For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 4, 2003
Press Gaggle by Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Houston, Texas
10:48 A.M. EST
MR. FLEISCHER: Good morning. Today is going to be a tough day.
The President's remarks are going to focus on the lives of the seven
who were lost. He'll talk about seven lives of great purpose and
achievement. I think it's going to be a stirring and poignant day.
I'll go through the President's schedule. It began this morning
with a phone call to President Putin. They are continuing to consult
about the best way to disarm Saddam Hussein. He had an intelligence
briefing and an FBI briefing before he left the White House.
His program, when he arrives in Houston, will be the following. He
will arrive, attend the ceremony, listen to a variety of the speeches
and the ceremonial events that will take place. His remarks will be
brief, between five and ten minutes. And he'll honor the memory of the
seven crew members who were lost.
Following that, the President will have a private meeting with the
families of the crew members, and then he will return to Washington.
Traveling with him on Air Force One -- and he has interestingly spent
the last one hour in the guest cabin -- the President has been talking
with John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, both of whom are riding on Air
Force One, along with their spouses.
With that, I'm happy to take your questions.
Q When the President says he's committed to making sure that their
mission goes on, is he committing specifically to a continuation of the
Space Shuttle program, or just our exploration in space?
MR. FLEISCHER: Both.
Q He has no doubts about the Space Shuttle program, given that
we've lost two of them in 17 years?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, I've not heard any expressions of doubt from
the President on that. As the President said to Sean O'Keefe
yesterday, "You make us proud." And incidentally, I should mention,
Sean O'Keefe is on board as well. The President's science advisor is
on board, Jack Marburger.
The President understands that manned space flight is a risky
mission. And it's a risk that the President thinks is in our national
and international interest. And he will talk about that in his speech
today.
Q What do you hope the presence of Neil Armstrong and John Glenn
will do for this particular event?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, one, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn are heroes
to America's astronauts, in addition to being heroes to the American
public. And it's a real signal of the President's dedication to the
program that they travel with him today. It's a message of faith and
support, standing tall with the scientific community and with NASA
during this very trying time for them and their families.
Q But, Ari, is he worried that the warnings about the Space Shuttle
that were passed on in the letter from Don Nelson didn't get to him,
they stopped at Marburger, never moved on; that he was not briefed
earlier about some of these warnings about the fleet?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, the issue is -- and the White House indicated
this on Sunday when we discussed at length Mr. Nelson's letter -- Mr.
Nelson had recommended a moratorium of the space shuttle for the
purpose of developing a pod that could be used to eject from the space
shuttle upon launch. These involve technical issues and technical
issues are best explored by the technical experts.
Q So the President doesn't feel he should have been informed about
this earlier, at all.
MR. FLEISCHER: The answer is exactly as I just indicated.
Q Have you determined whether the President has visited Johnson
before? There is still a dispute.
MR. FLEISCHER: Thank you. The Texas staff all recalls a visit. I
was asked to get the date. I am not able to find a date. And so I
think right now it's somewhat murky.
Q Because Johnson has no record of it, and we don't have any record
of it in the Chronicle files, and things like that.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm aware of that. And that's why I say this is
now somewhat murky.
Q With due respect, how could it be murky? How would you forget
going to the -- whether or not you went to the Johnson Space Center?
MR. FLEISCHER: Obviously, the Texas staff that was with the
President at the time remembered it, which is why I said it.
Q Has anybody asked the President?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President, or the Governor repeatedly had
briefings from NASA officials where they would come to Austin and brief
him -- these are the Texas officials from Houston -- traveled to Austin
to brief him on the NASA programs.
Q Has he ever seen a launch or a landing, and hasn't he ever been
curious about a launch or a landing?
MR. FLEISCHER: He very well may have been curious about a launch
or a landing. I'm not aware if he has seen any.
Q Why not?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think there are many things that Presidents would
like to do, in the two plus one month years that he's been in office,
he hasn't had an opportunity to do. There are many wonderful parts of
America that the President has yet to explore. And over the course of
his term, perhaps he will. He has not yet.
Q Ari, do you have anything on a terrorist threat -- general threat
from al Qaeda that may be imminent with assassination plots before
that? Do you have anything on that?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, there is nothing new here in this report. It
does remain an ongoing concern. Al Qaeda, of course, does want to
attack the United States. They've attacked us before. If they get
their way, they'll attack us again. That's one of the reasons why we
are sparing no effort in the war against terror to stop them abroad
before they can make it to America, to beef up our protections here in
America to prevent them from getting in, and then to have very
effective law enforcement techniques put in place to find them if
they're already here.
It is a concern. But there's nothing new. There's no new
information here.
Q What report is this, do you know? Somebody heard it over the
radio today.
