Q What are you hoping to achieve by holding
the military tribunals? And at this point, do we have any people
eligible to face those tribunals?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the tribunals are just an option
for us. And we'll be using the tribunals if in the course of
bringing somebody to justice it may jeopardize or compromise the
national security interests. So they're a tool, they're an
option. As you know, we're discussing rules about how they
can function well. The Defense Department asked a lot of
opinions from respected scholars, and the world's now beginning to see
what we meant by a fair system that will enable us
to -- justice, but at the same time protect
national security. I have no plans right now to use
anybody -- nobody in mind yet. But the
option is available.
Q Are many of those people otherwise going
to be sent back to their home countries, and have you decided which one
would be --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're still in the process of
getting as much information from the detainees as
possible. Remember, these are -- the
ones in Guantanamo Bay are killers. They don't share the
same values we share. They would like nothing more than to
come after America, or our friends and allies. And so,
therefore, it's in our national interest to make sure we know enough
about them before we decide what to do with them. So there's a
process -- ongoing process to get as much
information as we can from the prisoners or the
detainees. Some talk, some don't talk.
Q But let me follow, if I
could --
THE PRESIDENT: You're going on three questions.
Q Okay, sorry. But if you say
they're killers --
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I think they're killers.
Q What makes them eligible to go to a
tribunal?
THE PRESIDENT: I told you, if any evidence required to
convict them jeopardizes the national security interests of the
country, we'll use the tribunal.
Q Mr. President, are you frustrated by the
continuing violence in the Middle East, that
looks -- one day it looks good, the next day it's
--
THE PRESIDENT: Of course, I am. I am
frustrated by the violence in the Middle East, and so are a lot of
people who live in the Middle East. I know there are some
people who do not want us to achieve any kind of peaceful settlement of
a longstanding dispute. And they're willing to use terrorist
means to disrupt any progress that's being made. And that
frustrates me. It frustrates mothers and dads who happen to
be Palestinians and Israelis, because they want to raise their children
in a secure environment.
Nevertheless, we'll continue to work the issue, and work it hard.
Zinni is over there, he's making some progress. He's saying
to both parties, stay the course, work hard to get into
Tenet. And hopefully we can achieve what we all want to
achieve, which is eventually a political settlement. But
first and foremost, we've got to come up with a security
agreement. We made some progress, and I want to thank Zinni
for his job that he's doing there. And I'm looking forward
to being briefed by the Vice President tomorrow morning when he gets
back from -- he's getting back this afternoon,
but he's going to come in tomorrow morning. We'll have
breakfast first thing in the morning, prior to me leaving for Mexico.
Q Mr. President, just yesterday the Vice
President was suggesting that he could meet with Chairman Arafat if
there was a cease-fire. Does a cease-fire mean an end to all
suicide bombings?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what he said was, was that there
are certain conditions under which he would meet with Mr. Arafat, and
that is getting into the Tenet agreement and meeting the
conditions. And we've also said that we expect there to be
100 percent effort by Chairman Arafat. We expect him to be
reining in those people with whom he's got influence. Clearly, he's
not going to have influence with every single suicide bomber, I
understand that. But we expect him to be diligent and firm
and consistent in his efforts to rein in those who would like to
disrupt any progress toward peace, and rein in those who would harm our
friends, the Israelis.
And as I've said in the past, I didn't think he has done a very
good job of doing that up to now, and I believe he can do a better
job. And that's exactly the message the Vice President is
delivering in his statement.
Listen, thank you all very much. I don't want to hold
two press conferences in one week.
MRS. BUSH: Wait, let me just show them one thing before
they go off. I want you all to see this uniform that's down here,
before we go to the next part of the press conference.
A group of people from around the globe, actually, have gotten
together to raise the money to send manual sewing machines to
Afghanistan, so women can have jobs making these uniforms, as well as a
lot of fabric, so that when girls go back to school, in a few weeks
they'll have a uniform to wear to school. I wanted you to
see this on the mannequin before we go into the next event.