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(04/07/08 4:48am)
SOCHI, Russia – President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to overcome sharp differences over a U.S. missile defense system, closing their seven-year relationship Sunday still far apart on an issue that has separated them from the beginning.\n“Our fundamental attitude toward the American plan has not changed,” Putin said at a news conference with Bush at his vacation house at this Black Sea resort. “We got a lot of way to go,” Bush said. \nDespite the impasse, the two leaders agreed that Moscow and Washington would work together closely in the future on missile defense and other difficult issues.\nBush also conferred with Putin’s hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, but did not claim gaining any insight into his soul, as he had with Putin upon their first encounter. He pronounced Putin’s protege “a straightforward fellow” and said he was eager to work with him.\nPutin was asked whether he – or Medvedev, the president-elect – would be in charge of Russia’s foreign policy after May 7, when Putin steps down as president and is expected to be named prime minister.\nPutin said Medvedev would be in charge, and would represent Russia at the Group of Eight meeting of industrial democracies in July in Tokyo. “Mr. Medvedev has been one of the co-authors of Russia’s foreign policy,” Putin said. “He’s completely on top of things.”\nNational Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, when asked later whether he thought Putin actually was going to cede authority on Russian foreign policy to Medvedev, said, “My guess is that these two men who have worked very closely together for now almost two decades will have a very collaborative relationship. That seems to be a good thing, not a bad thing.”\nHadley, who spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One on the way home to Washington, also said he didn’t see any prospect of a breakthrough on missile defense before Bush leaves office next January. “They can leave that to their prospective successors,” he said.\nAt their 28th and presumably final meeting as heads of state, Bush and Putin sought to emphasize their good personal relations, praising each other extensively. But they also both acknowledged remaining strong disagreements, principally missile defense and NATO’s eastward expansion.\nRussia remains adamantly opposed to the expansion of the alliance into its backyard, an enlargement that Bush has actively championed over Putin’s vocal objections.\nThe Sochi meeting came just days after NATO leaders agreed at a summit in Romania to invite Albania and Croatia to join the alliance. However, the alliance rebuffed U.S. attempts to begin the process of inviting Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, to join, although their eventual admission seems likely.\nPutin called the U.S. missile plan – which envisions basing tracking radar sites in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland – the hardest of US-Russian differences to reconcile. “This is not about language. This is not about diplomatic phrasing or wording. This is about the substance of the issue,” he said.\nBush reiterated his insistence that the plan – designed to intercept and destroy approaching ballistic missiles at high altitudes – should not be viewed as a threat to Russia. In a clear reference to Iran, he said the system would help protect Europe from “regimes that could try to hold us hostage.”\n“I view this as defensive, not offense,” Bush said. “And, obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to convince the experts this defense system is not aimed at Russia.”
(02/29/08 4:26am)
WASHINGTON – President Bush said Thursday the country is not recession-bound and, despite expressing concern about slowing economic growth, rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts. “We acted robustly,” he said.\n“We’ll see the effects of this pro-growth package,” Bush told reporters at a White House news conference, acknowledging that some lawmakers already are talking about a second stimulus package. “Why don’t we let stimulus package 1, which seemed like a good idea at the time, have a chance to kick in?”\nBush’s view of the economy was decidedly rosier than that of many economists, who say the country is nearing recession territory or might already be there. \n“I’m concerned about the economy,” he said. “I don’t think we’re headed to recession. But no question, we’re in a slowdown.”\nThe centerpiece of government efforts to brace the wobbly economy is a package Congress passed and Bush signed last month. It will rush rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 to millions of people and give tax incentives to businesses.\nOn one issue particularly worrisome to American consumers, there are indications that paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline is not out of the question when the summer driving season arrives. Asked about that, Bush said “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that. ... I know it’s high now.”\nBush also telegraphed optimism about the U.S. dollar, which has been declining in value.\n“I believe that our economy has got the fundamentals in place for us to ... grow and continue growing, more robustly, hopefully, than we’re growing now,” he said. “So we’re still for a strong dollar.”\nBush also used his news conference to press Congress to give telecommunications companies legal immunity for helping the government eavesdrop after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.\nHe continued a near-daily effort to prod lawmakers into passing his version of a law to make it easier for the government to conduct domestic eavesdropping on suspected terrorists’ phone calls and e-mails. He says the country is in more danger now that a temporary surveillance law has expired.\nThe president and Congress are in a showdown over Bush’s demand on the immunity issue.\nBush said the companies helped the government after being told “that their assistance was legal and vital to national security.”\n“Allowing these lawsuits to proceed would be unfair,” he said.\nMore important, Bush added, “the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance and it would give al-Qaida and others a roadmap as to how to avoid the surveillance.”\nThe Senate passed its version of the surveillance bill earlier this month, and it provides retroactive legal protection for telecommunications companies that wiretapped U.S. phone and computer lines at the government’s request and without court permission. The House version, approved in October, does not include telecom immunity.\nTelecom companies face about 40 lawsuits for their alleged role in wiretapping their American customers.\nSenate Democrats appeared unwilling to budge.\nAs Bush began speaking, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., cast the president’s position as a “tiresome campaign to avoid accountability for the unlawful surveillance of Americans.”\n“The president once again is misusing his bully pulpit,” Leahy said. “Once again they are showing they are not above fear-mongering if that’s what it takes to get their way.”\nBush criticized the Democratic presidential candidates for their attempts to disassociate themselves from the North American Free Trade Agreement, a free-trade pact between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Bush said the deal is contributing to more and better-paying jobs for Americans.
(11/16/07 3:05am)
Ahead of the holiday travel crunch, President Bush ordered steps Thursday to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded.\nThe most significant change is that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace from Florida to Maine to create “a Thanksgiving express lane” for commercial airliners. It will be open next week for five days – Wednesday through Sunday – for the busiest days of Thanksgiving travel.\nBush said the problems with delayed flights are “clear to anybody who’s been traveling. Airports are very crowded. Travelers are being stranded and flights are delayed, sometimes with a full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours.\n“These failures carry some real costs for the country, not just in the inconvenience they cause but in the business they obstruct and the family gatherings they cause people to miss,” the president said. “We can do better.”\nThe new plan also will be in effect for the Christmas travel season, and White House press secretary Dana Perino said the Federal Aviation Administration was imposing a holiday moratorium on nonessential maintenance projects, allowing all FAA personnel and equipment to be focused on keeping flights on time.\nFurther, the Department of Transportation will propose doubling the bump fee that airlines must pay to travelers who buy tickets but wind up without a seat. The penalty now is $200 or $400, depending on how long the passenger has been inconvenienced. The proposed increase would make the fee $400 to $800. Perino said that rule, if it becomes final, would not be in place until next summer’s travel season.\nFurther, officials said the FAA would take other steps to increase efficiency such as rerouting airspace, using technology to fill unused space in the air and on the ground, and using more precise routes for takeoffs and landings.\nAnother proposed rule would deem the operation of a chronically delayed flight – defined as a flight that operates more than 15 minutes late more than 70 percent of the time – to be an “unfair and deceptive practice.” That designation carries with it substantial monetary penalties.\nThe president said other steps were under consideration to reduce crowded skies, such as charging airlines higher landing and takeoff fees at peak hours, and auctioning off landing and takeoff rights to the highest bidder.\nDomestic carriers are expected to fly roughly 27 million passengers worldwide over 12 days beginning Nov. 16, with planes about 90 percent full, according to the Air Transport Association.\nSeveral airline executives, testifying before the House Transportation Committee Thursday on holiday travel prospects, said they were preparing to care for passengers in the event of weather or air traffic control-related delays.\nJetblue Airways CEO Dave Barger acknowledged that “we let our customers down” last February when hundreds of passengers were stranded on parked JetBlue planes for up to 10 1/2 hours. “In fact, to be candid, we failed them.”
