For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 28, 2002
President Meets with Afghan Interim Authority Chairman
Remarks by the President and Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority Hamid Karzai
The Rose Garden
THE PRESIDENT: It's a great honor for me to welcome to
the White House the Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority, Hamid
Karzai.
Mr. Chairman, welcome.
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: I also want to welcome the ministers of
the Interim Authority who have accompanied him to
Washington. Chairman Karzai is a determined leader, and his
government reflects the hopes of all Afghans for a new and better
future; a future free from terror, free from war, and free from want.
The United States strongly supports Chairman Karzai's interim
government. And we strongly support the Bonn agreement that
provides the Afghan people with a path towards a broadly-based
government that protects the human rights of all its citizens.
The Afghan people have already taken the first steps along this
path by committing to rid their country of al Qaeda terrorists, and
remnants of the Taliban regime who supported the
terrorists. Yet, even as the war against terrorism
continues, the world has also begun to help the Afghan people win the
peace they deserve.
The United States is committed to building a lasting partnership
with Afghanistan. We'll help the new Afghan government
provide the security that is the foundation for
peace. Today, peacekeepers from around the world are helping
provide security on the streets of Kabul. The United States
will continue to work closely with these forces and provide support for
their mission. We will also support programs to train new
police officers, and to help establish and train an Afghanistan
national military.
The United States is also committed to playing a leading role in
the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Today, I announce the
United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation will provide an
additional $50-million line of credit for Afghanistan to finance
private-sector projects. This announcement builds on the
United States' pledge in Tokyo earlier this month to provide $297
million this year to create jobs and to start rebuilding Afghanistan's
agricultural sector, its health care system, and its educational
system. Yet these efforts are only the beginning.
Two days ago, for the first time since 1979, an American flag was
raised over the U.S. Agency for International Development's mission in
Kabul. That flag will not be lowered. It will
wave long into the future, a symbol of America's enduring commitment to
Afghanistan's future.
Chairman Karzai, I reaffirm to you today that the United States
will continue to be a friend to the Afghan people in all the challenges
that lie ahead. Welcome to Washington.
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. Although we
are here, as I mentioned in my meeting with you, invited by you, for
which we are very grateful, but we are also here in a way to thank you
and the American people for the great help that we were given to
liberate our country once again -- this time from terrorism from the
Taliban. The Afghan people recognize this
help. They know that, without this help, we would have still
probably been under that rule. So thank you very much to you
and, through you, to the American people.
Afghanistan is a good partner. It will stay a good
partner. And I'm sure that the future of the two countries
will be good and a wonderful relationship should be expected to come in
the future. Thank you very much for the help that you gave
us during the Turkey conference, and thank you for organizing that, as
well, together with other co-organizers, and thank you for the help
that you announced today.
Afghanistan does need help in
reconstruction. Afghanistan does need help in the rebuilding
of its national army. And thank you very much for doing
that, too.
I assure you, Mr. President, that Afghanistan, with your help and
the help of other countries, friends, will be strong and will stand
eventually on its own feet, and it will be a country that will defend
its borders and not allow terrorism to return to it, or bother it, or
trouble it. We'll be self-reliant. We'll do good
in business. We'll be a strong country.
Afghanistan knows, Mr. President, the suffering of those people in
America that saw and went through the horrors of the Twin Tower
incident, the terrorism there. I believe the Afghans are the
best people to see the pain exactly the way it was felt there then, at
the time, because the Afghans have suffered exactly in the same
way. We have sympathy, we know that pain, we understand
it. Our families know that pain.
Therefore, this joint struggle against terrorism should go to the
absolute end of it. We must finish them. We must
bring them out of their caves and their hideouts, and we promise we'll
do that.
Thank you very much, again, for having us here. It was
an honor and we enjoy our trip to the U.S, myself and my
colleagues. Thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We'll answer a couple of questions. Steve, Sonya.
Q On the issue of the detainees at
Guantanamo Bay, what's wrong with formally applying the Geneva
Convention to them?
THE PRESIDENT: I have -- the question is about the
detainees in Guantanamo Bay. I had a very interesting
meeting this morning with my national security team. We're
discussing all the legal ramifications of how we -- what we -- how we
characterize the actions at Guantanamo Bay. A couple of
things we agree on. One, they will not be treated as
prisoners of war. They're illegal
combatants. Secondly, they will be treated humanely.
And then, I'll figure out -- I'll listen to all the legalisms and
announce my decision when I make it. But we're in total
agreement on how to -- on whether or not -- on how these prisoners --
or detainees, excuse me, ought to be treated. And they'll be
treated well.
And yesterday, the Secretary of Defense went down to Guantanamo Bay
with United States senators from both political parties. The
senators got to see the circumstances in which these detainees were
being held. They -- I don't want to put words in their
mouth, but according to the Secretary of Defense -- I'll let him puts
words in their mouth -- they felt like, one, that our troops were
really valiant in their efforts to make sure that these killers --
these are killers -- were held in such a way that they were
safe. I noticed one of our troops last night was commenting
that they are receiving very good medical care. But I'll
make my decision about -- on how to legally interpret the situation
here pretty soon.
