[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 39 (Monday, October 2, 2006)]
[Pages 1668-1674]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 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

[[Page 1669]]

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.
    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.

[[Page 1670]]

    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].

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 
confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why 
they leaked it.

[[Page 1671]]

    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 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.

[[Page 1672]]

    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 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, 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

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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 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,

[[Page 1674]]

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 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.