(06/20/07 10:19pm)
WASHINGTON – White House budget director Rob Portman announced his resignation Tuesday, and President Bush named former Iowa Rep. Jim Nussle as his successor.\n“I’m here to say goodbye to a good friend,” Bush said in a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room. “There’s no finer man in public service than Rob Portman.”\n“Fortunately we’ve found a good man to succeed him,” Bush said of Nussle. “Jim’s name and knowledge command respect on Capitol Hill.”\nNussle ran for governor of Iowa last year and was defeated. He has been serving in Iowa as an adviser in former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.\nPortman, who was a six-term congressman from Cincinnati, left his career on Capitol Hill to join the Bush administration two years ago as trade representative and was named budget director a little more than a year ago to replace Josh Bolten when he became White House chief of staff.\nPortman said he was leaving the administration for personal reasons. His family has remained in Cincinnati and he has been commuting home on weekends for 14 years.\n“I need to be home more. I’ve got three kids ages 12 to 17. It’s just been very hard to spend as much time with them and Jane as I need to at this time of my life,” he said.\nPortman also made it clear he might seek a return to elective office, either by running for governor of Ohio or for the Senate.\nPortman said the president “is in a good position” to contest the Democratic-controlled Congress over spending if necessary. The White House has issued some veto threats against spending bills in recent days, and more are coming, the budget director said.\nNussle’s appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
(06/11/07 4:05pm)
ROME – President Bush, denounced by tens of thousands of anti-American protesters on the streets of Rome, defended his humanitarian record on Saturday to Pope Benedict XVI, who expressed concern about “the worrisome situation in Iraq.”\nBush also sought to shore up relations with Premier Romano Prodi, whose center-left government has been heavily critical of U.S. policies. While Prodi has withdrawn Italian forces from Iraq, Bush thanked him for Italy’s leadership in supporting the fragile western-backed government in Lebanon and its commitment of 2,000 troops for NATO’s mission in Afghanistan.\nRelations with Italy are “pretty darn solid,” Bush said.\nProdi agreed. “We basically agree on how the future of the world should look, should be,” the Italian leader said. \nThe president went to the Vatican for his first meeting with the pope, who has lamented the “continual slaughter” in Iraq and said that “nothing positive comes from Iraq.”\nThe pope asked Bush about his talks in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time of deep strain between Moscow and Washington. “The dialogue with Putin was also good?” the pope asked.\n“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Bush said, mindful of the presence of reporters and television cameras during the photo opportunity. They both laughed.\n“I was talking to a very smart, loving man,” Bush said later of his discussion with the pope. “I was in awe, and it was a moving experience.”\nHighly unpopular in Italy and across Europe, the president made a point about U.S. efforts to fight disease and poverty in Africa. Bush recalled that he had asked Congress to double the commitment for fighting AIDS in Africa, from $15 billion to $30 billion.\nTens of thousands of anti-globalization and far-left activists marched peacefully through the capital’s ancient center to protest Bush’s visit. Thousands of police were deployed round the Colosseum, the downtown Piazza Venezia and other sites.\nAs the protests were concluding, riot police used tear gas on small groups who threw bottles and donned masks in defiance of a police order.\nMore than an hour into the clashes, police charged the demonstrators, pursuing them down alleyways to break up the crowd as helicopters circled overhead. News agency ANSA said six people were taken into custody.\nWhite House aides shrugged off the protests, calling them democracy in action; Bush apologized for disrupting traffic as his motorcade moved through Rome under heavy security.
(02/15/07 4:09am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said on Wednesday he's certain the Iranian government is supplying deadly weapons used by fighters in Iraq against U.S. troops, even if he can't prove that the orders came from top Iranian leaders.\nMore important, Bush said in his first news conference of the year, is the need to protect American forces against the new weapons and technology, including sophisticated new roadside bombs.\n"I'm going to do something about it," Bush pledged, displaying apparent irritation at being repeatedly asked about mixed administration signals on who was behind the weaponry.\n"To say it is provoking Iran is just a wrong way to characterize the commander in chief's decision to do what is necessary to protect our soldiers in harm's way," Bush said.\nU.S. officials have said that Iran is behind attacks against troops in Iraq, an assertion denied by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.\nMeanwhile, Bush shrugged off congressional debate on a resolution opposing his Iraq policy, noting that the measure was nonbinding and mostly symbolic. But he said U.S. troops are counting on lawmakers to provide them the funds they need to win.\nBush spoke as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives debated a measure opposing his decision to send some 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.\n"They have every right to express their opinion and it is a nonbinding resolution," he said of the House members. But he suggested he would dig in his heels if Congress wavered on emergency spending legislation to pay for the operation.\n"Our troops are counting on their elected leaders in Washington, D.C., to provide them with the support they need to do their mission," Bush said.\nIn his first news conference since Dec. 20, 2006, Bush said he had just received his first briefing from Baghdad by Gen. David Petraeus, the new chief commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.\nBush said he talked with Petraeus about coordination between Iraqi and coalition forces, and that while it seemed to be good, more work was needed on developing an efficient command-and-control structure.\nMeanwhile, Bush responded carefully when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent sharp criticism. He has a "complicated relationship" with the Russian leader, the president said.\nPutin slammed U.S. domination of world affairs at an international conference of security officials in Germany over the weekend, saying the U.S. was making the world more dangerous by overusing its military power.\nThe depth of Putin's criticism surprised U.S. officials. Moscow and Washington drew closer together immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but more recently relations have been strained.\nBush emphasized he and Putin have a lot they agree on, including on making sure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.
