[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 17 (Monday, April 26, 2004)]
[Pages 626-633]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in Hershey, Pennsylvania

April 19, 2004

    Thank you all very much. Thanks for letting me come. [Laughter] It's 
good to be here in Hershey, Pennsylvania. For a fellow who likes 
chocolate--[laughter]--this is a special place. I know that Milton 
Hershey, who was one of the country's great entrepreneurs, would be 
incredibly proud of the way this community has prospered and grown. I 
bet he'd be especially proud of the hospital that we saw coming in. The 
Senators with whom I was traveling pointed out the fantastic hospital 
facilities. I'm told that this is a community where people really care 
deeply about their neighbors and the quality of life in the community in 
which they live. And so I want to thank the citizens from Hershey for 
being so gracious and warm and setting such a good example.
    I want to thank the community leaders who are here from around the 
great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I appreciate your service to our 
country. It's a tough job to serve at the local level. [Laughter] When 
things go wrong, your name is right there in the phonebook. [Laughter] 
But we share a common calling, and that's public service, serving our 
Nation. I want to thank you for doing what you're doing. It's such an 
honor, isn't it, to serve the people of our respective communities and 
our Nation.
    And you and I know what our first responsibility is. The first 
responsibility, whether it be Washington, DC, or Washington Township, is 
the safety of our citizens. That's a solemn duty we have, to work 
together to make sure that our Nation is as secure as it can possibly 
be.
    The task, our mutual tasks, our joint obligation changed 
dramatically on September the 11th, 2001. There's now an urgency to our 
duty. We have a urgent duty to do everything we can to fulfill our 
solemn obligation.
    There are people here in this world who still want to hurt us. See, 
they can't stand America. They can't stand us because we love certain 
things and we're not going to change. We love our freedom. We love the 
fact that we can worship freely any way we see fit. We love the fact 
that we can speak our minds freely. We love our free political process. 
We love every aspect of freedom, and we refuse to change. These 
terrorists will not be stopped by their own conscience. They don't have 
a conscience. But they will be stopped. They will be stopped because our 
great Nation is resolute abroad, we're vigilant at home, and we are 
absolutely determined to prevail.
    I appreciate Donna's invitation and her introduction. She handled it 
very well. [Laughter] I want to thank Keith Hite, the executive

[[Page 627]]

director, for having me here as well. Keith, thank you for your 
hospitality. I want to thank the boards of directors, the trustees, and 
the members of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township 
Supervisors.
    I appreciate the first-responders who are here today. Thank you for 
your service.
    I've traveled in a small little limo from the airport with Senators 
Specter and Santorum, two really fine United States Senators from the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I flew down from Washington with 
Congressman Todd Platts and Congressman Bill Shuster from Pennsylvania. 
Thank you both for traveling with me. I am grateful that Congressman Tim 
Holden has joined us today. Thank you for being here, Congressman. I 
appreciate you coming.
    Attorney General Jerry Pappert is here with us. General, I 
appreciate you being here today. Charlie Dent, a member of the 
statehouse, is with us; Paul Semmel--actually, Dent is in the State 
senate, Semmel is in the statehouse. These are members of the Veterans 
Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committees. These are people in the 
State legislature with whom you work to make sure the State of 
Pennsylvania is properly prepared for anything that may come along.
    I appreciate so very much the other State and local officials who 
are here. Thanks for taking time to come.
    I appreciate Mike Lutz, who is the president of the Fraternal Order 
of Police Pennsylvania State Lodge, for being here. Mike, thank you for 
your time, and thank you for coming.
    Two other people I want to mention before I get going. [Laughter] I 
had the honor of meeting Major Dick Winters. Dick Winters is a World War 
II veteran. There's an HBO miniseries called ``The Band of Brothers.'' 
He led the platoon in World War II. I told him when I got off the 
airplane, it was such an honor to meet him. It's such a fine example 
that he and others have set for those brave souls who now wear our 
Nation's uniform. Major Winters, I'm glad you're here. And I also want 
to thank the other members of our military who joined us today as well. 
Thank you all for coming.
    When I landed, I met a fellow at the airport named Patrick Leonard. 
Where are you, Pat? Oh there you are, sure. How quickly they forget. 
[Laughter] You're wondering why I mentioned Pat Leonard? I'll tell you 
why. The strength of America is in the hearts and souls of our citizens. 
That's our strength. Listen, people say America is strong because of our 
military. We got a strong military, and I intend to keep it that way. 
They say America is strong because we're the wealthiest nation. That's 
good. We need to keep it that way. But the real reason we're strong is 
because of the hearts and souls of American citizens. That's why we're 
strong.
    Pat Leonard volunteers. He takes time out of a busy life and a 
family life to volunteer at the fire department. That's what he does. 
He's a volunteer fireman. As a matter of fact, he is the chief of the 
Hershey Volunteer Fire Company. He has been doing this for 26 years. 
It's more than just volunteering for the fire department, though, see. 
He also volunteers to mentor children by being a coach at all kinds of 
different sports teams.
    The reason I bring up Pat--and I want to thank his mom and dad for 
being here, by the way, and two brothers who happen to be volunteer 
firemen. The reason I bring him up is because I want our citizens to 
understand that if you really want to help America, take time out of 
your life and help save a soul. And you can do it all kinds of ways. You 
can mentor a child. You can help the elderly. You can volunteer at the 
fire department. You can be a Boy Scout or Girl Scout leader. There's 
all kinds of ways you can help. I bet most of you are doing this 
already. You represent the true strength of the country. We're a 
compassionate, decent nation, a nation of people who are willing to love 
their neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves.
    As we gather this afternoon, we're 140 miles away from Shanksville, 
Pennsylvania. This is a place where many innocent lives ended. 
Shanksville is also the place where American citizens stood up to evil, 
charged their attackers, and began the first counter-offensive in the 
war on terror. Those passengers on Flight 93 showed that the spirit of 
America is strong and brave in the face

