[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[September 26, 2006]
[Pages 1700-1708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
The President's News Conference With President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
September 26, 2006
President Bush. Thank you. Please be seated. It's my honor to
welcome President Karzai back to the White House. Mr. President,
Laura and I fondly remember your gracious
hospitality when we met you in your capital. We had a chance today to
reconfirm our strong commitment to work together for peace and freedom.
And I'm proud of your leadership.
You've got a tough job----
President Karzai. Yes, sometimes it is.
President Bush. ----and you're showing a lot of strength and
character. And we're proud to call you ally and friend. I really am.
We discussed how the Government is building institutions necessary
for Afghans to have a secure future. We talked about how America and our
international partners can continue to help.
Our allies are working on initiatives to help the Afghan people in
building a free
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Afghanistan. And we discussed those initiatives. We discussed whether or
not they could be effective, and we discussed how to make them
effective. We discussed our cooperation in defeating those who kill
innocent life to achieve objectives, political objectives.
The Afghan people know firsthand the nature of the enemy that we
face in the war on terror. After all, just yesterday, Taliban gunmen
assassinated Safia Ama Jan--coldblooded kill--
she got killed in cold blood. She was a leader who wanted to give young
girls an education in Afghanistan. She was a person who served her
Government. She was a person who cared deeply about the future of the
country. And, Mr. President, Laura and I and the
American people join you in mourning her loss.
And her loss shows the nature of this enemy we face. They have no
conscience. Their objective is to create fear and create enough violence
so we withdraw and let them have their way. And that's unacceptable.
It's unacceptable behavior for the free world and the civilized world to
accept, Mr. President.
I know that Taliban and Al Qaida remnants and others are trying to
bring down your Government, because they know that as democratic
institutions take root in your country, the terrorists will not be able
to control your country or be able to use it to launch attacks on other
nations. They see the threat of democratic progress.
In recent months, the Taliban and other extremists have tried to
regain control, mostly in the south of Afghanistan. And so we've
adjusted tactics, and we're on the offense to meet the threat and to
defeat the threat. Forces from dozens of nations, including every member
of NATO, are supporting the democratic Government of Afghanistan. The
American people are providing money to help send our troops to your
country, Mr. President, and so are a lot of other nations around the
world. This is a multinational effort to help you succeed.
Your people have rejected extremism. Afghan forces are fighting
bravely for the future of Afghanistan, and many of your forces have
given their lives, and we send our deepest condolences to their families
and their friends and their neighbors.
The fighting in Afghanistan is part of a global struggle. Recently
British forces killed a long-time terrorist affiliated with Al Qaida
named Omar Farouq. Farouq was active in
Bosnia and Southeast Asia. He was captured in Indonesia; he escaped from
prison in Afghanistan; he was killed hiding in Iraq. Every victory in
the war on terror enhances the security of free peoples everywhere.
Mr. President, as I told you in the Oval Office, our country will
stand with the free people of Afghanistan. I know there's some in your
country who wonder or not--whether or not America has got the will to do
the hard work necessary to help you succeed. We have got that will, and
we're proud of you as a partner.
President Karzai. Wonderful. Great.
President Bush. We discussed our efforts to help the Government
deliver a better life. President Karzai said this about his
aspirations--he said he ``wants to make Afghanistan a great success and
an enduring example of a prosperous and democratic society.''
We're helping you build effective and accountable Government
agencies. We discussed different agencies in your Government and how
best to make them accountable to the people. We're going to help you
build roads. We understand that it's important for people to have access
to markets. I thought our general had a
pretty interesting statement; he said, ``Where the road ends, the
Taliban tries to begin.'' The President understands that.
We're helping you with a national literacy program.
President Karzai. Yes.
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President Bush. We understand that a free society is one that counts
upon a educated citizenry. The more educated a populace is, the more
likely it is they'll be active participants in democratic forms of
government. We're helping you build schools and medical centers.
We talked about the illegal drug trade. The President gave me a very
direct assessment of successes in eradicating poppies and failures in
eradicating poppies. It was a realistic assessment of the conditions on
the ground. And he talked about his strategy, particularly in dealing in
Helmand Province. And, Mr. President, we will support you on this
strategy. We understand what you understand, and that is, we've got to
eradicate drug trade for the good of the people of Afghanistan.