(01/24/07 5:24am)
WASHINGTON -- A politically weakened President Bush implored a skeptical Congress on Tuesday night to embrace his unpopular plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, saying it represents the best hope in a war America must not lose. "Give it a chance to work," he said.\nFacing a political showdown with Democrats and Republicans alike, Bush was unyielding on Iraq in his annual State of the Union address. He also sought to revive his troubled presidency with proposals to expand health insurance coverage and to slash gasoline consumption by 20 percent in a decade.\nDemocrats -- and even some Republicans -- scoffed at his Iraq policy. Unmoved by Bush's appeal, Democrats said the House and Senate would vote on resolutions of disapproval of the troop buildup.\n"We need a new direction," said freshman Sen. Jim Webb, picked by the Democrats to deliver their TV response. "The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military," said Webb, a Vietnam veteran opposed to Bush's invasion of Iraq.\nRepublican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, also took issue with Bush. "I can't tell you what the path to success is, but it's not what the president has put on the table," he said.\nIt was a night of political theater as Bush went before the first Democratic-controlled Congress in a dozen years with his lowest approval ratings in polls.\nDemocratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman to lead the House, sat over Bush's shoulder, next to Vice President Dick Cheney. Reaching out to the Democrats, Bush opened with a tribute to Pelosi and paused to shake her hand. He also asked for prayers for Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, hospitalized for more than a month after suffering a brain hemorrhage, and Republican Georgia Rep. Charlie Norwood, suffering from cancer.\nThe speech audience included up to a dozen House and Senate members who have announced they are running for president or are considered possible contenders.\nBush divided his 49-minute address between domestic and foreign issues, but the war was topic No. 1.\nPelosi set the tone for Democrats. She sat silently and did not applaud as Bush warned of high stakes in Iraq and said American forces must not step back before Baghdad is secure.\nWith Congress poised to deliver a stinging rebuke on his troop increase, he made a personal plea to lawmakers.\n"I have spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments you made," Bush said. "We went into this largely united, in our assumptions and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure."\n"Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq and I ask you to give it a chance to work," Bush said. "And I ask you to support our troops in the field and those on their way."\nPelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave Bush a swift answer. "While the president continues to ignore the will of the country, Congress will not ignore this president's failed policy," they said in a joint statement after his address. "His plan will receive an up-or-down vote in both the House and Senate, and we will continue to hold him accountable for changing course in Iraq."\nBush said the Iraq war had changed dramatically with the outbreak of sectarian warfare and reprisals.\n"This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in," the president said. "Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned and our own security at risk.\n"Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle," the president said. "Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory"
(01/11/07 5:43am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he erred by not ordering a military buildup in Iraq last year and said he was increasing U.S. troops by 21,500 to quell the country's near-anarchy. "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me," Bush said.\nThe buildup puts Bush on a collision course with the new Democratic Congress and pushes the American troop presence in Iraq toward its highest level. It also runs counter to widespread anti-war passions among Americans and the advice of some top generals.\nIn a prime-time address to the nation, Bush pushed back against the Democrats' calls to end the unpopular war. He said that "to step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government, tear that country apart and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale."\n"If we increase our support at this crucial moment and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home," Bush said. But he braced Americans to expect more U.S. casualties for now and did not specify how long the additional troops would stay.\nIn addition to extra U.S. forces, the plan envisions Iraq's committing 10,000 to 12,000 more troops to secure Baghdad's neighborhoods -- and taking the lead in military operations.\nEven before Bush's address, the new Democratic leaders of Congress emphasized their opposition to a buildup. "This is the third time we are going down this path. Two times this has not worked," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after meeting with the president. "Why are they doing this now? That question remains."\nThere was criticism from Republicans, as well. "This is a dangerously wrongheaded strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at a great cost," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a Vietnam veteran and potential GOP presidential candidate.\nAfter nearly four years of bloody combat, the speech was perhaps Bush's last credible chance to try to present a winning strategy in Iraq and persuade Americans to change their minds about the unpopular war, which has cost the lives of more than 3,000 members of the U.S. military as well as more than $400 billion.\nSenate and House Democrats are arranging votes urging the president not to send more troops. While lacking the force of law, the measures would compel Republicans to go on record as either bucking the president or supporting an escalation.\nUsually loath to admit error, Bush said it also was a mistake to have allowed American forces to be restricted by the Iraqi government, which tried to prevent U.S. military operations against fighters controlled by the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a powerful political ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The president said al-Maliki had assured him that from now on, "political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."\nAs Bush spoke for 20 minutes from the unusual setting of the White House library, the sounds of protesters amassed outside the compound's gates occasionally filtered through.\nBush's approach amounts to a huge gamble on al-Maliki's willingness -- and ability -- to deliver on promises he has consistently failed to keep: to disband Shiite militias, pursue national reconciliation and make good on commitments for Iraqi forces to handle security operations in Baghdad.\n"Our past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principal reasons: There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents," the president said. "And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have."\nHe said American commanders have reviewed the Iraqi plan "to ensure that it addressed these mistakes."\nWith Americans overwhelmingly unhappy with his Iraq strategy, Bush said it was a legitimate question to ask why this strategy to secure Baghdad will succeed where other operations failed. "This time we will have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared," the president said.\nWhile Bush put the onus on the Iraqis to meet their responsibilities and commit more troops, he did not threaten specific consequences if they do not. Iraq has missed previous self-imposed timetables for taking over security responsibilities.\nBush, however, cited the government's latest optimistic estimate. "To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November," the president said.\nStill, Bush said that "America's commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to at."\nResisting calls for troop reductions, Bush said that "failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States. ... A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights terrorists instead of harboring them."\nBut Bush warned that the strategy would, in a short term he did not define, bring more violence rather than less.\n"Even if our new strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue, and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties," he said. "The question is whether our new strategy will bring us closer to success. I believe that it will."\nBush's warning was echoed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading proponent of a troop increase. "Is it going to be a strain on the military? Absolutely. Casualties are going to go up," the senator said.\nBush said he considered calls from Democrats and some Republicans to pull back American forces. He concluded it would devastate Iraq and "result in our troops being forced to stay even longer."\nBut he offered a concession to Congress -- the establishment of a bipartisan working group to formalize regular consultations on Iraq. He said he was open to future exchanges and better ideas.\nBush's strategy ignored key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which in December called for a new diplomatic offensive and an outreach to Syria and Iran. Instead, he accused both countries of aiding terrorists and insurgents in Iraq. "We will disrupt the attacks on our forces," Bush said. "We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria."\nThe troop buildup comes two months after elections that were widely seen as a call for the withdrawal of some or all U.S. forces from Iraq. Polling by AP-Ipsos in December found that only 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of Iraq, his lowest rating yet.\nThe president's address is the centerpiece of an aggressive public relations campaign that also includes detailed briefings for lawmakers and a series of appearances by Bush starting with a trip Thursday to Fort Benning, Ga. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the Mideast a day after appearing Thursday with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at hearings on Iraq convened by the Democrats.\nBush's blueprint would boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq -- now at 132,000 -- to 153,500 at a cost of $5.6 billion. The highest number was 160,000 a year ago in a troop buildup for Iraqi elections.\nThe latest increase calls for sending 17,500 U.S. combat troops to Baghdad. The first of five brigades will arrive by next Monday. The next would arrive by Feb. 15 and the reminder would come in 30-day increments.\nBush also committed 4,000 more Marines to Anbar Province, a base of the Sunni insurgency and foreign al-Qaida fighters.\nBush's plan mirrored earlier moves attempting to give Iraqi forces a bigger security role. The chief difference appeared to be a recognition that the Iraqis need more time to take on the full security burden.\nAnother difference involves doubling the number of U.S. civilian workers who help coordinate local reconstruction projects. These State Department-led units -- dubbed Provincial Reconstruction Teams -- are to focus on projects both inside and outside the heavily guarded Green Zone, and some will be merged into combat brigades. The portion of Bush's plan intended to boost economic aid and job creation was given a price tag of just over $1 billion.\nSeveral Republican senators are candidates for backing the resolution against a troop increase. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Norm Coleman of Minnesota said they oppose sending more soldiers.\nRepublican Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and John Warner of Virginia also might be persuaded. Warner said he supports the Iraq Study Group recommendations, which strongly cautioned against an increase in troops unless advocated by military commanders.