[[Page 628]]

of danger, and this Nation will always honor their memory.
    The best way to secure our homeland, the best way for us to do our 
duty, is to stay on the offensive against the terrorist network. We 
began the offense shortly after September the 11th. We're carrying out a 
broad strategy, a worldwide strategy to bring the killers to justice. 
The best way to secure America is to bring them to justice before they 
hurt us again, which is precisely what the United States of America will 
continue to do.
    Two-thirds of known Al Qaida leaders have been captured or killed. 
We're making progress. It's a different kind of war than the war that 
Major Winters fought in. This is a war against people who will hide in a 
cave, a war against people who hide in the shadows of remote cities or 
big cities, and then they strike and they kill. And they kill innocent 
people. They have no--as I said, they have no conscience. They have no 
sense of guilt. But they also know we're on their trail, and they will 
find out there is no cave or hole deep enough to hide from American 
justice.
    We must be determined in this, and we've got a lot of really good 
people, a lot of good people on the move. We're also working with 
nations from around the world, sharing intelligence, making it clear 
that if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist.
    By the way, when the President of the United States says something, 
he better mean it. And when I said to the world, ``If you harbor a 
terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist,'' I meant exactly 
what I said. And the Taliban found out. It wasn't all that long ago that 
Afghanistan was a training center for Al Qaida killers. It was a safe 
haven. It's a country, by the way, that was run by a brutal--brutal--
dictatorship. The Taliban had a perverted view of the world. They 
hated--they must have hated women. Women were given no rights. Young 
girls did not go to school. It was a barbaric regime. So not only did we 
uphold doctrine that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist or train a 
terrorist or feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist,'' 
but we liberated people as well in Afghanistan. People are free in that 
country. Young girls now go to school for the first time in their life, 
thanks to the incredible compassion of the United States of America.
    There's another very important lesson about September the 11th that 
we must never forget, and that is, we can no longer take threats that 
may exist overseas for granted. In other words, when the President and/
or anybody else in authority sees a threat, we must take it seriously. 
Now, that doesn't mean every threat must be dealt with by military 
option, but every threat must be viewed as a potential problem to 
America. See, September the 11th changed the equation. It used to be 
that oceans would protect us, that we saw a threat, we didn't have to 
worry about it because there was two vast oceans. And we could pick and 
choose as to how we deal with the threat. That changed on September the 
11th.
    These are vital lessons for our citizens to understand what took 
place. See, we saw a threat, based upon intelligence, in Iraq. The 
intelligence said there's a threat. The very same intelligence looked at 
by the United States Congress caused them to reach the same conclusion. 
The United Nations Security Council looked at the intelligence and said, 
``Saddam is a threat.'' And so, for about the--I can't remember how many 
times they said it, but they said, ``Disarm. See, you're a threat. 
Disarm.'' There's a reason why a lot of people made the conclusion. It 
was not only based upon intelligence, it was based upon the fact that he 
hated America, that he was willing to pay suiciders to go kill people in 
Israel, that he actually used weapons of mass destruction on his own 
people. See, this is a guy who used it before.
    And the equation changed after September the 11th. And so, you see, 
I was in a position where I either took the word of a madman or took the 
actions necessary to defend America. And given that choice, I will 
defend America every time.
    We will defeat the enemy there so we don't have to face them here. 
And at the same time, we will work to see that Iraq is free, and that's 
really important for our long-term security. See, free nations are 
peaceful nations. Free nations are nations in which people can find hope 
and a chance to raise their families, just the way moms and dads want to 
raise their families here in America.

