[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 5 (Monday, February 4, 2002)]
[Pages 127-131]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Discussions With Chairman Hamid Karzai of the Afghan 
Interim Authority and an Exchange With Reporters

January 28, 2002

    The President. It's a great honor for me to welcome to the White 
House the Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority, Hamid Karzai.
    Mr. Chairman, welcome.
    Chairman Karzai. Thank you very much.
    The President. I also want to welcome the ministers of the Interim 
Authority who have accompanied him to Washington. Chairman Karzai is a 
determined leader, and his Government reflects the hopes of all Afghans 
for a new and better future, a future free from terror, free from war, 
and free from want. The United States strongly supports Chairman 
Karzai's interim Government. And we strongly support the Bonn agreement 
that provides the Afghan people with a path towards a broadly based 
government that protects the human rights of all its citizens.
    The Afghan people have already taken the first steps along this path 
by committing to rid their country of Al Qaida terrorists and remnants 
of the Taliban regime who supported the terrorists. Yet, even as the war 
against terrorism continues, the world has also begun to help the Afghan 
people win the peace they deserve.
    The United States is committed to building a lasting partnership 
with Afghanistan. We'll help the new Afghan Government provide the 
security that is the foundation for peace. Today, peacekeepers from 
around the world are helping provide security on the streets of Kabul. 
The United States will continue to work closely with these forces and 
provide support for their mission. We will also support programs to 
train new police officers and to help establish and train an Afghanistan 
national military.
    The United States is also committed to playing a leading role in the 
reconstruction of Afghanistan. Today I announce the United States 
Overseas Private Investment Corporation will provide an additional $50 
million line of credit for Afghanistan to finance private sector 
projects. This announcement builds on the United States' pledge in Tokyo 
earlier this month to provide $297 million this year to create jobs and 
to start rebuilding Afghanistan's agricultural sector, its health care 
system, and its educational system. Yet these efforts are only the 
beginning.
    Two days ago, for the first time since 1979, an American flag was 
raised over the U.S. Agency for International Development's mission in 
Kabul. That flag will not be lowered. It will wave long into the future, 
a symbol of America's enduring commitment to Afghanistan's future.
    Chairman Karzai, I reaffirm to you today that the United States will 
continue to be a friend to the Afghan people in all the challenges that 
lie ahead. Welcome to Washington.
    Chairman Karzai. Thank you very much.
    Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. Although we are here, as I 
mentioned in my meeting with you, invited by you, for which we are very 
grateful, but we are also here in a way to thank you and the American 
people for the great help that we were given to liberate our country 
once again, this time from terrorism from the Taliban. The Afghan people 
recognize this help. They know that, without this help, we would have 
still probably been under that rule. So thank you very much to you and, 
through you, to the American people.
    Afghanistan is a good partner. It will stay a good partner. And I'm 
sure that the future of the two countries will be good, and a wonderful 
relationship should be expected to come in the future. Thank you very 
much for the help that you gave us during the Tokyo conference, and 
thank you for organizing that, as well, together with other co-
organizers. And thank you for the help that you announced today. 
Afghanistan does need help in reconstruction. Afghanistan does need help 
in the rebuilding of its national army. And thank you very much for 
doing that, too.
    I assure you, Mr. President, that Afghanistan, with your help and 
the help of other countries, friends, will be strong and will stand 
eventually on its own feet. And it will be a country that will defend 
its borders and not allow terrorism to return to it or bother it or 
trouble it. We'll be self-reliant. We'll

[[Page 128]]

do good in business. We'll be a strong country.
    Afghanistan knows, Mr. President, the suffering of those people in 
America that saw and went through the horrors of the Twin Tower 
incident, the terrorism there. I believe the Afghans are the best people 
to see the pain exactly the way it was felt there then, at the time, 
because the Afghans have suffered exactly in the same way. We have 
sympathy; we know that pain; we understand it. Our families know that 
pain.
    Therefore, this joint struggle against terrorism should go to the 
absolute end of it. We must finish them. We must bring them out of their 
caves and their hideouts, and we promise we'll do that.
    Thank you very much, again, for having us here. It was an honor, and 
we enjoy our trip to the U.S, myself and my colleagues. Thank you very 
much.
    The President. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    We'll answer a couple of questions. Steve [Steve Holland, Reuters], 
Sonya [Sonya Ross, Associated Press].