(12/05/06 4:23am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush told an Iraqi power broker Monday that the United States was not satisfied with the progress of efforts to stop the sharp escalation of violence in Iraq.\nBush met at the White House with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament.\nAl-Hakim said that he "vehemently" opposes any regional or international effort to solve Iraq's problems that goes around the unity government in Baghdad.\n"Iraq should be in a position to solve Iraq's problems," al-Hakim said.\nThe president said he spoke with al-Hakim for more than an hour and said they had a "very constructive conversation."\n"I assured him that the U.S. supports his work and the work of the prime minister to unify the country," Bush said, referring to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.\n"Part of unifying Iraq is for the elected leaders and society leaders to reject the extremists that are trying to stop the advance of this young democracy," Bush said.\n"We talked about the need to give the government ... more capability as soon as possible so the elected government of Iraq can do that which the Iraqi people want to secure their country from extremists and murderers," Bush said. "I told his eminence that I was proud of the courage of the Iraqi people. I told him that we're not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq. And that we want to continue to work with the sovereign government of Iraq."\nAl-Hakim, after what he called a "very clear" meeting earlier with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters in Arabic that "we have asked for the American forces to stay in Iraq" to enable Iraqi security to deal with terrorists.\nMonday's developments came amid an atmosphere of rising expectations about a new U.S. policy in Iraq and an acknowledgment by Bush's national security adviser that Bush accepts that a new approach is warranted.\nNational security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday that while Bush recognizes something different needs to be done, the president won't use the recommendations due this week from the Iraq Study Group as political cover for bringing troops home.\n"We have not failed in Iraq," Hadley said as he made the talk show rounds Sunday. "We will fail in Iraq if we pull out our troops before we're in a position to help the Iraqis succeed."\nHe added: "The president understands that we need to have a way forward in Iraq that is more successful."\nBut with the leak of another insider's secret memo, the second in a week, the administration found itself on the defensive.\nThe latest showed that Donald H. Rumsfeld called for a "major adjustment" in U.S. tactics Nov. 6, the day before an election that cost Republicans the Congress and Rumsfeld his job as defense secretary.\nHadley played down the memo as a laundry list of ideas rather than a call for a new course of action.\nHe said that Bush -- just before a pivotal election -- was not portraying a different sense of the war to the public than his own defense secretary was giving him in private.\nThe president "has said publicly what Rumsfeld said, that things are not proceeding well enough or fast enough in Iraq," Hadley said.\nDemocrats did not buy that.\n"The Rumsfeld memo makes it quite clear that one of the greatest concerns is the political fallout from changing course here in the United States," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The bottom line is there is no one, including the former secretary, who thought the policy the president continues to pursue makes any sense."\nRep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the Rumsfeld memo was an example of how the administration has been "mischaracterizing and misstating this war." He said the Iraq conflict had devolved into a civil war. "There's two factions fighting for supremacy inside Iraq and our troops are caught in between," Murtha said on NBC's "Today" show. As incoming chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, Murtha said he would put pressure on the administration to redeploy U.S. troops there.\nBush has nominated Robert Gates to replace Rumsfeld. His confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee is Tuesday.\nAs pressure builds for a new strategy, the report from the Iraq Study Group increasingly is viewed as perhaps clearing the way for a U.S. exit strategy in Iraq. Hadley, though, said the review will be just one factor the White House considers.\nAfter a meeting last week in Jordan, Bush expressed confidence that al-Maliki and his Iraqi government can lead the country toward peace with support from the United States.\nYet Hadley found himself defending his own memo that called that very point into question.
(11/20/06 4:12am)
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- Warmly greeted by world leaders in Vietnam, President Bush drew a different reaction Sunday at his upcoming stop in Indonesia, where thousands angrily protested America's policy in the Middle East and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\nThe White House said it was confident about security precautions for Bush's visit Monday despite police warnings of an increased threat of attack by al-Qaida-linked groups.\nThe president was to spend just six hours in Indonesia, most of it at Bogor Palace, a presidential retreat outside the capital of Jakarta and far from the scene of protests Sunday where Bush was denounced as a "war criminal" and "terrorist."\nWhile President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a close U.S. ally in the war on terror, Bush is highly unpopular in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.\nWrapping up three days in Vietnam, Bush was taking a quick look around the city once known as Saigon. He planned to drop by the stock exchange, meet with business leaders and visit the Pasteur Institute for a briefing on its research on HIV/AIDS and other public health problems.\nIt was Bush's first appearance on the world stage since his Republican Party lost control of Congress and was rebuked for the unpopular war in Iraq.\nThe White House said Bush was pleased by the results of a 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi although the administration was left struggling to explain how it ended.\nTo Bush's dismay, he was unable to deliver a promised agreement on normal trade relations with Vietnam. It was snarled in Congress, but the administration expressed confidence it eventually would be approved.\nVietnam's economy is booming, the fastest growing in Asia, and the country is the world's second-largest exporter of rice. But the benefits have not reached most people. The per capita income is less than $700 a year.\nIn a city usually teeming with motorcycle traffic, streets were cleared for Bush's motorcade. As he rode by, people waved, laughed and cheered. It was a contrast to the subdued reaction of residents in Hanoi, where Bush participated in the summit and conferred with the leaders of China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.\nThe White House said it was satisfied with the summit statement prodding North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks and urging nations to keep the pressure on by enforcing U.N. Security Council sanctions.\nBut the administration was at a loss to explain why the statement was simply read as part of the chairman's wrap-up statement and not issued as a written document. Another oddity was that the section about North Vietnam was not translated into English when the statement was read.\n"He read it in Vietnamese, but for whatever reason the translation was not given in the consecutive English translation at the time," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "We have double checked. The Vietnamese said, 'Yes, he did read it.'"\nBush met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss strategy for yet-to-be-scheduled talks with North Korea. The administration sent U.S. envoy Christopher Hill to Beijing for further consultations.\nIn their public remarks, Bush and Putin celebrated a U.S.-Russia agreement for Moscow's entry into the World Trade Organization. Bush said Russia's admission to the group was "good for the United States and good for Russia."\nWith Putin and Hu, Bush also pressed for a U.N. Security Council resolution to pressure Iran to abandon nuclear weapons. It was unclear whether Bush made any headway in persuading China and Russia to drop their reluctance to go along.\nDescribing Bush's discussions with Putin, Snow said the leaders did not discuss specifics "but they understand that you need a strong resolution that will send the Iranians the clear message that we're not only united, but serious, and at the same time are going to offer them the opportunity to have civil nuclear power, which is of some importance to the Iranian people"
(09/12/06 4:25am)
