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Press Briefing by Press Secretary Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary October 17, 2008

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Dana Perino James S. Brady Press Briefing
Room

˙ /news/releases/2008/10/20081017-7.wm.v.html ˙˙Press Briefings
˙˙Audio


10:33 A.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Hello, happy Friday. A couple of things. Some of you may
remember that during a visit to Estonia in November of 2006, the President
announced a legislative initiative to extend the privilege of visa-free
travel to the United States to the citizens of many of our closest friends
and allies. Many of the changes the administration sought were enacted as
part of the law that was passed, called The Implementing Recommendations of
the 9/11 Commission Act Law of 2007. The President signed that about a year
ago, in August 2007.

And today in the Rose Garden, the President will announce that U.S.
negotiators have completed significant new travel security agreements with
seven Visa Waiver Program candidate countries: the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea. The President will
also underscore his support for continued expansion of the Visa Waiver
Program -- also known as the VWP -- to include the other so-called road map
countries, or candidates, and this includes: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece,
Malta, Poland and Romania.

Ambassadors from these 13 countries will attend this morning's event. We
believe that they are all on track to qualify.

Also a scheduling update for you. On Monday, the President will travel to
Alexandria, Louisiana, and will participate in a roundtable on the economy
at the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce. You can expect to hear --
that he'll hear from local businesses and community bankers on how they are
dealing with the current economic situation.

With that, I'll go to questions.

Q Is it the White House expectation that the meeting tomorrow at Camp David
will produce a date and place for the G8 summit?

MS. PERINO: It's not my expectation; I don't believe that tomorrow night's
meeting will have any new policy announcements or any decision on a date or
a location for that meeting -- although everybody is working towards that.
I think it will be an ongoing discussion about the recent coordination
efforts that have been going back for a while, including as far back as
April of this year, through the Financial Stability Forum that we've been
talking a little bit about.

With President Sarkozy and the EC President Barroso here in the region, the
President was happy to invite them down to Camp David, where they will
arrive. They'll have a meeting. Then they will go into a dinner and have
just a short amount of time right after the dinner to be able to continue
talking. And then they will head back to Europe.

Q You seem to be trying to keep the expectations for this meeting pretty
low, whereas on the other side of the Atlantic they're suggesting that
there's going to be a lot more to come out of this, that they are going to
pin down a date that they're going to press the President on.

MS. PERINO: I think a date for a meeting is a little bit less important
than figuring out what recommendations people want to come to the table
with. We have issues to deal with regarding disclosure for banks,
accounting rules at credit rating agencies, capital standards, asset
valuation, supervision -- all of these issues is what are included in what
the financial services [sic] forum has been trying to work through for the
past several months.

There have been some ideas that have been brought forward by individual
countries. There are other countries that are going to have ideas, as well.
Certainly we have said, through the G8 statement, that whenever we do have
this meeting, it would be a broader group of countries -- not just the G8
leaders. So there's a lot of things to work through and we'll find a date;
that won't be -- that's the least of our worries, is finding a date.

Q So do you expect any of these specific issues to be discussed at Camp
David tomorrow?

MS. PERINO: Probably. I think that they will come up. The financial
services -- I'm sorry -- Financial Stability Forum has been working through
how to deal with all those main topics that I just mentioned -- there might
be a couple of others -- but it takes a while to figure out how it's going
to work both from a individual country standpoint and also what could work
and apply worldwide.

So I would certainly expect that details might be discussed, but I don't
expect anything to be announced tomorrow or worked out, especially when you
only have two leaders of what will eventually be a larger group of people
getting together to talk about how do we move forward to address the
challenges so that we can prevent a crisis like this from happening again,
but also preserve our free market system.

Q Will there be a readout after the meeting?

MS. PERINO: Probably a short one. I wouldn't -- one, we're not anticipating
any new policy announcements. We're not anticipating any sort of readout. I
don't expect the leaders to take questions tomorrow night. I think this is
a chance for them to continue to have a conversation. This is a meeting and
a working dinner and then the two Presidents will head back to Europe.

Q It's only remarks going in?

MS. PERINO: Yes, on arrival.

Toby.

Q On another subject, the Iraq -- something seems to be bubbling with Iraq
status of forces agreement. How much closer are you? And what did you think
of Secretary Gates apparently supporting the draft agreement that's on the
table that calls for troops to leave by 2011, and also would allow the
Iraqis, under certain circumstances, to try U.S. soldiers in courts?