Sonya.
Q Sir, are you prepared to go to court with
the General Accounting Office to keep secret the records of your energy
task force meetings?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the question about the General
Accounting Office is this: Should an administration be
allowed to have private conversations in this office without everybody
knowing about it. This is part of how you make decisions, is
to call people in and say, what's your opinion. What's your
opinion on stem cell? What's your opinion on
energy? What's your opinion on the war?
And in order for me to be able to get good, sound opinions, those
who offer me opinions or offer the Vice President opinions must know
that every word they say is not going to be put into the public
record. And so I view the GAO like the Vice President
does. It's an encroachment on the Executive Branch's ability
to conduct business.
Now, as far as the specific case of the Energy Report goes, there
is an energy report that is now in the public arena. People
are free to read it. I hope they do, because it's a
comprehensive report, one based upon the opinions of members of the
exploration sector of the energy business; some about the
infrastructure, opinions from those involved with the infrastructure;
some opinions obviously from those in the environmental
community. This is a report that collected a lot of
opinions. And it was done in such a way that people felt
free to come in and express their opinion.
And so, to answer your question, we're not going to let the ability
for us to discuss matters between ourselves to become
eroded. It's not only important for us, for this
administration, it is an important principle for future
administrations.
Gregory.
Q Mr. President, on the Middle East --
THE PRESIDENT: Medium-size
Stretch. (Laughter.)
Q When you spoke to President Mubarak today
and expressed your disappointment in Yasser Arafat, what did he
say? And secondly, are you worried that the level of
disappointment in the region is not as high as your
own? Does that complicate your efforts to build a coalition
against Arafat that's necessary?
THE PRESIDENT: I think members -- I think -- first of
all, Mr. Mubarak can characterize the conversation the way he sees
fit. I will just tell you what I told him. And I
told him that in order for there to be peace in the Middle East, we
must rout out terror, wherever it exists. And the U.S.
effort to rout out terror around the world is going to benefit the
Middle East in the long-term.
It is important for Mr. Arafat to not only renounce terror, but to
arrest those who would terrorize people trying to bring
peace. There are people in the region that want there to be
a peaceful settlement, and yet, obviously, terrorists are trying to
prevent that from happening by wanton murder. And Mr. Arafat
must join the effort to arrest them.
And when the ship showed up with weapons, obviously aimed at
terrorizing that part of the world, I expressed my severe
disappointment because I was led to believe that he was willing to join
us in the fight on terror. I took him for his word when he
-- at Oslo. And so I made this very clear to my friend,
Hosni Mubarak, that ridding the Middle East of terror is going to make
it more likely that there be peace and stability in the region.
Q Mr. President, going to the issue of the
GAO lawsuit --
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q -- some in Congress, particularly
Congressman Waxman, suggested that the Energy Report represented a wish
list for Enron.
THE PRESIDENT: The Energy Report represented a wish --
in other words, we were doing favors for Enron?
Q That's his representation. Do
you agree with that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Enron went bust. Shortly
after the report was put out, Enron went broke. And it went
broke because, it seems like to me -- and we'll wait for the facts to
come out -- it went broke because there was not full disclosure of
finances. This is a -- what we're talking about here is a
corporate governance issue. This is a business problem that
our country must deal with and must fix. That is, full
disclosure of liabilities, full understanding of the effects of
decisions on pension funds, reform of a pension system, perhaps.
There are some on Capitol Hill who want to politicize this issue.
This is not a political issue. It is a business issue that
this nation must deal with. And, you know, Enron had made
contributions to a lot of people around Washington, D.C. And
if they came to this administration looking for help, they didn't find
any.
Now, obviously, we're interested in people's opinions about energy
-- those in the energy business, those in the conservation world, those
who know how to develop infrastructure. And so we solicited
a lot of opinions from people. And the report is now public;
everybody can read it to determine our vision about how to make our
country less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil, which we must
do.
Yes, Jim.
Q Mr. President, we understand that you do
now want to commit American troops to peacekeeping forces in
Afghanistan. Why not, sir? And do you have any
concerns that there will be enough forces to give Mr. Karzai the kind
of security he needs?
THE PRESIDENT: We are committing help to the ISIF in the
form of logistical help, in the form of kind of a bailout -- if the
troops get in trouble, we stand ready to help; in the form of
intelligence. Plus, I have just made in my remarks here a
significant change of policy, and that is that we're going to help
Afghanistan develop her own military. That is the most
important part of this visit, it seems like to me, besides the fact of
welcoming a man who stands for freedom, a man who stood for freedom in
the face of tyranny.
We have made a decision -- both of us have made the decision that
Afghanistan must, as quickly as possible, develop her own
military. And we will help. We'll help train, and
Tommy Franks, our general, fully understands this and is fully
committed to this idea. So, better yet than peacekeepers --
which will be there for a while, with our help -- let's have
Afghanistan have her own military.