WASHINGTON -- Five years after the worst attack on U.S. soil, President George W. Bush said Monday night the war against terrorism is "the calling of our generation" and urged Americans to put aside differences and fight to victory.\n"America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over," Bush said in a prime-time address from the Oval Office. "The war is not over -- and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."\nBush also staunchly defended the war in Iraq though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.\nHis address came at the end of a day in which he visited New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon to honor victims of the attacks that rocked his presidency and thrust the United States into a costly and unfinished war against terror.\n"We are now in the early hours of this struggle between tyranny and freedom," the president said.\nAs for Iraq, he said Saddam's regime, while lacking weapons of mass destruction, was a threat that posed "a risk the world could not afford to take." At least 2,670 U.S. servicemen and women have died in Iraq, which Bush calls the central front in the war on terror.\n"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone," the president said. "They will not leave us alone. They will follow us."\nThe nation is split over the war in Iraq and Bush's handling of it, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Bush of playing politics.\n"This should have been an occasion to bring everyone together and focus on the tragedy, the many we lost and the heroism of those who embodied the American spirit," Schumer said. "You do not commemorate the tragedy of 9/11 by politicizing it."\nEarlier, Bush visited a New York fire station, the wind-swept field in Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon to place wreaths and console relatives of attack victims.\n"Five years ago, this date -- September 11 -- was seared into America's memory," the president said. "Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history."\nBush said that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the attack, and other terrorists are still in hiding. He said: "Our message to them is clear: No matter how long it takes, America will find you, and we will bring you to justice."\nBush said the war on terror was nothing less than "a struggle for civilization" and must be fought to the end. He said defeat would surrender the Middle East to radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons.\n"We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations," the president said. \nTwo months before the November elections, he attempted to spell out in graphic terms the stakes he sees in the unpopular war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.\nHe said Islamic radicals are trying to build an empire "where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations."\n"The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict," the president said. "It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation."\nFive years ago, the attacks transformed Bush's presidency and awakened the world to bin Laden and his band of al-Qaida terrorists. While the public has soured on the war in Iraq, the president still gets high marks for his handling of Sept. 11.\nTerrorism has been a potent political issue for Republicans, and they hope to capitalize on it in the elections. GOP lawmakers are anxious about holding control of both houses of Congress.\nCongress has approved $432 billion for Iraq and the war on terrorism.\n"The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad," the president said. He quoted bin Laden as calling Iraq "the Third World War."\n"Our nation has endured trials, and we face a difficult road ahead," the president said. "Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country. So we must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us."\nWhile Bush urged resolve, the two co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission accused the Bush administration and Congress of a lack of urgency in protecting the country. About half of their 41 recommendations to better secure Americans, offered in July 2004, have become law.\n"Where in the world have we been for five years?" said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., who was joined by his Republican counterpart, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean. Hamilton spoke of failures to put first responders on the same radio spectrum so they can talk to each other during an emergency -- as firefighters and police officers who died in the World Trade Center could not in 2001.\nThe 9/11 attacks changed the political tone in Washington and abroad -- but only briefly.\n"We had an astonishing moment of unity in America and around the world," former President Bill Clinton told a Jewish conference in Washington.\nThat has given way to bitter political divisions between Democrats and Republicans. Many nations that rushed to stand with the United States now accuse the Bush administration of failing to honor human rights, tolerance and diversity of cultures.\nStill, dozens of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, joined on the steps of the Capitol Monday to remember the attacks, singing "God Bless America" as they had five years ago.\nHouse Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Monday: "Five years later, we have to continue to move forward with unity, urgency and in the spirit of international cooperation, because we are not yet fully healed and not yet as safe as we should be."\nBush began the day in New York with firefighters and police officers at a Lower East Side firehouse. He stood in front of a door salvaged from a fire truck destroyed Sept. 11. It was a cloudless morning reminiscent of the sunny day when two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.\nThe mourners silently bowed their heads at 8:46 a.m. and again at 9:03 a.m., marking the moments when the planes slammed into the towers. The attacks killed 2,749 people.\nBush spent time talking with the first responders about what they had been through the last five years, spokesman Tony Snow said.\nThe next stop was in Shanksville, Pa., where Bush and his wife stood without umbrellas in a chilly rain to lay a wreath honoring the 40 passengers and crew killed when United Airlines Flight 93 plowed into a Pennsylvania field. The terrorists apparently had been planning on crashing the plane into the White House or the Capitol until passengers stormed the cockpit to take control.\nBush had an emotional meeting with relatives of the Shanksville victims. \n"There were some people who were still clearly grieving about what happened five years ago," Snow said.
(04/19/06 3:46am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Tuesday nominated Trade Representative Rob Portman as the White House budget director, turning to a Washington insider and longtime friend as part of an effort to re-energize the administration and boost the president's record-low approval ratings.\nBush also selected Susan Schwab, the deputy trade representative, to move up to the top trade job, replacing Portman.\nBush said more changes are in the works under his new chief of staff, Joshua Bolten.\n"With a new man will come some changes," the president said. But he emphasized anew that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's job is safe, despite calls for his resignation from a half dozen retired military commanders.\n"I hear the voices and I read the front page and I know the speculation," the president told reporters in the Rose Garden. "But I'm the decider and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."\nAt a Pentagon news conference later in the day, Rumsfeld said he hasn't considered resigning and added, "The president knows, as I know, there are no indispensable men ... He knows that I serve at his pleasure, and that's that."\nThe president noted that Washington is buzzing with rumors about an administration shake-up. Treasury Secretary John Snow is said to be on the verge of leaving, and Republicans outside the White House say they expect changes in the White House lobbying and communications shops.\n"I understand this is a matter of high speculation here in Washington," the president said. "It's the game of musical chairs, I guess you would say, that people love to follow."\nHe said he had given Bolten broad authority to make changes to strengthen the White House.\n"And of course he will bring different recommendations to me as to who should be here and who should not be here," Bush said.\nThe Senate must confirm Portman's nomination as director of the Office of Management and Budget and Schwab's nomination as U.S. trade representative.\nBush said that while Washington is fixated on gossip about personnel changes, the administration is dealing with problems such as soaring gasoline prices and the war on terror. \n"I'm concerned about higher gasoline prices," the president said. He added that the government has responsibility "to make sure that we watch very carefully and investigate possible price-gouging."\nJim Towey, head of the White House office of faith-based and community initiatives, resigned to become president of St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Towey's departure was not related to any White House shake-up.\nTuesday's appointments were the first major personnel changes since Bolten took over and said he wanted to re-energize and recharge Bush's troubled presidency. With the Iraq war in its fourth year, Bush's poll ratings are at their lowest point ever and Republicans are anxious about the November elections.\nBolten, at his first senior staff meeting Monday, pointed toward more personnel changes. He said that staffers who were thinking about leaving before the end of the year should go now.\nA former Republican congressman from Ohio, Portman is a confidant of Bush's and has broad experience in Washington.\nAs a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and as vice chairman of the Budget Committee, Portman forged bipartisan coalitions on legislation dealing with tax, trade and pension reform policy. It was just a year ago that Bush tapped Portman to succeed Robert Zoellick as his top trade negotiator.\nPortman had served in the House since winning a special election in 1993. He was highly regarded for his skills in forging compromises between Republicans and Democrats, traits that he will be able to use in his new job as budget director.\nPortman won praise during his brief time in the trade job for his role in winning passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with six Latin American nations.\nThe pact was vigorously opposed by Democrats, who argued that it would open American workers to more unfair competition from low-wage nations. Portman, however, overcame that opposition by convincing enough wavering Republicans to support the agreement.