[[Page 629]]

That's why we love freedom, and that's why we think freedom is such an 
important part of a peaceful world. This is an historic mission, in my 
judgment. This is an historic opportunity.
    I told the story, I think, at one of these endless press conferences 
I had last week--[laughter]--where--I love them, of course--where--
[laughter]--where I had dinner with Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. And 
it was at that dinner that we were talking about the situation in North 
Korea. And it dawned on me during the course of the conversation with my 
friend that, if we hadn't got it right after World War II, would I have 
been having this conversation with the Prime Minister about a common 
threat we share? And it probably wouldn't have. If we hadn't secured the 
peace in a proper way after World War II, I don't think--maybe I'll be 
wrong--but I don't think I would have been having the very kind of 
conversation I was having with Prime Minister Koizumi. And it dawned on 
me during that conversation, when we get it right in Iraq, some American 
President will be sitting down with a duly-elected official from Iraq 
talking about how to keep the peace in that troubled part of the world. 
It's an historic opportunity to spread democracy and hope as an 
alternative to hatred and terror and violence for export.
    And it's a difficult mission. It's tough work. It's incredibly hard, 
as we have seen on our television screens the last couple of weeks. 
There's a reason why. Freedom frightens people who are terrorists. The 
worst thing that can happen to a society, if you're a terrorist, is for 
the society to be free. And it scares them. Remember, I told you, 
they'll strike us because of our love for freedom. Well, they strike out 
because a free society is emerging in the heart of a region that is 
desperate for freedom and democracy.
    And we're facing supporters of the outlaw cleric, remnants of 
Saddam's regime that are still bitter that they don't have the position 
to run the torture chambers and rape rooms and get the special 
privileges they've had for all these years. Of course, there's foreign 
terrorists there, trying to prevent the rise of a free government in the 
heart of the Middle East. They will fail--they will fail. They will fail 
because they do not speak for the vast majority of Iraqis who do not 
want to replace one tyrant with another. They will fail because the will 
of our coalition is strong. They will fail because America leads a 
coalition full of the finest military men and women in the world.
    Thousands of Pennsylvanians have given their service in the war on 
terror, including more than 6,000 National Guard and Reserve members on 
active duty today. I want to thank their families for enduring the long 
deployments and separations and sacrifices. I want to thank the men and 
women who wear the uniform. Our Nation is grateful for your sacrifice. 
We are grateful that you have volunteered to make America a more secure 
country and the world a more peaceful and free place.
    The enemy is still active. Think about Bali and Istanbul, or as we 
saw in the murder of 200 citizens in Madrid, the terrorists use violence 
to spread fear and disrupt elections. They want us to panic. That's 
their intent. Their intent is to say, ``Let's create panic among the 
civilized world.'' They want nations to turn upon each other, civilized 
nations to argue and debate about the mission. You know, they're not 
going to shake our will. I'll say as plainly as I can to them: You'll 
never shake the will of the United States of America. We're not going to 
forget September the 11th. We are determined. We are resolute, and we 
will bring you to justice.
    And in the process, we've made some fundamental changes in the way 
we defend ourself. We reorganized--or organized a new Department of 
Homeland Security to protect the country. It was hard work in the 
Senate. I want to thank Senator Specter and Senator Santorum and the 
Members of the House who are here. We had a big debate about it, but it 
was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to bring agencies 
involved with the protection of the homeland under one umbrella agency, 
so we can better coordinate and better communicate and better strategize 
as to how to protect the homeland.
    And I picked a good man to run--become the first Secretary of 
Homeland Security. Looks like I don't even have to say his name. 
[Laughter] You trained him well. [Laughter] No, Ridge is doing a great 
job.