Q It's in the Washington Times.
MR. FLEISCHER: It's a Bill Gertz on the front page of today's
Washington Times.
Q I know it's a small point, but back to this murkiness. Has
anybody asked the President if he recalls going to the Johnson Space
Center?
MR. FLEISCHER: I did. To the President's recollection, he thinks
he had been there. He wasn't sure about when, when it was before his
becoming governor.
Q How confident is the President that after Powell's speech he'll
get a second resolution?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm sorry?
Q How confident is the President that after Powell's speech, he'll
get a second resolution out of the U.N.?
MR. FLEISCHER: We'll see. First of all, we'll see whether there
will be a second resolution or not. But I think that the American
people are going to be very interested in Secretary Powell's remarks
tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if it was broadcast by the networks,
although I have no reason -- I have not talked to them about it. It
wouldn't be my place to talk to them about it. They make these
judgements independently.
But I think the American people are going to have a very keen
interest in what Secretary Powell will have to say. And the American
people had a very keen interest in what the President said in his State
of the Union about the threat from Saddam Hussein and his possession of
weapons that he swore he didn't have, when we know he does.
Q Ari, what comes after that, Powell's address. What are we
expected to see in the couple -- next couple weeks from the President
regarding Iraq?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think really, we will see. The one event
that the world still waits for is Saddam Hussein's next move. Saddam
Hussein's next move should have been the move he made months ago, which
was to do what South Africa, other nations have done, and disarm, once
and for all, cooperate once and for all, to comply once and for all.
He has not done any of the three. He has not disarmed, he has not
cooperated, he has not complied.
Q Did President Bush and President Putin discuss any new
resolution?
MR. FLEISCHER: They consulted. And I'm not going to get into any
more of the specifics of the call beyond that.
Q How long was it?
MR. FLEISCHER: Fifteen minutes, including translation.
Q There's a lot of talk about weeks, not months. Not to be
technical, but anything over eight weeks is months, right, so it's got
to be less than that. And there's reports out that it's six weeks. So
it's got to be somewhere in that timeframe, right?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the President indeed said, weeks, not
months. And I've been trying to caution the press to not make any
judgements about exactly how many weeks that could be, because I've
seen a lot of guess work in the media. I've seen a report that said
seven to eight weeks, then I saw a report that said three weeks. Now I
see a report that says six weeks. So I guess by process of
elimination, if every week is covered, one of them may turn out to be
right.
But there's no basis that I have seen that would allow anybody to
make any type of authoritative statement with more precision than the
President has given. The President gave a rather tight timetable. But
he didn't define with specificity how exactly tight that timetable is.
Q Has the President been briefed about any debris that may have
fallen on his ranch? There was some talk that some debris may have
fallen on his --
MR. FLEISCHER: There's nothing that I've heard about that,
Benett. It did not come up in the meeting yesterday with Mr. O'Keefe.
And nobody has brought anything like that to my attention. Having
looked at the maps of where the debris fell, my look at those maps
indicates that it was north of his ranch. But if there is anything too
that, I'll let you know. But I have not heard that. You heard that?
Q I just heard one report. But now they're finding it west of Fort
Worth. It's sort of further afield than --
MR. FLEISCHER: Do you know where you heard a report that it landed
on his ranch?
Q I don't remember now, where I heard that.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll dot the T's and cross the I's on that.
Q What was the question?
MR. FLEISCHER: The question was, one report that debris may have
fallen on the President's ranch. And in a mix of metaphors, I promised
that I would dot the T's and cross the I's to find out, a spelling
mistake.
Thank you.
Q Just to close a loop, if the President recalls being at
Johnson Space Center, and his staff recalls being at Johnson Space
Center, why is it murky?
MR. FLEISCHER: Because Johnson Space Center says that he did not
go there, and I'm not able to find the exact date. So that's why I say
it's murky.
Q Ari, you know, when our reporter -- Chronicle reporter asked
during the campaign, the Bush staff said he had not been there as
Governor.
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, I'm aware of that.
Q So all the reports seem to indicate he --
MR. FLEISCHER: When I said it yesterday, I relied on information
from somebody -- the press office relied on the information that was
provided to us. And so, in the end, I don't think it's that
significant a factor or not. But I want to be precise in what I say.
And now you know everything I know about it.
Q So it may have been when he was a private citizen, when there
would have been no record of him coming in.
MR. FLEISCHER: That's indeed a possibility, correct.
Q Is it Karen Hughes recalls him going, is that who --
MR. FLEISCHER: I have not talked to Karen about it.
Q Maybe Brian Montgomery or somebody?
MR. FLEISCHER: All right, let me try to find out about the
debris.
END 11 A.M. EST
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