(03/29/06 4:32am)
WASHINGTON -- White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten, President Bush announced Tuesday amid growing calls for a White House shakeup and Republican concern about Bush's tumbling poll ratings.\nThough there was no immediate indication of other changes afoot, the White House did not close the door on a broader staff reorganization. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bolten will have the authority to make personnel shifts if he deems them necessary. He declined to say whether top aides, such as the two current deputy chiefs of staff, Joe Hagin and Karl Rove, would remain in place.\n"All of us serve at the pleasure of the president," McClellan said. "It's premature to talk about any future decisions that may or may not be made."\nBush announced the changes in a nationally broadcast appearance in the Oval Office.\n"I have relied on Andy's wise counsel, his calm in crisis, his absolute integrity and his tireless commitment to public service," Bush said. "The next three years will demand much of those who serve our country. We have a global war to fight and win."\nCard, 58, stood stoically with his hands by his sides as Bush lauded his years of service through the Sept. 11 attacks, war and legislative and economic challenges. \nGripping the podium, Card said in his farewell: "You're a good man, Mr. President." Card's eyes watering, he said he looks forward to just being Bush's friend. Bush then gave him five quick slaps on the back and the two walked out of the Oval Office together.\nThe president called Bolten, 51, a man with broad experience, both on Wall Street and in Washington, including the last three years as director of the Office of Management and Budget.\nAlarmed by Bush's declining approval ratings and unhappiness about the war in Iraq, Republicans have been urging the president to bring in new advisers with fresh ideas and energy. Bolten has been with Bush since his first campaign for the White House.\n"The good news is the administration has finally realized it needs to change its ways, but the problems go far deeper than one staffer," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "Simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic by replacing Andy Card with Josh Bolten without a dramatic change in policy will not right this ship."\nBush gathered with members of his Cabinet in the Rose Garden at mid-morning after discussions about the war on terror. He ignored shouted questions from reporters about why he made the staff changes. Bush said he would deliver a speech on Wednesday about Iraq.\n"We had a chance to honor two members of my Cabinet who won't be with us much longer -- Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, Chief of Staff Andy Card," Bush said. "These two folks have served our country with distinction and honor. I'm proud to work side-by-side with them, and I'm proud to call them friend."\nTo the public, Card may be best known as the aide who calmly walked into a Florida school room and whispered into Bush's ear that America was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.\n"Josh is a creative policy thinker," Bush said. "He is a man of candor and humor and directness."\nThe president said Card came to him in early March and suggested he should step down from the job he has held from the first day of Bush's presidency.\nBush said he decided during a stay at Camp David, Md., last weekend to accept Card's resignation and to name Bolten as his replacement.\nBolten is widely experienced in Washington, both on Capitol Hill as well as at the White House, where he was deputy chief of staff before becoming director of the Office of Management and Budget.\nAt a White House news conference last week, Bush was asked about rumors that a shake up in the White House staff was in the works. Bush said he was "satisfied with the people I've surrounded myself with."\nA veteran of the administrations of both President Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush, Card was widely respected by his colleagues in the Bush White House. They fondly called him "chief."\nHe usually arrived at work in the West Wing by around 5:30 a.m. and frequently did not leave until 9 or 10 p.m.\nCard plans to stay on the job until April 14, when the switch with Bolten takes place.
(03/03/06 4:38am)
NEW DELHI -- Reversing decades of U.S. policy, President Bush ushered India into the world's exclusive nuclear club Thursday with a landmark agreement to share nuclear reactors, fuel and expertise with the energy-starved nation in return for its acceptance of international safeguards.\nEight months in the making, the accord would end India's long isolation as a nuclear maverick that defied world appeals and developed nuclear weapons. India agreed to separate its tightly entwined nuclear industry -- declaring 14 reactors as commercial facilities and eight as military -- and to open the civilian side to international inspections for the first time.\nThe agreement must be approved by Congress, and Bush acknowledged that might be difficult because India still refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.\n"I'm trying to think differently, not stay stuck in the past," said Bush, who has made improving relations with India a goal of his administration. \nThe deal was sealed a day before Bush begins an overnight visit to Pakistan, a close ally struggling with its own terrorism problems. An American diplomat and three other people were killed when a suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into theirs. The bombing was in Karachi, about 1,000 miles south of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, where Bush will meet with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.\n"Terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to Pakistan," Bush said at a news conference with Singh in New Delhi.\nBush aides said there were security concerns about the president going to Pakistan but that officials were satisfied adequate precautions were in place. \nThe U.S.-India nuclear deal was seen as the centerpiece of better relations between the world's oldest and most powerful democracy and the world's largest and fastest-growing one.\nBush acknowledged that Washington and New Delhi were estranged during the Cold War, when India declared itself a nonaligned nation but tilted toward Moscow. "Now the relationship is changing dramatically," he said.\nBush and Singh announced new bilateral cooperation on issues from investment, trade and health to agriculture, the environment and even mangoes -- Bush agreed to resume imports of the juicy, large-pitted fruit after a 17-year ban.\n"India and Pakistan had never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and therefore they weren't in violation of it by having nuclear programs," he said.\nBush said helping India with nuclear power would reduce the global demand for energy which has sent gasoline prices soaring.
(03/02/06 5:24am)
KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, vowed Wednesday to stand by this emerging democracy and not "cut and run" in the face of rising violence. He also predicted Osama bin Laden would be captured despite a futile five-year hunt.\n"I'm confident he will be brought to justice," Bush said, standing alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai outside the presidential palace.\nBush also rallied U.S. troops and expressed solidarity with Karzai's U.S.-backed government in a surprise visit of just over four hours at the onset of a South Asia trip.\nHe later flew to New Delhi, India, where tens of thousands of Indians demonstrated Wednesday against his visit, and was visiting Pakistan later in the week.\nBush pledged that bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader, and other planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks would be caught.\n"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said.\nIt was the first presidential visit to Afghanistan since the United States routed the Taliban and began a thus far fruitless five-year search for bin Laden in the region.\nBin Laden is believed to be hiding out somewhere along the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border.\nBush held a working lunch with Karzai and other Afghan leaders, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the U.S. embassy in Kabul and spoke to U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base.\n"People all over the world are watching the experience here in Afghanistan," Bush said, praising Karzai as "a friend and an ally."\nKarzai took power after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban regime. But Taliban insurgents and al-Qaida militants have been increasing attacks within Afghanistan in recent months.\nThe director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, told a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday that the insurgency was still growing and posed a greater threat to Karzai's government "than at any point since late 2001."\nKarzai greeted Bush as "our great friend, our great supporter, a man who helped us liberate."\nTurning to his three-day visit to India, Bush said the U.S. and Indian governments still have not reached a deal over U.S. help for India's civilian nuclear program.\n"This is a difficult issue," he said. Negotiations were continuing, Bush said.\n"Hopefully we can reach an agreement," Bush said. "If not, we'll continue to work on it until we do."\nU.S. restrictions on providing nuclear assistance to India, slapped on after back-to-back nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, remain in place.\nBush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed an agreement in July that would provide India with nuclear fuel for the country's booming but energy-starved economy.\nBut the pact faces some political opposition in both countries, mostly over determining how to separate India's civilian and military nuclear facilities.\nAsked about the search for bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, and of the president's long-ago call for getting him "dead or alive," Bush said the search for bin Laden and his associates continues.\n"We've got U.S. forces on the hunt for not only bin Laden but anybody who plots and plans with bin Laden," Bush said. "There are Afghan forces on the hunt. ... We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt."\nBush's entourage flew into the city from Bagram in a flock of heavily armed helicopters. Two door gunners on a press helicopter fired off a short burst of machine gun fire as the aircraft flew low and fast over barren, rugged countryside. A U.S. military spokesman said later the gunners were test-firing their weapons as part of "standard operating procedure" for such helicopters.\n"Neither President Bush nor any of the aircraft in the flight were ever in any danger," said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick.\nBefore leaving Afghanistan, Bush gave a pep talk to U.S. troops at the air base. Speaking to about 500 soldiers in a huge recreational tent, Bush expressed resolve at the U.S. mission here.\n"I assure you this government of yours will not blink, we will not yield. ...The United States doesn't cut and run," Bush said to enthusiastic cheers and applause.