[[Page 630]]

    Since 2001, we've tripled funding for homeland security. That's 
important. We've trained and deployed screeners at airports, put 
thousands of air marshals on flights. We're now fingerprinting visitors 
when they come to America and compare the prints to those of suspected 
terrorists and violent criminals. In other words, we've made prevention 
of terror an important priority of our Government--just doing everything 
we can to make sure that we're as safe as we possibly can be.
    The FBI now has the prevention of terrorist attacks as their number 
one priority. They'll still chase down criminals and make a case, but 
since we're at war and since this is a big, free country, the priority 
of the Federal Government is now the prevention of another attack. And 
we're making sure they got the resources necessary to do their job.
    We're standing behind our first-responders. Since the moment our 
country was attacked, our Nation's police and firefighters and emergency 
service personnel have played a critical role in the defense of America 
against any threat of terror. They really have. It was a--we saw the 
incredible bravery of the first-responders in New York City. I think 
it--I think those who are firefighters and police and emergency 
personnel gained a new degree of respect on the streets of the cities 
throughout our country, when they witnessed the great courage of their 
brothers who rushed into collapsing buildings. We appreciate the fact 
that these men and women understand they could be on the frontline 
against terror at any moment, that they have accepted great 
responsibilities. And we have responsibilities to you as well.
    I've proposed an additional $3.6 billion for terrorism preparedness 
grants. This is a way to help our first-responders get ready. The money 
needs to make sure we don't get it stuck in the process, stuck from 
going from the Federal Government to the State Government to the local 
government. This money needs to get the local communities in a timely 
fashion so you can put it to good work.
    After September the 11th, we took another vital step to fight 
terror, and that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about 
the PATRIOT Act. It's a law that I signed into law. It's a law that was 
overwhelmingly passed in the House and the Senate. It's a law that is 
making America safer. It's an important piece of legislation.
    First, before September the 11th, law enforcement, intelligence, and 
national security officials were prevented by legal and bureaucratic 
restrictions from sharing critical information with each other and with 
State and local police departments.
    We had--one group of the FBI knows something, but they couldn't talk 
to the other group in the FBI because of law and bureaucratic 
interpretation. You cannot fight the war on terror unless all bodies of 
your government at the Federal, State, and local level are capable of 
sharing intelligence on a real-time basis. We could not get a complete 
picture of terrorist threats, therefore. People had--different people 
had a piece of the puzzle, but because of law, they couldn't get all the 
pieces in the same place. And so we removed those barriers, removed the 
walls. You hear the talk about the walls that separated certain aspects 
of Government. They have been removed by the PATRIOT Act, and now, law 
enforcement and intelligence communities are working together to share 
information to better prevent an attack on America.
    And let me give you an interesting story. In late 2001, in Portland, 
Oregon--and today, I was briefed on this story by the--the Federal 
prosecutor up there in Oregon--or over there. I'm used to Texas, still. 
[Laughter] Everything was ``up there.'' [Laughter]
    Police in Portland, Oregon, turned up evidence about a local man who 
was planning attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues and on American 
troops overseas. The initial information was passed to the FBI and to 
intelligence services--quickly passed--who analyzed the threat and took 
action. See, the PATRIOT Act allowed for unprecedented cooperation, and 
because of the surveillance tools enacted by the PATRIOT Act, the FBI 
learned that this guy was a part of a seven-man terrorist cell. In other 
words, the PATRIOT Act gave local--Federal law enforcement officials, in 
this case--the capacity to better understand the intelligence and to