Tomorrow President Karzai and President Musharraf and I will have dinner. I'm looking forward to it.
It's going to be an interesting discussion amongst three allies, three
people who are concerned about the future of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It will be a chance for us to work on how to secure the border, how we
can continue to work together and share information so we can defeat
extremists, how we can work together to build a future of peace and
democracy in your region, Mr. President.
I thank you for coming today. I'm looking forward to our discussion
tomorrow evening. Welcome back to the White House. The podium is yours.
President Karzai. Thank you very much, Mr. President. It's a great
honor to be in your very beautiful country once again, especially during
fall with all the lovely leaves around. And thank you very much for the
great hospitality that you and the First Lady are always giving to your
guests, especially to me. And thanks also for your visit to Afghanistan
and for seeing us in our country, for seeing from close as to who we are
and how we may get to a better future.
I'm very grateful, Mr. President, to you and the American people for
all that you have done for Afghanistan for the last 4\1/2\ years, from
roads to education to democracy to parliament to good governance effort
to health and to all other good things that are happening in
Afghanistan.
Mr. President, I was, the day before yesterday, in the Walter Reed
Hospital. There I met wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there also I
met a woman soldier with six boys, from 7 to 21, that she had left
behind in America in order to build us a road in a mountainous part of
the country in Afghanistan. There's nothing more that any nation can do
for another country, to send a woman with children to Afghanistan to
help. We are very grateful. I'm glad I came to know that story, and I'll
be repeating it to the Afghan people once I go back to Afghanistan.
We discussed today all matters that concern the two countries: the
question of the reconstruction of Afghanistan, improvement for the
reconstruction of Afghanistan, the equipping of the Afghan Army, the
training of the Afghan Army, the police in Afghanistan, and all other
aspects of reconstruction.
We also discussed the region around us, discussed our relations with
Pakistan and the question of the joint fight that we have together
against terrorism. And I am glad, Mr. President, that you are, tomorrow,
hosting a dinner for me and President Musharraf. And I'm sure we'll come
out of that meeting with a lot more to talk about to our nations in a
very positive way for a better future.
Mr. President, we, the Afghan people, are grateful to you and the
American people for all that you have done. I have things in mind to
speak about, and you did that, so I'll stop short and let the questions
come to us.
President Bush. Thanks. We'll have two questions a side. We'll start
with Jennifer Loven [Associated Press].
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National Intelligence Estimate/Situation in Afghanistan
Q. Thank you, sir. Even after hearing that one of the major
conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate in April was that the
Iraq war has fueled terror growth around the world, why have you
continued to say that the Iraq war has made this country safer?
And to President Karzai, if I might, what do you think of President
Musharraf's comments that you need to get to know your own country
better when you're talking about where terror threats and the Taliban
threat is coming from?
President Bush. Do you want to start?
President Karzai. Go ahead, please. [Laughter]
President Bush. I, of course, read the key judgments on the NIE. I
agree with their conclusion that because of our successes against the
leadership of Al Qaida, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and
independent. I'm not surprised the enemy is exploiting the situation in
Iraq and using it as a propaganda tool to try to recruit more people to
their murderous ways.
Some people have guessed what's in the report and have concluded
that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree. I think it's
naive. I think it's a mistake for people to believe that going on the
offense against people that want to do harm to the American people makes
us less safe. The terrorists fight us in Iraq for a reason: They want to
try to stop a young democracy from developing, just like they're trying
to fight this young democracy in Afghanistan. And they use it as a
recruitment tool, because they understand the stakes. They understand
what will happen to them when we defeat them in Iraq.
You know, to suggest that if we weren't in Iraq, we would see a
rosier scenario with fewer extremists joining the radical movement
requires us to ignore 20 years of experience. We weren't in Iraq when we
got attacked on September the 11th. We weren't in Iraq, and thousands of
fighters were trained in terror camps inside your country, Mr.
President. We weren't in Iraq when they first attacked the World Trade
Center in 1993. We weren't in Iraq when they bombed the Cole. We weren't
in Iraq when they blew up our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. My
judgment is, if we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse,
because they have ambitions. They kill in order to achieve their
objectives.
You know, in the past, Usama bin Laden
used Somalia as an excuse for people to join his jihadist movement. In
the past, they used the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was a
convenient way to try to recruit people to their jihadist movement.