(11/15/05 4:12am)
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- President Bush hurled new criticism at Iraq war critics Monday as he headed for Asia, accusing some Democrats of "sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy."\n"That is irresponsible," Bush said in prepared remarks he planned to deliver to U.S. forces during a refueling stop in Alaska. Excerpts were released by the White House as Bush flew to Elmendorf Air Force Base on the initial leg of an eight-day journey to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. Bush had hopes of improving his image on the world stage.\n"Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people," Bush said in his prepared remarks.\n"Only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world -- and that person was Saddam Hussein," Bush added.\nThe president sought to defend himself against criticism by Democrats that he manipulated intelligence and misled the American people about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as he sought grounds to go to war against Saddam's regime in 2003.\nMeanwhile, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard the presidential aircraft that two agenda items on Bush's Asia trip were the huge Chinese trade surplus with the United States and a U.S.-Japanese dispute over U.S. beef imports.\nNeither dispute was expected to be resolved on the president's trip, Hadley said.\n"I don't think you're going to see headline-breakers" from the president's trip, Hadley said.\nOn Sunday, Hadley acknowledged "we were wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but he insisted in a CNN interview that the president did not manipulate intelligence or mislead the American people.\nIraq and other problems -- from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation -- have taken a heavy toll on the president's standing. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency, and a majority of Americans say Bush is not honest and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terrorism.\nIn his prepared Alaska remarks, Bush noted that some elected Democrats in Congress "have opposed this war all along.\n"I disagree with them, but I respect their willingness to take a consistent stand," he said. "Yet some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past. They are playing politics with this issue and sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy."\nIn the Senate, 29 Democrats voted with 48 Republicans for the war authorization measure in late 2002, including 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and his running mate, John Edwards of North Carolina. Both have recently been harshly critical of Bush's conduct of the war and its aftermath.\nOn Capitol Hill, top Democrats stood their ground in claiming Bush misled Congress and the country. \n"The war in Iraq was and remains one of the great acts of misleading and deception in American history," Kerry told a news conference.\nDemocrats offered a proposal urging the president to outline an estimate for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Senate was expected to vote on it Tuesday, as well as on a rival GOP Iraq policy proposal that does not include a withdrawal provision.\nBush is expected to get a warmer welcome in Asia than he did earlier this month in Argentina at the Summit of the Americas, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a protest against U.S. policies, and Bush failed to gain support from the 34 nations attending for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.\nJapan, the first stop on Bush's trip, and Mongolia, the last, are likely to give him the most enthusiastic response, while China and South Korea probably will be cooler but respectful.\nIn South Korea, Bush also will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit in Busan, where 21 member states are expected to agree to support global free-trade talks. The summit is also expected to agree to put early warning and information-sharing systems in place in case of bird flu outbreaks.\n"It is good for the president to show up in Asia and say, 'We care about Asia,' because that is in doubt in the region," said Ed Lincoln, senior fellow in Asia and economic studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
(09/16/05 5:08am)
NEW ORLEANS -- President Bush promised Thursday night the government will pay most of the costs of rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast in one of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," the president said.\nStanding in Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter, Bush acknowledged his administration had failed to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina, which killed hundreds of people across five states. The government's costs for rebuilding could reach $200 billion or beyond.\n"Four years after the frightening experience of Sept. 11, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency," the president said. He said when the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, "I as president am \nresponsible for the problem, and for the solution."\nBush ordered all Cabinet secretaries to join in a comprehensive review of the government's faulty response. In addition, he ordered the Department of Homeland Security to undertake an immediate review of emergency plans in every major city in America.\nHe also said a disaster on the scale of Katrina requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.\nBush proposed establishment of worker recovery accounts providing up to $5,000 for job training, education and child care during victims' search for employment.\nIn his speech, which lasted a bit longer than 20 minutes, he also said he would ask Congress to approve an Urban Homesteading Act in which surplus federal property would be turned over to low-income citizens by means of a lottery to build homes, with mortgages or assistance from charitable organizations.\nOther proposals, according to Congressional officials briefed by the White House, include:
(03/09/05 4:43am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush hailed fresh signs of democracy Tuesday in the Middle East, saying authoritarian rule is "the last gasp of a discredited past" and demanding that Syria withdraw from Lebanon.\n"Freedom will prevail in Lebanon," Bush declared, rejecting the message from a demonstration in Beirut by nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters who chanted anti-American slogans. Bush instead sided with anti-Syrian demonstrators of recent days who have demanded that Damascus remove its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.\n"All the world is witnessing your great movement of conscience," Bush told the people of Lebanon. "The American people are on your side. Millions across the Earth are on your side."\nBush spoke at the National Defense University, a center for professional military education.\nLater, the White House offered a low-key reaction to the pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut. "We are glad to see people peacefully express their views in the town square, as they have done for days now," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "We hope the Lebanese people will be able to express their view at the ballot box through free elections without outside interference and outside intimidation."\nBush's speech was described as an update on the war on terrorism, a struggle he linked with repressive conditions in the Middle East, which he said give rise to extremism.\n"The advance of hope in the Middle East requires new thinking in the region," the president said. "By now it should be clear that authoritarian rule is not the wave of the future. It is the last gasp of a discredited past."\nBush said the entire world has "an urgent interest in the progress and hope and freedom in the broader Middle East."\n"Our duty is now clear," he said. "For the sake of our long-term security, all free nations must stand with the forces of democracy and justice that have begun to transform the Middle East."\nBush's speech on terrorism marked a return to the trademark theme of his successful re-election campaign. After the election, Bush turned his focus to an uphill battle to radically redesign the Social Security program by offering personal investment accounts, a step that would be accompanied by a reduction in future benefits.\nAlthough more than half of Americans oppose his Social Security overhaul, a solid majority approve of his handling of the terrorism fight.\n"In this war on terror, America is not alone," Bush said. "Many governments have awakened to the dangers we share and have begun to take serious action. Global terror requires a global response, and America is more secure today because dozens of other countries have stepped up to the fight."\nHe credited Pakistan with capturing more than 100 extremists last year, and he said Britain had arrested an al-Qaida operative who had provided detailed reports on possible American targets to senior al-Qaida leaders. Bush also cited efforts by Germany, the Philippines and Poland.\nHe said spreading democracy in the Middle East was essential to winning the war on terrorism. He said prospects for democracy "have seemed frozen in place for decades. Yet at last, clearly and suddenly, the thaw has begun."\nBush cited progress in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, as well as an uprising in Lebanon against Syria's occupation.\n"Across the Middle East, a critical mass of events is taking that region in a hopeful new direction," the president said. "History is moving quickly, and leaders in the Middle East have important choices to make," the president said.\n"The world community, including Russia and Germany and France and Saudi Arabia and the United States, has presented the Syrian government with one of those choices: to end its nearly 30-year occupation of Lebanon or become even more isolated from the world"