[[Page 631]]

better understand the nature of the terrorist cell. And now the cell has 
been disrupted.
    I'll tell you another good thing that happened. Before September the 
11th, investigators had better tools to fight organized crime than to 
fight international terrorism. That was the reality. For years, law 
enforcement used so-called roving wiretaps to investigate organized 
crime. You see, what that meant is if you got a wiretap by court order--
and by the way, everything you hear about requires court order, requires 
there to be permission from a FISA court, for example.
    So the crime boss, he'd be on the cell phone, maybe thinking 
somebody is listening to him, would toss the cell phone and get on 
another cell phone. And the law allowed for our drug-busters to follow 
the person making the calls, not just a single phone number. So it made 
it more difficult for a drug lord to evade the net that we were trying 
to throw on him to capture him with.
    We couldn't use roving wiretaps for terrorists. In other words, 
terrorists could switch phones, and we couldn't follow them. The PATRIOT 
Act changed that, and now we have the essential tool. See, with court 
approval, we have long used roving wiretaps to lock up monsters--
mobsters. Now we have a chance to lock up monsters, terrorist monsters. 
[Laughter]
    The PATRIOT Act authorizes what are called delayed notification 
search warrants. I'm not a lawyer, either. [Laughter] These allow law 
enforcement personnel, with court approval, to carry out a lawful search 
without tipping off suspects and giving them a chance to flee or destroy 
evidence. It is an important part of conducting operations against 
organized groups.
    Before September the 11th, the standards for these kind of warrants 
were different around the country. It made it hard to have kind of a 
national strategy to chase down what might be a terrorist group. The 
PATRIOT Act provided a clear national standard and now allows these 
warrants to be used in terrorism cases. And they're an important tool 
for those who are on the frontline of using necessary means, with court 
order, to find these terrorists before they hurt us. Look, what I'm 
telling you is, is that the PATRIOT Act made it easier for people we've 
tasked to protect America. That's what we want. We want people to have 
the tools necessary to do the job we expect them to do.
    Before September the 11th, law enforcement could more easily obtain 
business and financial records of white-collar criminals than of 
suspected terrorists. See, part of the way to make sure that we catch 
terrorists is we chase money trails. And yet it was easier to chase a 
money trail with a white-collar criminal than it was a terrorist. The 
PATRIOT Act ended this double standard, and it made it easier for 
investigators to catch suspected terrorists by following paper trails 
here in America.
    And finally, before September the 11th, Federal judges could often 
impose tougher prison terms on drug traffickers than they could on 
terrorists. The PATRIOT Act strengthened the penalties for crimes 
committed by terrorists, such as arsons or attacks on powerplants and 
mass transit systems. In other words, we needed to get--we needed to 
send the signal, at the very minimum, that our laws are going to be 
tough on you. When we catch you, you've got a problem, in America. See, 
that's part of prevention.
    I just outlined five reasons why the PATRIOT Act made sense. These 
are practical reasons. These are ways to give our law enforcement 
officers the tools necessary to do their job so that we can better 
protect America, and we're making progress.
    The last 2\1/2\ years, we've dismantled terrorist cells in Oregon 
and New York and North Carolina and Virginia. We prosecuted terrorist 
operatives and supportives in California, Ohio, Texas, and Florida. In 
other words, we're using these tools to do the best we can possibly do 
to protect our fellow citizens. We've frozen or seized about $200 
million in terrorist assets around the world. When I say ``we,'' this is 
now not only United States but friends and allies. We're cutting off 
their money. We're following--what was that movie?--``Follow the 
Money.'' That's what we're doing, to make sure that we do our job.
    I want you to keep in mind what I've just told you about the PATRIOT 
Act the next time you hear somebody attacking the PATRIOT Act. The 
PATRIOT Act defends our liberty. The PATRIOT Act makes it able for

