Q Ari, on Mexico and then bin Laden. Today in the United
Nations, Foreign Secretary -- from Mexico asked the Security
Council to exercise much more pressure for Saddam Hussein to disarm.
That is my first question, and I'd like to know what is your -- if
you have any comments on that.
And my second question is in regards to bin Laden. The United
States government is working very hard, has been working very hard to
find this man. And according to some U.S. reports, the Pentagon had
him -- he's been found somewhere. So is this true? Are you --
is the United States --
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I was asked earlier about bin Laden's sons,
and I already dismissed that.
Q Is the U.S. close to finding this man?
MR. FLEISCHER: There's no such thing as close, there's only
whether he's found or he's not.
On your first question about Mexico and disarmament, one of the
other things that took place up in New York today involves something
that is called a cluster report. This is something that Jack Straw
alluded to. This is an almost 200-page report by the inspectors on
outstanding issues concerning Iraq's proscribed weapons programs --
some 200 pages; 200 deadly pages; 200 shocking, detailed pages.
And what this cluster report shows -- and this is why I think
nation's like Mexico look at this and say, Iraq has not disarmed --
is the United Nations inspectors have found evidence that on at least
29 occasions Iraq refused, despite repeated requests from the
international community, to provide credible evidence to substantiate
its claims that they do not possess arms, or have disarmed fully and
completely.
They go on and they say in this report that only in 1995 did Iraq
declare that its offensive biological program, after publicly denying
its existence for four years; only in 1997 did Iraq -- did
inspectors discover evidence that the production completed prohibited
missiles; only in 1997, did Iraq declare an additional 187 pieces of
specialty equipment used to produce deadly chemical agents; only in
2003, did Iraq turn over the so-called Iraqi Air Force document that
contradicted Iraq's chemical weapons declaration by disclosing an
additional 6,500 bombs with 1,000 tons of blistering mustard gas. So
turned over in New York today is a 200-page document that is a very
detailed walk-through of why the world has reasons to fear that Saddam
Hussein has not disarmed.
Two other points that are in this report I want to lay out for
you. It says that, after lying for four years, Iraq admitted in 1995
to producing nearly 8,500 liters of anthrax. An additional 10,000
liters of anthrax were not destroyed and may still exist, according to
this report. It said that Iraq provided false and misleading
declarations in order to retain production equipment specifically
modified to produce VX. It has direct physical -- and the direct
physical evidence contradicts Iraq's claim that it never weaponized
VX.
Separately, we know -- as Secretary Powell has said -- that
while Iraq on the one hand has said that it is destroying its Al Samoud
II missiles, just as recently as days ago, they continue to produce
more.
Q What about the second question?
MR. FLEISCHER: On bin Laden? I answered it first.
Q There's a report out today -- there's a report out today
that France has been providing Iraq with military parts. Can you
comment on that? And then broadly on whether you think that France's
financial interests in Iraq are playing some kind of role in their
position?
MR. FLEISCHER: Of course, there are sanctions that would limit and
restrict any nation's ability to do that. I have not seen such a
report. And from the President's point of view, the nations that he is
working with are acting in principle. And that's how he treats it.
Q Ari, North Korea announced that they will pull out of the
armistice agreement if the United States imposes any military or
economic sanctions on North Korea. Can you comment on that?
MR. FLEISCHER: North Korea has made similar inflammatory
statements throughout the 1990s. And the President, again, views
this -- just as he said last night -- as a regional matter, as
a multilateral matter, not as a unilateral matter; and on an issue in
which we'll continue to work with our allies to show North Korea the
importance of dismantling its nuclear programs.
Q Thank you.
MR. FLEISCHER: Thank you.
END 3:00 P.M. EST