They've used all kinds of excuses.
This Government is going to do whatever it takes to protect this
homeland. We're not going to let their excuses stop us from staying on
the offense. The best way to protect America is defeat these killers
overseas so we do not have to face them here at home. We're not going to
let lies and propaganda by the enemy dictate how we win this war.
Now, you know what's interesting about the NIE? It was a
intelligence report done last April. As I understand, the conclusions--
the evidence on the conclusions reached was stopped being gathered on
February--at the end of February. And here we are, coming down the
stretch in an election campaign, and it's on the front page of your
newspapers. Isn't that interesting? Somebody has taken it upon
themselves to leak classified information for political purposes.
I talked to John Negroponte today,
the DNI. You know, I think it's a bad habit for our Government to
declassify every time there's a leak, because it means that it's going
to be hard to get good product out of our analysts. Those of you who
have been around here long enough know what I'm talking about. But once
again, there's a leak out of our Government, coming right down the
stretch in this campaign, to create
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confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why
they leaked it.
And so we're going to--I told the DNI
to declassify this document. You can read it for yourself. We'll stop
all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something
about Iraq, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the
nature of this enemy. And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to
declassify the document as quickly as possible. He'll declassify the key
judgments for you to read yourself. And he'll do so in such a way that
we'll be able to protect sources and methods that our intelligence
community uses. And then everybody can draw their own conclusions about
what the report says.
Thank you.
Q. My question----
President Bush. What was that question?
Q. Why is that declassification not----
President Bush. Because I want you to read the documents, so you
don't speculate about what it says. You asked me a question based upon
what you thought was in the document, or at least somebody told you was
in the document. And so I think, Jennifer, you'll be able to ask a more
profound question when you get to look at it yourself--[laughter]--as
opposed to relying upon gossip and somebody who may or may not have seen
the document trying to classify the war in Iraq one way or the other.
I guess it's just Washington, isn't it, where, you know, we kind
of--there's no such thing as classification anymore, hardly. But,
anyway, you ought to take a look at it, and then you'll get to see.
Why don't you ask somebody. Yes, you've got the two-part question.
President Karzai. Ma'am, before I go to the remarks by my brother,
President Musharraf, terrorism was hurting us way before Iraq or
September 11th. The President mentioned some examples of it. These
extremist forces were killing people in Afghanistan and around for
years, closing schools, burning mosques, killing children, uprooting
vineyards with vine trees, grapes hanging on them, forcing populations
to poverty and misery.
They came to America on September 11th, but they were attacking you
before September 11th in other parts of the world. We are a witness in
Afghanistan to what they are and how they can hurt. You are a witness in
New York. Do you forget people jumping off the 80th floor or 70th floor
when the planes hit them? Can you imagine what it will be for a man or a
woman to jump off that high? Who did that? And where are they now? And
how do we fight them; how do we get rid of them, other than going after
them? Should we wait for them to come and kill us again? That's why we
need more action around the world, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to get
them defeated: extremism, their allies, terrorists and the like.
On the remarks of my brother, President Musharraf, Afghanistan is a
country that is emerging out of so many years of war and destruction and
occupation by terrorism and misery that they've brought to us. We lost
almost two generations to the lack of education. And those who were
educated before that are now older. We know our problems. We have
difficulties. But Afghanistan also knows where the problem is--in
extremism, in madrassas preaching hatred, preachers in the name of
madrassas preaching hatred. That's what we should do together to stop.
The United States, as our ally, is helping both countries. And I
think it is very important that we have more dedication and more intense
work with sincerity, all of us, to get rid of the problems that we have
around the world.
An Afghan press? You?
War on Terror/Progress in Afghanistan
Q. ----from Voice of America. Mr. President, what is your strategy--
your new strategy to fight against terrorism and also
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to deal with narcotics in Afghanistan? Thank you.
President Karzai. All right. This was to me or to President Bush?
Okay. Ma'am, there is no new strategy on the fight against terrorism. We
are continuing the strategy that we have. We are implementing the
strategy. We are moving further in that strategy. We are getting more of
them. We are trying to clean the country of these elements and the
region of these elements by doing more reconstruction, by doing more
search for the terrorist elements hiding around there. So the fight
against terrorism will continue the way we started it.