Major.
Q Mr. President, along the issue of
politicizing Enron, the Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, with whom you in
the past have said you have a good working relationship, said over the
weekend that he was afraid your budget would Enron-ize Social Security
and Medicare. That is to say, put them in specific jeopardy
of collapsing. I wonder if you could comment on that, sir,
and if there's any way to make this --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, sometimes there's political
hyperbole here in this town. The budget I submitted is one
-- will submit soon -- is one that says that the war on terror is going
on and we're going to win, and we've got to make sure we spend enough
money to win. It's also one that prioritizes homeland
security. It is also one that wants to do something about
our economy, let's get a stimulus bill. It's a bill that
sets priorities.
And it is -- I think there are some still upset with the tax
cut. But I want to remind you that we were in recession in
March of last year. That's when they officially declared
recession. The slowdown was obviously significant to reach a
point where we were -- where the economists said we were in
recession. And so the tax cuts came at the right time.
Now, there are some who believe if you raise taxes it makes the
economy stronger. As I've told the American people several
times, I don't understand what textbook they're reading. I
believe by reducing taxes it makes the economy stronger. The
tax relief came right at the right time. Now, our economy is still not
as strong as it should be. There's still some
weakness. But surely people aren't suggesting raising taxes
at this point makes sense. I don't believe it does make any
sense.
And so the budget I've submitted is a good, strong
budget. It sets priorities and it's realistic, and the
American people will understand it when I explain it tomorrow night.
Q Mr. President, in holding the detainees in
Cuba in the manner in which the United States is, is one of the signals
you're sending that, in this new kind of war, as you've described it,
the Geneva Conventions are outdated and don't apply in the conflict
with al Qaeda?
THE PRESIDENT: No, the Geneva Conventions are not
outdated, and it's a very important principle. First of all,
Terry, we are adhering to the spirit of the Geneva
Convention. When you say you're holding the prisoners in the
manner you are -- we're giving them medical care, they're being
well-treated.
There is no allegation -- well, there may be an allegation --
there's no evidence that we're treating them outside the spirit of the
Geneva Convention. And for those who say we are, they just
don't know what they're talking about.
And so --
Q Mr. President --
THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish. And so I am
looking at the legalities involved with the Geneva
Convention. In either case, however I make my decision,
these detainees will be well-treated. We are not going to
call them prisoners of war, in either case. And the reason
why is al Qaeda is not a known military. These are
killers. These are terrorists. They know no
countries. And the only thing they know about countries is
when they find a country that's been weak and they want to occupy it
like a parasite. And that's why we're so pleased to join with Chairman
Karzai to rout them out.
And so the prisoners, detainees, will be
well-treated. They just won't be afforded prisoner of war
status. I'll decide beyond that whether or not they can be
noncombatants under the Geneva Convention, or not. I'll make
that legal decision soon. But this administration has made
the decision they'll be well-treated. Long before they
arrived at Guantanamo Bay did we make that decision.
Plante.
Q Mr. President, the Saudi Interior Minister
today said that a majority of those being held at Guantanamo, more than
100, are Saudi citizens, and asked that they be returned to Saudi
Arabia for questioning.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate his
request. And we will, of course -- we'll take it under
consideration. There are a lot of detainees around the world
as a result of this first phase in the war against terror. There's a
lot in Pakistan, there's a lot in Afghanistan, and there are 179, I
believe, or whatever the number is, in Guantanamo Bay. So
there's a lot Saudi citizens that chose to fight for al Qaeda, and/or
the Taliban, that we want to know more about. And so we'll
make a decision on a case-by-case basis as to whether they go back to
Saudi Arabia, or not. I appreciate his suggestion.
Listen, I want to thank you all very much. Mr. Chairman,
it's good to have you --
Q May I ask Chairman Karzai a question?
THE PRESIDENT: Ask who?
Q May I ask Chairman Karzai something about
--
THE PRESIDENT: Of course you can ask Chairman Karzai a
question. Thank you.
Q Mr. President, I have a question --
THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm sorry.
Q Chairman Karzai, given Afghanistan's
history of fighting foreign invaders, and its pride and independence,
are you concerned about any political sensitivity -- in establishing an
Afghan military? And how would you describe the ideal
partnership between the United States?
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Well, we have no concerns
there. As I mentioned in my remarks earlier, the Afghans are
grateful that we were helped twice, once during the Soviet occupation
by the U.S., and now to fight terrorism and liberate ourselves from
that menace. We are a fiercely independent country, and the
world knows that. Our neighbors know that very well, and the
countries in the region know that.
The Afghan request for training of our army is nothing
new. Our prime ministers were here even back in the 1950s to
ask this kind of training. And it's training and a relationship
between two independent, sovereign countries, and nothing to worry
others.
Q Chairman Karzai, have you discussed in
regards with Osama bin Laden and what can you do to gather more
information to capture him?
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: We are looking for him. He's
a fugitive. If we find him, we'll catch him.