Guantanamo Bay Detainees

    Q. On the issue of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, what's wrong 
with formally applying the Geneva Convention to them?
    The President. I have--the question is about the detainees in 
Guantanamo Bay. I had a very interesting meeting this morning with my 
national security team. We're discussing all the legal ramifications of 
how we--what we--how we characterize the actions at Guantanamo Bay. A 
couple of things we agree on: One, they will not be treated as prisoners 
of war; they're illegal combatants. Secondly, they will be treated 
humanely. And then, I'll figure out--I'll listen to all the legalisms 
and announce my decision when I make it. But we're in total agreement on 
how to--on whether or not--on how these prisoners, or detainees, excuse 
me, ought to be treated. And they'll be treated well.
    And yesterday the Secretary of Defense went down to Guantanamo Bay 
with United States Senators from both political parties. The Senators 
got to see the circumstances in which these detainees were being held. 
They--I don't want to put words in their mouth, but according to the 
Secretary of Defense--I'll let him put words in their mouth--they felt 
like, one, that our troops were really valiant in their efforts to make 
sure that these killers--these are killers--were held in such a way that 
they were safe. I noticed one of our troops last night was commenting 
that they are receiving very good medical care. But I'll make my 
decision about--on how to legally interpret the situation here pretty 
soon.
    Sonya.

General Accounting Office and the Energy Task Force

    Q. Are you prepared to go to court with the General Accounting 
Office to keep secret the records of your energy task force meetings?
    The President. Well, the question about the General Accounting 
Office is this: Should an administration be allowed to have private 
conversations in this office without everybody knowing about it? This is 
a part of how you make decisions, is to call people in and say, ``What's 
your opinion? What's your opinion on stem cell? What's your opinion on 
energy? What's your opinion on the war?''
    And in order for me to be able to get good, sound opinions, those 
who offer me opinions or offer the Vice President opinions must know 
that every word they say is not going to be put into the public record. 
And so I view the GAO like the Vice President does. It's an encroachment 
on the executive branch's ability to conduct business.
    Now, as far as the specific case of the energy report goes, there is 
an energy report that is now in the public arena. People are free to 
read it. I hope they do because it's a comprehensive report, one based 
upon the opinions of members of the exploration sector of the energy 
business; some about the infrastructure, opinions from those involved 
with the infrastructure; some opinions, obviously, from those in the 
environmental community. This is a report that collected a lot of 
opinions, and it was done in such a way that people felt free to come in 
and express their opinion.

[[Page 129]]

    And so, to answer your question, we're not going to let the ability 
for us to discuss matters between ourselves to become eroded. It's not 
only important for us, for this administration, it is an important 
principle for future administrations.
    Gregory [David Gregory, NBC News].

Situation in the Middle East

    Q. Mr. President, on the Middle East----
    The President. Medium-size Stretch. [Laughter]
    Q. When you spoke to President Mubarak today and expressed your 
disappointment in Yasser Arafat, what did he say? And secondly, are you 
worried that the level of disappointment in the region is not as high as 
your own? Does that complicate your efforts to build a coalition against 
Arafat that's necessary?
    The President. I think members--I think--first of all, Mr. Mubarak 
can characterize the conversation the way he sees fit. I will just tell 
you what I told him. And I told him that in order for there to be peace 
in the Middle East, we must rout out terror wherever it exists. And the 
U.S. effort to rout out terror around the world is going to benefit the 
Middle East in the long term.
    It is important for Mr. Arafat to not only renounce terror but to 
arrest those who would terrorize people trying to bring peace. There are 
people in the region that want there to be a peaceful settlement, and 
yet, obviously, terrorists are trying to prevent that from happening by 
wanton murder. And Mr. Arafat must join the effort to arrest them.
    And when the ship showed up with weapons, obviously aimed at 
terrorizing that part of the world, I expressed my severe disappointment 
because I was led to believe that he was willing to join us in the fight 
on terror. I took him for his word when he--at Oslo. And so I made this 
very clear to my friend Hosni Mubarak, that ridding the Middle East of 
terror is going to make it more likely that there be peace and stability 
in the region.