Q. Mr. President, sorry, do you think it's working now the way it's
going?
President Karzai. It is absolutely working. We come across
difficulties as we are moving forward, and that's bound to happen. And
we get over those difficulties, we resolve them, and we go to the next
stage of this fight against terrorism for all the allies.
At one stage 4 years ago, we had a war against them to dislodge them
from Afghanistan, to remove them from being the Government of
Afghanistan. And then there were major operations against them to arrest
or to chase them out. And then we began to rebuild the country, to have
roads, to have schools, to have health clinics, to have education, to
have all other things that people need all over the world. And now we
are at a stage of bringing more stability and trying to get rid of them
forever. The desire is to do that sooner, but a desire is not always
what you get. So it will take time, and we must have the patience to
have the time spent on getting rid of them for good.
On narcotics, it is a problem. It is an embarrassment to
Afghanistan. And I told President Bush earlier in my conversation with
him that we feel very much embarrassed for having narcotics growing in
our country. But again, it has come to Afghanistan because of years of
our desperation and lack of hope for tomorrow. I know Afghan families,
ma'am, who destroyed their pomegranate orchards or vineyards to replace
them with poppies because they did not know if they were going to have
their children the next day, if they were going to be in their own
country the next day, if they were going to be having their home
standing the next day. It has become a reality because of jobs and years
of misery.
We have worked on the problem. In some areas of the country, we have
succeeded; in other areas of the country, we have failed because of the
circumstances and because of our own failures. We have discussed that,
and we will continue to be very steadfast. It is Afghanistan's problem,
so Afghanistan is responsible for it, and Afghanistan should act on it
with the help of our friends in the United States and the rest of the
world.
President Bush. Caren [Caren Bohan, Reuters].
Former President William J. Clinton/War on Terror
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Former President Clinton says that your
administration had no meetings on bin Laden for 9 months after he left
office. Is that factually accurate, and how do you respond to his
charges?
President Bush. You know, look, Caren, I've watched all this finger-
pointing and naming of names and all that stuff. Our objective is to
secure the country. And we've had investigations; we had the 9/11
Commission; we had the look back this; we've had the look back that. The
American people need to know that we spend all our time doing everything
that we can to protect them. So I'm not going to comment on other
comments.
But I will comment on this--that we're on the offense against an
enemy who wants to do us harm. And we must have the tools necessary to
protect our country. On the one hand, if Al Qaida or Al Qaida affiliates
are calling somebody in the country,
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we need to know why. And so Congress needs to pass that piece of
legislation. If somebody has got information about a potential attack,
we need to be able to ask that person some questions. And so Congress
has got to pass that piece of legislation.
You can't protect America unless we give those people on the
frontlines of protecting this country the tools necessary to do so
within the Constitution. And that's where the debate is here in the
United States. There are some decent people who don't believe--evidently
don't believe we're at war and therefore shouldn't give the
administration what is necessary to protect us.
And that goes back to Jennifer's question, you know. Does being on
the offense mean we create terrorists? My judgment is, the only way to
defend the country is to stay on the offense. It is preposterous to
think if we were to withdraw and hope for the best, things would turn
out fine against this enemy. That was my point about, before we were in
Iraq, there were thousands being trained in Afghanistan to strike
America and other places. The only way to protect this country is to
stay on the offense, is to deal with threats before they fully
materialize and, in the long term, help democracy succeed, like
Afghanistan and Iraq and Lebanon and a Palestinian state.
But there's a difference of opinion. It will come clear during this
campaign, where people will say, ``Get out, leave before the job is
done.'' And those are good, decent, patriotic people who believe that
way; I just happen to believe they're absolutely wrong. So I'm going to
continue to work to protect this country. And we'll let history judge--
all the different finger-pointing and all that business. I don't have
enough time to finger-point. I've got to stay--I've got to do my job,
which comes home every day in the Oval Office, and that is to protect
the American people from further attack.
Now, there are some who say, ``Well, maybe it's not going to
happen.'' Well, they don't see what I see. All I ask is that they look
at that terror plot that, along with the Brits, we helped stop--people
who were going to get on an airplane and blow up innocent lives in order
to achieve political objectives. They're out there; they're mean; and
they need to be brought to justice.
