[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 44 (Monday, November 7, 2005)]
[Pages 1652-1655]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Summit of the Americas and an Exchange With Reporters in 
Mar del Plata

November 4, 2005

    The President. Thank you all for coming. I'll answer a couple of 
questions in a second. I do want to say how pleased I am to be here in 
Argentina, advancing an agenda that is based upon my belief and our 
country's belief that there are certain universal values.
    One of those values is that free societies are important to the 
progress of men and women, but free societies also require institutions 
that are solid and sound, institutions such as the right to worship 
freely, the right to write, say what you want in the press freely, the 
right to campaign and express your opinions freely. It's very important 
that there be solid rule of law and independent judiciary.
    And so I'm pleased to be down here. It's a good place to spend 
Laura's birthday, which is today. I don't know if you knew that--no, I 
know you did, okay--but anyway, don't bring it up when you see her. 
[Laughter]
    But it's--I just had a meeting earlier with the Central American 
countries--young democracies, struggling to succeed, making good 
progress toward making sure institutions are well-rooted. I say Central 
American, plus Dominican Republic. And we talked about how pleased we 
were that we got the free trade agreement through, at least

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through the United States Congress. Most of the countries have ratified 
it. We're looking forward to implementing the trade agreement.
    I had a good visit with President Kirchner. You know, Argentina is 
an amazing country. It's a vast land with a lot of natural resources. 
And he's done a very good job of helping to--helping this economy of 
theirs and their financial picture improve. And I congratulated him on 
it. We talked--well, you heard him, I won't repeat what we talked about. 
We talked about a lot of subjects. It was a good, honest discussion.
    And finally, I just met with our friends from the Andean nations. 
Good, young democracies, again struggling to fight narcotrafficking, and 
they were very interested in making sure that we didn't forget them and 
that we continued to pursue a free trade agreement. That was the main 
topic of discussion. All those countries recognize the importance of 
having a free trade agreement with the United States, and I assured them 
that our negotiators are negotiating in good faith and will continue to 
negotiate in good faith. That's what I've done so far today.
     Nedra [Nedra Pickler, Associated Press].

CIA Employee's Identity Disclosure Investigation

    Q. Hi, Mr. President. Thank you. Did Karl Rove tell you the truth 
about his role in the CIA leak case? And do you owe the American people 
an apology for your administration's assertations that Karl Rove and 
Scooter Libby weren't involved?
    The President. We're going through a very serious investigation. And 
I will--have told you before that I'm not going to discuss the 
investigation until it's completed. And we have got a--my obligation is 
to set an agenda, and I've done that. And the agenda is fighting and 
winning the war on terror and keeping the economic vitality and growth 
alive, dealing with the energy problem, nominating people to the Supreme 
Court that adhere to the philosophy that I can depend on--Judge Alito 
being such a person. I noticed today that they've got a date. I'm 
disappointed in the date but happy they do have a firm date for his 
confirmation hearing. We've got to recover from the hurricanes. So I've 
got a lot to do and will continue to focus on the people's business.
    Steve [Steve Holland, Reuters].
    Q. You've taken a beating in recent weeks, sir. What are you going 
to do for a fresh start? Are there going to be any staff changes? Would 
it help if the special prosecutor would wrap up his probe quickly?
    The President. Well, again, you're trying to get me to comment on 
the investigation, which I'm not going to do. And I hope you understand 
that. It's a serious investigation, and it's an important investigation, 
but it's not yet over.
    I think it's important for the American people to know that I 
understand my job is to set clear goals and deal with the problems we 
face. Now, look, we've got an ongoing war on terror, and my 
administration is working with friends and allies to find these 
terrorists and bring them to justice before they strike us again. We're 
fighting the terrorists in Iraq. And as you know, we've got a two-
pronged strategy, an important strategy, that one--on the one hand, has 
a political solution to it, on the other hand has a security solution to 
it. And we're working hard to achieve those objectives. We're laying 
what I have called the foundation for peace, because democratic nations 
don't war; democratic nations will be allies with each other in fighting 
off an ideology that is dark and grim in its vision and is willing to 
use murder as its tool.
    Elisabeth [Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times].
    Q. Okay, this is not a question about the investigation, but it's 
about Karl.
    The President. It sounds like one, though.
    Q. Are there discussions in the White House about whether or not 
Karl will remain in his job?
    The President. Elisabeth, the investigation on Karl, as you know, is 
not complete. And therefore, I will not comment upon--about him and/or 
the investigation. Again, I understand the anxiety and angst by the 
press corps to talk about this. On the other hand, it is a serious 
investigation, and we take it seriously, and we're cooperating to the 
extent that the special prosecutor wants us to cooperate.

