do these types of things.... One of the best ways to hide or to deceive is to come out with such a voluminous document that it makes people miss the things that aren't in there. You know, another way I put that is, just because Iraq turns over a phone book to the United Nations doesn't mean that nobody inside Iraq has an unlisted phone number," Fleischer said. "And so there would be a variety of things that we want to find out about and whether or not Iraq has left information out of here. So we won't be fooled by the size of this document into thinking that the size alone dictates that Iraq has complied. We want to make certain that Iraq is listing everything they have an obligation to list, full, accurate and complete, so the world knows that Saddam Hussein is serious about disarmament." Asked about the goal of enlisting inspectors' help in getting weapons scientists out of Iraq, Fleischer said: "History, in dealing with Iraq, has shown that one of the most valuable ways to get information about what is really going on with Iraq's weapons programs is to talk to the scientists and the weapons people inside Iraq who really know the facts about what's going on. "The inspectors, for all their abilities, don't have the ability to know and see everything. But there are many people inside Iraq who do know a lot more. And history has shown that some of those people who want to preserve peace, want to provide that information to the Western world. And because of the brutal regime that Saddam Hussein has, many of these experts who have information they want to share, fear doing so because they know that, if they do, they risk imprisonment, torture, murder, their families will be at risk and they're vulnerable to the brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime. "So in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, it makes explicit mention of the obligation on Iraq for the inspectors to have the right at a time and place of their choosing, including outside of Iraq, to interview any of these people inside Iraq. That often is one of the best ways that we can obtain information about whether Iraq is telling the truth. And so this is a very important part of the U.N. resolution." "The exact way in which it could be done," the press secretary said, "will be really a matter for the United Nations and the inspectors on the ground to work through. But, of course, much of the world stands ready to help because we saw in the '90s that is the way that much of the world got information about what was really going on inside Iraq." "We have a real and genuine concern to help protect the safety and the welfare of those inside Iraq who have information that can help preserve the peace," he said. "Because the information they have is very important information. And history has shown that there people inside Iraq who want to share it, but are fearful of doing so because of the brutal tactics of the Iraqi regime. "And under the Security Council resolution, Iraq is obligated not only to allow the inspectors to interview those scientists or weapons developers and designers, but also their families, and to remove them from Iraq. Those are the conditions Iraq has accepted." BUSH SINCERE IN C0MMENTS ON ISLAM, SPOKESMAN SAYS President Bush "means it when he says from the heart that the Islamic religion is a religion of peace," White House Press Secretary Fleischer said in response to a reporter's question. "And just because certain individuals have twisted and distorted that religion for their own barbaric purposes, should not and will not in this president's mind indict a good religion. And that's how you have to look at this, as these individual terrorists are individual terrorists; they are not a reflection on a faith," said Fleischer. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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