International Support for the War on Terror/Afghanistan-Pakistan
Relations
Q. Thank you, sir. Mr. President, are you convinced, like President
Bush, that the deal General Musharraf signed with the tribal leaders in
Waziristan actually meant to fight the Taliban? And why are you
convinced that Usama bin Laden is not in Afghanistan?
If I may, Mr. President, do you agree with the analysis from the
counter chief European--counterterrorism chief European spokesman who
said today that the international support for terrorism has receded? Do
you agree with that? And do you see the tension between two important
allies of yours, Pakistan and Afghanistan, undermining your effort to
get Usama bin Laden? Thank you.
President Bush. It's a four-part question. First of all, I didn't--
what was this person a spokesman for?
Q. Counterterrorism chief in Europe.
President Bush. Some obscure spokesman?
Q. No, actually, he has a name.
President Bush. Okay, he's a got a name.
[Laughter] Well, no, I don't agree with the spokesman for the obscure
organization that said that the international commitment to fighting
terror is declining. It's quite the contrary, starting with the evidence
that NATO has committed troops in Afghanistan. These are troops who are
on the ground who are serving incredibly bravely to protect this
country.
Secondly, when the Brits, along with our help, intercepted the plot
to attack us, everybody started saying, ``They're still there.'' They
began to realize that their hopes that
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the terrorist threats were going away weren't true. Since September the
11th, it's important for the American people to remember, there have
been a lot of attacks on a lot of nations by these jihadists. And some
of them are Al Qaida and some of them are Al Qaida inspired. The NIE
talked about how this group of folks are becoming more dispersed. That's
what I've been saying as well. After all, look inside of Great Britain.
These are people inspired by, perhaps trained by Al Qaida, but
nevertheless plotted and planned attacks and conducted attacks in the
summer of 2005, and then plotted attacks in the summer of 2006. See,
they're dangerous, and the world knows that.
And so from my perspective, intelligence sharing is good,
cooperation on the financial fronts is good, and that more and more
nations are committing troops to the fight, in Afghanistan in
particular.
Now, the other question----
Q. The tension between two allies--does this undermine the efforts
of getting bin Laden?
President Bush. No. No, it doesn't. It's in President Karzai's
interest to see bin Laden brought to
justice. It is in President Musharraf's
interest to see bin Laden brought to justice. Our interests coincide. It
will be interesting for me to watch the body language of these two
leaders to determine how tense things are.
President Karzai. I'll be good. [Laughter]
President Bush. Yes. From my discussions with President Karzai and
President Musharraf, there is an
understanding that by working together, it is more likely that all of us
can achieve a common objective, which are stable societies that are
hopeful societies, that prevent extremists from stopping progress and
denying people a hopeful world.
I know that's what President Karzai thinks, and I know that's how
President Musharraf thinks. And so--I'm
kind of teasing about the body language for the dinner tomorrow night,
but it's going to be a good dinner, and it's an important dinner.
So to answer your question, no. What you perceive as tension is
stopping us from bringing high-value targets to justice, quite the
contrary, we're working as hard as ever in doing that.
President Karzai. On the question of Waziristan, ma'am, President
Musharraf, when he was in Kabul, explained what they had done there. My
initial impression was that this was a deal signed by the Taliban, and
then later I learned that they actually signed with the tribal chiefs.
It will have a different meaning if it is that signed with the tribal
chiefs--that for us, for the United States, for the allies against
terror.
The most important element here is item number one in this
agreement, that the terrorists will not be allowed to cross over into
Afghanistan to attack the coalition against terror, that is, the
international community and Afghanistan together. We will have to wait
and see if that is going to be implemented exactly the way it is signed.
So from our side, it's a wait-and-see attitude. But generally, we will
back any move, any deal that will deny terrorism sanctuary in North
Waziristan or in the tribal territories of Pakistan.
President Bush. Mr. President, thank you.
President Karzai. Thank you, sir.
President Bush. Well done.
Note: The President's news conference began at 11:37 a.m. in the East
Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to senior Al Qaida
associate Omar al-Farouq, who was killed in Iraq on September 26; Lt.
Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, USA, commander, Combined Forces Command--
Afghanistan; President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; Usama bin Laden,
leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; and Gijs de Vries,
counterterrorism coordinator, European Union.
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