MS. PERINO: A few things. We've been telling you for a while that we would
be working on -- two things: a strategic framework agreement and a status
of forces agreement. Those two things we continue to work on and they're
moving forward through the process simultaneously.

So one is quite -- is a little bit broader, the strategic framework
agreement, which talks about bilateral relations going forward on a range
of issues: economic cooperation, diplomatic efforts, political
reconciliation efforts, things like that.

The status of forces agreement is something we've been talking about in a
little bit more detail that we provided you in July, where we talked about
a couple of things. One, that we would work on an aspirational date for
when our troops could -- when we would feel comfortable for our troops to
be able to come home. And we are able do that for a couple of reasons: one,
because of the bravery and skill of our soldiers that have achieved
tremendous gains in Iraq over the past year; and also because the Iraqis,
their security forces has increased in confidence and competence over the
past year, and they're increasingly able to take over.

So we are getting closer to having this agreement worked out. Consultations
are continuing with members of Congress. And so I don't -- I can't provide
you the details on those two issues you mentioned, in terms of dates or the
jurisdictional issue. But we are getting closer. These agreements are not
unlike ones that we have with other countries around the world, such as
Japan and South Korea. So we anticipate being able to hopefully have
something soon. But I will stress to you, it's not finalized yet. There are
steps that the Iraqis have to go through, several different political
steps, different organizations within their political structure that have
to take a look at this agreement.

We've been briefing our members of Congress, and that continues. Both
candidates have been informed. And so until I have more details to provide
you, I think I'll leave it there. But we'll keep you updated as we move
forward.

Q But this -- I guess one of the questions is, you know, if Secretary Gates
apparently supports the draft that's out there, that contains these two
provisions in it -- I mean, does the President also --

MS. PERINO: I would not at all be surprised that Secretary Gates would
support the draft since we're getting closer to a final agreement.

Q Dana, you mentioned the candidates being informed. I guess, in this
process, like so many things that are unfolding in these late days of the
administration, how intimately are they and will they be involved as this
progresses?

MS. PERINO: Well, I wouldn't call it involvement. I would say that we are
keeping them informed about activities. And remember, certainly they have
committee assignments and things like that, as senators, as well. But what
we have tried to do on this issue, as well as on the economy, on North
Korea, is to keep them equitably informed throughout the process so that
they can be aware of all of the issues. One of them is going to win the
election, and they will be taking over and having to deal with these issues
as they take over office. So it's only prudent for us to make sure that we
get them the information that we think they need.

Roger.

Q Two questions. On Iraq, are you having members of Congress down here for
briefings this morning, or today, or is it congressional aides?

MS. PERINO: I think a lot of things have been done -- I think a lot of
things have been done by phone call since most of the members aren't in
town.

Q Okay. Are there no aides being briefed here by --

MS. PERINO: Staff is being briefed, as well.

Q Congressional staff, okay.

MS. PERINO: Congressional staff is being briefed, as well.

Q Do you know by whom?

MS. PERINO: National Security Council staff. There's a range of people. I'm
not going to get into the details of the briefings, but I would say that
they're at a high enough level that they will be sufficiently informed and
have everything that they need and have the right people to ask questions
of.

Q The other question is, for Camp David tomorrow, the Europeans are talking
about such things -- such far-reaching things as re-writing the Bretton
Woods. What does the President think --

MS. PERINO: I can sure assure you that I don't think the re-writing of
Bretton Woods is going to take place at Camp David tomorrow. (Laughter.)

Q I'm not suggesting it tomorrow. I'm saying that that should be a topic
for whatever G8 summit there is.

MS. PERINO: It could be. I think that people will come forward with their
ideas and their recommendations. And look, we will have that meeting and it
will be one with a full agenda. They will address a lot of issues going
forward.

But what we have been immediately concerned about is the situation at hand
right now, and that's why the President met last week with the G7. We have
the G7 action plan that went into implementation over the weekend, with
Europe being able to announce the capitalization of their banks. We did the
same after we were able to talk to our nine institutions. So all of that
work is being done right now, while at the same time we're trying to think
long term. But I think the most important thing we can do is make sure that
we stop the bleeding here before we move onto the next project.