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President's Agenda

    Q. The American people, though--sir, the American people, though, 
are beginning to question your honesty, according to the polls, 58 
percent. And your approval rating is at an alltime low, primarily 
because, it seems, of this investigation. They are wondering whether you 
can keep on track and whether to believe you, sir.
    The President. Well, no, I understand there is a preoccupation by 
polls and by some. I think this may be--I think we've got--this is maybe 
the fourth or fifth consecutive semi-press conference--press conference 
or semi-press conference that I've been asked about polls. The way you 
earn credibility with the American people is to declare an agenda that 
everybody can understand, an agenda that relates to their lives, and get 
the job done. And the agenda that I'm working on now is one that is 
important to the American people.
    First of all, it's to protect our country; it's to understand that 
we're at war with a radical ideology that wants to inflict harm on 
America and, at the same time, use that harm they inflict to achieve 
territorial ambition. I've talked a lot recently about the Zawahiri 
letter to Zarqawi, which is a clear statement of purpose by these 
terrorists. It should be viewed for what it is, an open warning to the 
free world that this is a very vital war, and we need to win it. So I 
spend a lot of time talking about that--and more than talking about it, 
acting on it.
    Secondly, you know, our economy has shown amazing resilience in the 
face of natural disaster, as well as rising energy prices. But we've got 
to have policies in place that make it possible for the economy to 
continue to grow. You know, we're down here talking about trade. It's 
hard to trade with somebody if they're broke. And I've told our partners 
that we've got good economic growth now. But what we need to do is to 
work with Congress to make sure that we deal with the energy crisis--
what can we do to deal with the energy crisis? Well, we can expand 
refinery capacity in the United States. I mean, it should be apparent to 
the Members of Congress that when the Katrina hit, there was massive 
disruptions of our own capacity to make gasoline, which put us in a 
precarious position for the consumers, which would affect the economy, 
by the way.
    And so we'll be talking to Congress about a further energy 
initiative to make sure we've got economic growth. We've obviously got 
work to do with Katrina and Rita, the damage from those hurricanes.
    And I mentioned the Supreme Court. This is a very vital issue for 
the United States Senate and for the country. Sam Alito, Jr., is an 
incredibly intelligent, well-qualified person who should be on the 
Court. I told the leadership I thought it would be best to have the 
hearings before Christmas. They didn't feel like they could get the job 
done. I talked to Chairman Specter, and the reason why, at least he 
explained to me, that he couldn't get the hearings done before Christmas 
is because Alito had written so many opinions, and he wanted to make 
sure he had time to read them. And they made that decision. Fortunately, 
there is a firm date, and we look forward to working on that date.
    And finally, an issue that is of concern to the American people is 
the border--is border security. I signed an appropriations bill for 
border security and during that signature ceremony talked about our 
strategy to use technology and border patrol and wise policies to do our 
job, which is to prevent people from illegally--not only people but, by 
the way, contraband, guns and drugs--from coming into our country 
illegally. And so that's the agenda before us, and that's the agenda 
that I will continue to work on.
    One more. Yes, Matt [Matt Cooper, Time].

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

    Q. Mr. President, you're likely to cross paths with Venezuelan 
President Hugo Chavez at this summit. How should Americans think about 
this President, who has said many hostile things about you and your 
administration? Do you think of him as another Castro? And if you see 
him this afternoon, do you have any words for him?
    The President. Well, I will, of course, be polite. That's what the 
American people expect their President to do, is to be a polite person. 
And I will--if I run across him, I will do just that. My attitude toward 
any leader--toward leaders, and I judge leaders

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based upon their willingness to protect institutions that will--for a 
viable democratic society. And to the extent that any leader undermines 
the free press, we will speak out. To the extent that any leader makes 
it difficult to worship freely, we will make our positions known. To the 
extent that the judiciary is not an independent organization--in other 
words, to the extent that there's not proper checks and balances, we 
will express our positions.
    And there's ways to do so. We can do so through our embassies. We 
can do so in forums--not necessarily singling out a particular country 
or person but talking on the positive about how important it is to have 
checks and balances in society, about how important it is to have these 
institutions so that a single person cannot become the ruler of all 
people. I will remind people today at this important summit that--as we 
talk about poverty and minority rights, which is of concern to many 
countries here, that one--such concerns are our concerns, and that if 
you're interested in minority rights, the best way to allow minorities 
to have rights is in a democratic society, where the people actually 
make the decisions for government.
    And so it's a--I think this is a good forum and a good opportunity 
to express--for me to express our country's values. But they're not 
American values, I keep telling you, these are universal values that are 
true. That's why my meeting with President Kirchner was--one of the 
reasons it was so positive is because Argentina shares the same values 
that America shares. They've been through some difficult experiences and 
making sure that those values are rooted in their societies. Of course 
I've reminded others, we went through difficult experiences in the past. 
And we had a Constitution that said everybody is free, but they weren't.
    And so it's a--so what I'll search for in the world, as I think 
about world leaders, is that commitment, firm commitment to values and 
institutions that make democracy viable.
    Thank you all very much. Thanks.

Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. at the Sheraton Mar del Plata. 
In his remarks, he referred to President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina; 
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of 
Illinois and Department of Justice CIA leak investigation Special 
Prosecutor; Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and 
senior Al Qaida associate; and senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al 
Zarqawi. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of these remarks.