Energy Task Force Report/Enron

    Q. Mr. President, going back to the issue of the GAO lawsuit----
    The President. Yes.
    Q. ----some in Congress, particularly Congressman Waxman, have 
suggested that the energy report represented a wish list for Enron.
    The President. The energy report represented a wish--in other words, 
we were doing favors for Enron?
    Q. Do you agree with that, sir?
    The President. Well, Enron went bust. Shortly after the report was 
put out, Enron went broke. And it went broke because, it seems like to 
me--and I will wait for the facts to come out--it went broke because 
there was not full disclosure of finances. This is a--what we're talking 
about here is a corporate governance issue. This is a business problem 
that our country must deal with and must fix; that is, full disclosure 
of liabilities, full understanding of the effects of decisions on 
pension funds, reform of a pension system, perhaps.
    There are some on Capitol Hill who want to politicize this issue. 
This is not a political issue. It is a business issue that this Nation 
must deal with. And you know, Enron had made contributions to a lot of 
people around Washington, DC. And if they came to this administration 
looking for help, they didn't find any.
    Now, obviously, we're interested in people's opinions about energy--
those in the energy business, those in the conservation world, those who 
know how to develop infrastructure. And so we solicited a lot of 
opinions from people. And the report is now public; everybody can read 
it to determine our vision about how to make our country less dependent 
on foreign sources of crude oil, which we must do.
    Yes, Jim [Jim Angle, FOX News].

Afghanistan

    Q. Mr. President, we understand that you do not want to commit 
American troops to peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan. Why not, sir? And 
do you have any concerns that there will be enough forces to give Mr. 
Karzai the kind of security he needs?
    The President. We are committing help to the ISAF in the form of 
logistical help, in the form of kind of a bailout--if the troops get in 
trouble, we stand ready to help--in the form of intelligence. Plus, I 
have just

[[Page 130]]

made in my remarks here a significant change of policy, and that is that 
we're going to help Afghanistan develop her own military. That is the 
most important part of this visit, it seems like to me, besides the fact 
of welcoming a man who stands for freedom, a man who stood for freedom 
in the face of tyranny.
    We have made a decision--both of us have made the decision that 
Afghanistan must, as quickly as possible, develop her own military. And 
we will help. We'll help train, and Tommy Franks, our general, fully 
understands this and is fully committed to this idea. So, better yet 
than peacekeepers--which will be there for a while, with our help--let's 
have Afghanistan have her own military.
    Major [Major Garrett, Cable News Network].

2003 Budget Proposal/Tax Relief

    Q. Mr. President, along the issue of politicizing Enron, the 
majority leader, Tom Daschle, with whom you in the past have said you 
have a good working relationship, said over the weekend that he was 
afraid your budget would Enronize Social Security and Medicare. That is 
to say, put them in specific jeopardy of collapsing. I wonder if you 
could comment on that, sir, and if there's any way to make this----
    The President. Well, sometimes there's political hyperbole here in 
this town. The budget I submitted is one--will submit soon--is one that 
says that the war on terror is going on, and we're going to win, and 
we've got to make sure we spend enough money to win. It's also one that 
prioritizes homeland security. It is also one that wants to do something 
about our economy; let's get a stimulus bill. It's a bill that sets 
priorities.
    And it is--I think there are some still upset with the tax cut, but 
I want to remind you that we were in recession in March of last year. 
That's when they officially declared recession. The slowdown was 
obviously significant to reach a point where we were--where the 
economists said we were in recession, and so the tax cuts came at the 
right time.
    Now, there are some who believe if you raise taxes it makes the 
economy stronger. As I've told the American people several times, I 
don't understand what textbook they're reading. I believe by reducing 
taxes it makes the economy stronger. The tax relief came right at the 
right time. Now, our economy is still, you know, not as strong as it 
should be. There's still some weakness, but surely people aren't 
suggesting raising taxes at this point makes sense. I don't believe it 
does make any sense.
    And so the budget I've submitted is a good, strong budget. It sets 
priorities, and it's realistic, and the American people will understand 
it when I explain it tomorrow night.
    Yes, Terry [Terry Moran, ABC News].