(02/18/05 4:06am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Thursday said Syria is "out of step" with other nations in the Middle East and that the United States will work with other countries to pressure Damascus to remove its troops from Lebanon.\nBush also pledged to support Israel if its security were threatened by Iran.\nBush said he did not know if Syria was involved in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.\n"I can't tell you that," Bush said. "I don't know yet because the investigation is ongoing. And so, I'm going to withhold judgment until we find out what the facts are."\nBush said he would consult with allies about Syria when he visits Europe next week, and said the United States supports an international investigation of Hariri's assassination.\nThe United States has withdrawn its ambassador to Syria, Margaret Scobey, and that "indicates that the relationship is not moving forward," the president said. He said Syria was "out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East."\nThe United States expects Syria to find and turn over former supporters of Saddam Hussein's regime and send them back to Iraq and stop supporting terrorism, Bush said. He said Syria also must comply with U.N. resolutions calling for it to withdraw its 15,000 troops from Lebanon.\nLooking ahead to his European trip, Bush said he knows that some allies think that his only concern is national security, which he acknowledged is at the top of his agenda. Yet, he said, "We also care about hunger and disease. ... We care about the climate."\nMany allies are upset with the United States for refusing to approve the Kyoto climate treaty.\n"They thought the treaty made sense," Bush said. "I didn't." \nHe noted that the Senate had voted 95-0 against the treaty. Yet, Bush said there were other ways to deal with the problem of global warming and that he would talk with allies about new technologies to deal with the issue.\nBush declined to offer his full endorsement of Europe's negotiations to get Iran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program. He said the United States and Europe share the goal that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon. Still, he left it up in the air whether he fully supports Europe's approach.\n"I look forward to ... discussing strategies, ways forward with the Europeans to make sure we continue to speak with one voice, and that is Iran should not have a nuclear weapon and how to work together to make sure they don't," Bush said.\nAsked if he was concerned that Israel might attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Bush said Israel is concerned about Iran's intentions.\n"But clearly, if I was the leader of Israel and I'd listened to some of the statements by the Iranian ayatollahs that regarded the security of my country, I'd be concerned about Iran having a nuclear weapon as well," Bush said.\nBut with three international hotspots -- Syria, Iran and North Korea -- topping his agenda lately, Bush repeatedly chose the language of diplomacy over threats.\nBush dodged repeated offers to name potential punishments to Syria. \n"The idea is to continue to work with the world to remind Syria it's not in their interest to be isolated," he said.\nExplaining why Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons doesn't yet put it in danger of a U.S. attack, Bush said: "The Iranian issue hasn't even gotten to the Security Council yet. And so there's more diplomacy, in my judgment, to be done."\nAnd on North Korea, which now says it possesses nuclear weapons, Bush emphasized a multi-party effort with regional allies to turn Pyongyang back from those pursuits. \n"Now is the time for us to work with friends and allies who have agreed to be part of the process to determine what we're jointly going to do about it," he said.
(02/02/05 4:05am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush is ready to challenge Congress to approve a stack of politically divisive measures he has proposed before without success, from major changes in Social Security to a loosening of the nation's immigration laws.\nBush will go before Congress and the nation with his annual State of the Union message Wednesday night with the lowest approval rating of any second-term president since Richard Nixon. Yet he is in a feisty mood, insisting that his re-election has given him a mandate for change and political capital to spend in pursuing his agenda.\nEven though Republicans control both houses of Congress, Bush's proposals face major obstacles. Democrats are deeply suspicious of the president, feeling he has ignored them and refused to compromise.\nRepublicans are wary about Bush's ambitious Social Security plan because of the political risks of tampering with one of the government's most popular programs. Facing re-election next year as Bush moves toward lame duck status, GOP lawmakers can't be counted on for rock-solid unity.\nThe poisonous relationship between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill also complicates Bush's task.\n"We have the most polarized Congress maybe since the 1930s," said Terry Madonna, a professor and pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. "I don't think there's any way Democrats are going to roll over on these issues that they feel very strongly about. Bipartisanship is virtually obsolete in Congress."\nAnother problem that could weaken Bush's hand is Iraq. If the situation there deteriorates, it could sap the president's political strength.\nBush will use the State of the Union address to update the nation on Iraq after Sunday's successful elections, discussing the way forward, aides said.\nHe also will appeal to other nations to "seize on this opportunity to find ways to show tangible public support" for Iraqis and their government, said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he didn't want to upstage the president.\nFirst lady Laura Bush, meanwhile, said Tuesday that among those sitting with her in the House gallery as special guests during her husband's speech will be two voters, one from Iraq and another from Afghanistan, who participated in those countries' elections.\nShe told NBC's "Today" show they would serve as "a sign that people the world over want to live in freedom and want to have a democracy in their country."\nThe key ingredients of Bush's domestic package are repackaged from years past.\n"These are oldies, golden oldies," said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Much of what is on the agenda in domestic policy are things that made it around the track in the first four years but didn't get to the finish line.\n"Deciding that you want to go for a big hit like Social Security is a change, although we're getting mixed signals in terms of how much he really is going to push for this and how bold it will be," Ornstein said. "I think an expectation that we're going to get a burst of legislative activity would be a misguided expectation."\nSocial Security restructuring, Bush's top proposal, has been around since before he entered the White House. In 2000, he campaigned on the idea of allowing younger workers to divert some of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts, a move that might offer higher returns but also would deplete money for guaranteed benefits in the future.\nBush raised the idea in his first address to a joint session of Congress and has renewed it in every State of the Union since. He never put any political muscle behind it, and Congress ignored it. The president says this time will be different, that it will be his No. 1 priority and that he will provide political cover for Republicans willing to stick their necks out.\nDemocrats are equally determined to block the president's initiative, which calls for partially privatizing Social Security by adding individual investment accounts to the government's nearly 70-year-old retirement system.