[[Page 632]]

those of us in positions of responsibility to defend the liberty of the 
American people. It's essential law.
    The reason I bring it up is because many of the PATRIOT Act's 
antiterrorism tools are set to expire next year, including key 
provisions that allow our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to 
share information. In other words, Congress passed it and said, ``Well, 
maybe the war on terror won't go on very long,'' and therefore, these 
tools are set to expire. The problem is, the war on terror continues. 
And yet some Senators and Congressmen not only want to let the 
provisions expire, but they want to roll back some of the act's 
permanent features. And it doesn't make any sense. We can't return to 
the days of false hope. The terrorists declared war on the United States 
of America, and the Congress must give law enforcement all the tools 
necessary to protect the American people.
    So I'm starting today to call on the United States Congress to renew 
the PATRIOT Act and to make all of its provisions permanent. And not 
only that, there are some additional things that Congress should do--
must do, in my judgment--to strengthen authorities and penalties to 
defend our homeland. There's something called administrative subpoenas. 
This is the authority to request certain types of time-sensitive records 
without the delay of going through a judge or a grand jury. These are 
critical for many types of investigations. For example, today they're 
used for health care fraud cases. In other words, those who investigate 
can use an administrative subpoena to run down somebody cheating the 
health care system. Yet, in terrorism cases, where speed is of the 
essence, officials are barred from using administrative subpoenas.
    That doesn't seem to make much sense to me. The American people 
expect us to do our jobs. It seems like we ought to have the very same 
tool necessary to run down a bad doc as to run down a terrorist. And so 
when Congress considers the PATRIOT Act, they ought to be thinking about 
ways to make sure that we've got the capacity of catching terrorists.
    People charged with certain crimes today, including some drug 
offenses, are eligible for bail only in limited circumstances, but 
terrorist-related crimes are not on that list. Think about what that 
means. Suspected terrorists could be released, free to leave the country 
or worse, before their trial. And that doesn't make any sense. The 
disparity makes no sense. If a dangerous drug dealer can be held without 
bail, the Congress should allow the same treatment for terrorists. If we 
want to protect our homeland, let's make sure these good people have got 
the tools necessary to do so.
    And there's another example I want to share with you. Under existing 
law, the death penalty applies to many serious crimes that result in 
death, including sexual abuse and certain drug-related offenses. Some 
terrorist crimes that result in death do not qualify for capital 
punishment. That makes no sense to me. We ought to be sending a strong 
signal: If you sabotage a defense installation or nuclear facility in a 
way that takes an innocent life, you ought to get the death penalty, the 
Federal death penalty.
    The reason why Congress must act is because we have a difficult job 
protecting America. The reason why is because we're an open society that 
values freedom. We stand for the--we're a beacon of freedom, and we say 
you can--our country is an open country. And yet that makes us 
vulnerable--in itself, makes us vulnerable. We got a lot of borders to 
protect. We got to be right 100 percent of the time, at the Federal 
level and the State level and the local level. We've got to be right 100 
percent of the time to protect America, and the terrorists have only got 
to be right one time, as 168 innocent men, women, and children found out 
in Oklahoma City. Different forms of terror--we've got to be vigilant 
against terror at all costs.
    And there's only one path to safety, and that's the path of action. 
Congress must act with the PATRIOT Act. We must continue to stay on the 
offense when it comes to chasing these killers down and bringing them to 
justice, and we will. We've got to be strong and resolute and 
determined. We will never show weakness in the face of these people who 
have no soul, who have no conscience, who care less about the life of a 
man or a woman or a child. We've got to do everything we can here at 
home, and there's no doubt

[[Page 633]]

in my mind that, with the Almighty's blessings and hard work, that we 
will succeed in our mission.
    The reason I say that is because I have seen the spirit of this 
country. I've seen the resolve of our Nation. I know the nature of the 
men and women who proudly call themselves Americans, people who can rise 
to any challenge, people who are tough, people who are determined, 
people who are resolute, and people, at the same time, who are 
compassionate and decent and honorable. And it is my honor to be the 
President of a country full of such people.
    May God bless your work. May God continue to bless our country. 
Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 3:20 p.m. at the Hershey Lodge and 
Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Donna L. Mindek, 
president, and R. Keith Hite, executive director, Pennsylvania State 
Association of Township Supervisors; Pennsylvania State Attorney General 
Jerry Pappert; State Senator Charles W. Dent and State Representative 
Paul W. Semmel of Pennsylvania; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of 
Japan; and Muqtada Al Sadr, Iraqi Shiite cleric whose militia engaged in 
an uprising in Iraq in early April. The Office of the Press Secretary 
also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.