We will move onto it. We will have a meeting. It will be one that has a
robust and full agenda. But finding a date for that meeting and a location
for that meeting really is not the top priority at the moment.

Mark.

Q Dana, will Paulson or any other economic officials be at Camp David
tomorrow?

MS. PERINO: Good question. Let me see if I can get you a list. I know
Stephen Hadley will be there, Ed Gillespie, I think Dan Price from the
National Security Council. But I don't know, outside of this building, who
will be there. So I'll try to get it for you.

Lambros.

Q Ms. Perino, why Greece -- (inaudible) -- Cyprus excluded from the Visa
Waiver Program at this time?

MS. PERINO: Well, Greece has a little bit of more work to do on the
implementation of the program. But we think that they're on track to be
able to be admitted into it later in the year.

Q (Inaudible) are you talking about?

MS. PERINO: On the Visa Waiver Program.

Q And also how do you think -- (inaudible) -- possible, approximately?

MS. PERINO: I think that we're looking towards by the end of the year we
hope to have that all wrapped up.

Go ahead.

Q Dana, thank you. Two questions. At the World Policy Forum in France, the
Reverend Jesse Jackson declared, "Although Zionists, who have controlled
American policy for decades, remain strong, the decades of putting Israel's
interests first would end once Obama becomes President." And my question:
What does the President --

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment.

Q -- who does control foreign policy, have to say about Mr. Jackson's
anti-Israel statement?

MS. PERINO: I don't do a couple things: I don't comment on the 2008
election, nor do I comment on things that Jesse Jackson says. So I'm not
going to comment.

Q Do you have no comment --

MS. PERINO: I don't. Let's move on, please.

Q Has the White House issued any statement yet on the July 2nd proposal to
form, "a civilian national security force as large and as well-funded as
the army," which was made by Senator Obama in Colorado Springs?

MS. PERINO: I'm not aware of it. We'll get back to you.

Go ahead, Paula.

Q On the Colombia free trade agreement, the President has repeatedly called
for Congress to pass this, and there is some talk on the Hill about
possibly supporting that -- if the White House agrees to support an
economic package. So I just wondered if that's a possibility?

MS. PERINO: You heard from the President this morning, said that we think
that one of the best ways to continue to stimulate the economy is to
continue to open up markets. And there are three free trade agreements in
front of Congress right now: the Panama agreement, South Korea and
Colombia. We don't necessarily think that they need to be linked to
anything. They should be given an up or down vote on their merits.

Go ahead, Goyal.

Q Two questions. One, talking about Visa Waiver Program, day before
yesterday there was a conference at the Chamber of Commerce, the United
States -- the U.S.-India Business Council and also yesterday (inaudible) of
India was here at the Sackler Gallery. There were all talking about this
U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement and also as far as cultural programs
going on now between the two countries. Is India going to be included in
this program? Because -- (inaudible) -- about yesterday praising U.S. for
opening the doors?

MS. PERINO: I'll have to check. They're not on my -- on the list that I
brought with me, but we'll check.

Q And second, as far as -- terrorism is going on in the Afghanistan. You
think -- what President Bush thinks about that when people talk about it
comparing of Senator Obama with Osama, because Osama -- Obama is --

MS. PERINO: Goyal, please -- Goyal, I'm just going to move on. Victoria.

Q In his op-ed today, Gordon Brown says the old postwar international
financial institutions are out of date. Does the President agree with that?

MS. PERINO: Did you happen to see the President's speech this morning?

Q I did, I was there.

MS. PERINO: Okay, so he said that you can't have a 21st century system with
20th century laws. And so one of the things that we'll be doing as we move
forward is thinking about what changes need to be made so that we can
prevent a crisis like this from happening again, but also preserve our free
market system.

Q Would he support the foundation of a completely new global organization?

MS. PERINO: I don't know. I think that what we'll do is accept for
consideration all recommendations and all good ideas that come to us; and
then it won't just be the United States and it won't just be Europe that
thinks about all of these ideas, it will be a broader group of countries.

Q Thank you.

Q Subject of the radio address?

MS. PERINO: The economy.

Q Will he mention the Bretton Woods agreement? (Laughter.)

MS. PERINO: I don't think so. (Laughter.)

END 10:47 A.M. EDT
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