Guantanamo Bay Detainees

    Q. Mr. President, in holding the detainees in Cuba in the manner in 
which the United States is, is one of the signals you're sending that in 
this new kind of war, as you've described it, the Geneva Conventions are 
outdated and don't apply in the conflict with Al Qaida?
    The President. No, the Geneva Conventions are not outdated, and it's 
a very important principle. First of all, Terry, we are adhering to the 
spirit of the Geneva Convention. When you say you're holding the 
prisoners in the manner you are--we're giving them medical care; they're 
being well-treated.
    There is no allegation--well, there may be an allegation--there's no 
evidence that we're treating them outside the spirit of the Geneva 
Convention. And for those who say we are, they just don't know what 
they're talking about.
    And so----
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. Let me finish. And so I am looking at the legalities 
involved with the Geneva Convention. In either case, however I make my 
decision, these detainees will be well-treated. We are not going to call 
them prisoners of war, in either case, and the reason why is Al Qaida is 
not a known military. These are killers. These are terrorists. They know 
no countries. And the only thing they know about countries is when they 
find a country that's been weak, and they want to occupy it like a 
parasite. And that's why we're so pleased to join with Chairman Karzai 
to rout them out.

[[Page 131]]

    And so the prisoners, detainees, will be well-treated. They just 
won't be afforded prisoner-of-war status. I'll decide beyond that 
whether or not they can be noncombatants under the Geneva Convention, or 
not. I'll make that legal decision soon. But this administration has 
made the decision they'll be well-treated. Long before they arrived at 
Guantanamo Bay did we make that decision.
    Plante [Bill Plante, CBS News].

Saudi Arabian Detainees

    Q. Mr. President, the Saudi Interior Minister today said that a 
majority of those being held at Guantanamo, more than 100, are Saudi 
citizens, and asked that they be returned to Saudi Arabia for 
questioning.
    The President. Well, I appreciate his request. And we will, of 
course--we'll take it under consideration. There are a lot of detainees 
around the world as a result of this first phase in the war against 
terror. There's a lot in Pakistan; there's a lot in Afghanistan; and 
there are 179, I believe, or whatever the number is, in Guantanamo Bay. 
So there's a lot of Saudi citizens that chose to fight for Al Qaida and/
or the Taliban that we want to know more about. And so we'll make a 
decision on a case-by-case basis as to whether they go back to Saudi 
Arabia or not. I appreciate his suggestion.
    Listen, I want to thank you all very much. Mr. Chairman, it's good 
to have you----
    Q. May I ask Chairman Karzai a question?
    The President. Ask who?
    Q. May I ask Chairman Karzai something about----
    The President. Of course you can ask Chairman Karzai a question. 
Thank you.
    Q. Mr. President, I have a question----
    The President. No, I'm sorry.

Afghanistan

    Q. Chairman Karzai, given Afghanistan's history of fighting foreign 
invaders and its pride and independence, are you concerned about any 
political sensitivity--[inaudible]--in establishing an Afghan military? 
And how would you describe the ideal partnership between the United 
States?
    Chairman Karzai. Well, we have no concerns there. As I mentioned in 
my remarks earlier, the Afghans are grateful that we were helped twice, 
once during the Soviet occupation, by the U.S., and now to fight 
terrorism and liberate ourselves from that menace. We are a fiercely 
independent country, and the world knows that. Our neighbors know that 
very well, and the countries in the region know that.
    The Afghan request for training of our army is nothing new. Our 
prime ministers were here even back in the 1950's to ask this kind of 
training. And it's training and a relationship between two independent, 
sovereign countries, and nothing to worry others.

Usama bin Laden

    Q. Chairman Karzai, have you discussed in regards with Usama bin 
Laden, and what can you do to gather more information to capture him?
    Chairman Karzai. We are looking for him. He's a fugitive. If we find 
him, we'll catch him.
    Thank you very much.
    The President. That's right.

Note: The President spoke at 1:58 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt; 
Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority; Minister of 
Interior Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia; and Usama bin 
Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization. The President also 
referred to the Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group, 
which was issued May 2001; and the International Security Assistance 
Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.