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Press Gaggle by Scott Stanzel
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 18, 2008

Press Gaggle by Scott Stanzel Law Aldea, Building A Tucson, Arizona

˙˙Press Briefings


9:00 A.M. MST

MR. STANZEL: Good morning, everyone. I'll go ahead and read out the
President's schedule and take your questions. This morning, at 7:55 a.m.,
the President recorded the radio address. The topic of the President's
radio address this week is the economy, energy and housing.

And while, you heard the President say earlier this week, economic growth
in the first quarter of this year was slower than we would have liked, it
was growth, nonetheless. The President also talked in his radio address
about lifting the executive branch prohibition on offshore exploration for
energy. And the administration has worked to expand the use of alternative
fuels and raise fuel efficiency standards, as well as investing in new
advanced battery and plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

And the President, also in the radio address, will touch upon the steps
announced this week to help increase confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, which play a central role in our housing finance system. And the
President will urge Congress to pass a plan to strengthen these
enterprises.

At 8:55 a.m., currently going on right now, the President began
participation in the Tim Bee for Congress and Arizona Trust reception. At
2:45 p.m. this afternoon, the President will make a statement to the pool
in support of Pete Olson for Congress. That will be upon arrival in
Houston, Texas. And at 4:00 p.m., the President will attend a Olson for
Congress and Texas Victory Committee reception. And then we continue on to
Waco and Crawford overnight.

With that, I'll take your questions.

Q Just a quick one. When they say Texas Victory Committee, that's Texas
Republican Party?

MR. STANZEL: Yes.

Q Those are -- those other state candidates?

MR. STANZEL: Yes.

Q Scott, the indictment in Israel against this plot -- alleged plot against
the President, was the landing zone that was mentioned in that indictment
the actual landing zone the President used in Jerusalem?

MR. STANZEL: I'm not going to be at liberty to discuss the President's
security, so I'd refer you to the U.S. Secret Service for any questions
about that matter.

Q On the statement about Maliki, the conversation with Maliki and agreement
to have a time -- some sort of a timetable, is this not giving into --
well, basically doing what the Democrats have been asking for?

MR. STANZEL: The -- no. And as the statement says, we have reached a point
in Iraq where we can have these discussions about continuing to transition
more control of the security situation to the Iraqi forces. As you probably
know, 10 of 18 provinces have been turned over to Iraqi control. They're
making great progress from a security front; they're making progress on the
political and economic fronts, as well. But these are aspirational goals,
not arbitrary time lines based on political expediency. So we want to get
to a point where we have sustainable security in the country, and our
forces are able to come home and transition into a role there of more
overwatch and training.

Q Scott, to follow up on that, two questions. Can you define for us a
little bit what the aspirational goal might be or what it might look like
in an agreement? I mean, is it a date? Is it a tentative time frame? I
mean, what does it mean to have a horizon? Secondly, why did we not hear
about this statement yesterday? I assume the phone call happened before he
left Washington, so why was there a day delay essentially in that? And
then, last, does this mean that we're close to an agreement? It doesn't
quite say that there's an agreement, though I assume that the two leaders
signing off, it's mostly about the details at this point.

MR. STANZEL: I guess maybe in reverse order -- we still have the end of the
month as a goal for reaching this agreement. As the statement notes, in
November, the two leaders came together on a declaration of principles, and
since that time we've been working on these issues and working on a
strategic framework agreement where security issues, among other things,
are addressed.

It was a decision by the two countries to talk about that publicly today,
based on the productive conversation which occurred yesterday. But in terms
of how exactly that looks, I think it's best left to the two parties and
the State Department and Ambassador Crocker to discuss those things at a
time that they see appropriate.

Q Why was it the decision to do it today? I mean, you said there was a
decision by the two parties to talk about it today. Why not after the phone
call, after this

--

MR. STANZEL: Well, as you can probably imagine, a lot more conversations --
after the two leaders speak, there are opportunities for their teams to
continue to talk about how we can advance this process and how we can move
it forward, and how we both saw that conversation and its fruitfulness, and
that's why they -- we decided to go forward with the statement today. And
there's a similar statement from -- out of the folks in Iraq today, as
well.

Q Is it now a foregone conclusion that this will be a shorter-term
agreement, whatever its parameters, than was originally envisioned? I mean,
obviously originally it was talked about full status of forces agreement,
that I think the Iraqis have made quite clear they want something
shorter-term. Is that now the assumption?

MR. STANZEL: I guess I wouldn't put any parameters on it. Obviously we're
still very much engaged in those conversations with Iraqis. We want -- I
think we share the same goals, and that is for American forces to be able
to come home and for the Iraqis to continue to take greater control over
all matters in their country.

Obviously, with the U.N. mandate running out at the end of this year, it's
important that we have an agreement where our troops can work and perform
their functions in the country. But in terms of how the final agreement may
look, I'm not going to put a -- I'm not going to put parameters on that.
But those are conversations that are ongoing.

Q And can you elaborate on Steve's question a little bit more about the
aspirational goal? What -- how do we describe that? I mean, it says a
"general time horizon." That's not very specific at all. Is it meaningless,
or is it for real?

MR. STANZEL: Well, it's based on conditions on the ground. But we are
making greater and greater progress in the country, and it provides us the
opportunity to have discussions about those aspirational goals; provides us
an opportunity to talk further about when the transfer of security
responsibility might occur in those other eight provinces, as an example.
But I think we all have the same goal here, which I've indicated, and we
want to move forward with an agreement that makes sense for the Iraqi
people and for the United States.

Q Scott, do you think it reflects a concession on the part of the White
House to even discuss some sort of timetable, even an aspirational one?

MR. STANZEL: Does it what?

Q Does it represent a concession on the part of the administration?

MR. STANZEL: These are -- of course, the President has always believed that
we don't want American troops in Iraq one day longer than they're needed.
So reaching a point where we can have fruitful discussions with leaders in
Iraq about these aspirational goals is just where we want to be. And we're
there, quite frankly, because of the difficult decision that the President
made to surge troops into the country to take greater control of the
security situation.

So, unfortunately, it sounds like the President is wrapping up now, so we
can continue this discussion on the plane, if you all want. Thanks.

* * * * *

Q Scott, I think both the presidential candidates have in one way or
another called for an increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Does this --
does a move towards a drawdown in -- towards more possible drawdowns in
Iraq increase that likelihood? Do you -- does the President have any plans
before he leaves office to further increase U.S. troop levels in
Afghanistan?

MR. STANZEL: Well, as you heard the President talk about earlier this week,
the -- we have -- he did make a commitment to send in more than 3,000
additional Marines into Afghanistan, and talked about our willingness to
expand that in 2009. And obviously NATO has had some additional
commitments, as well.

But what we're seeing in Afghanistan is a very determined enemy that is
switching its tactics to more attacks on the civilian population. This is
the Taliban, who does not want to see, you know, young girls going to
school, and they're a very determined enemy. So the most important part, in
terms of additional resources, is how they are going to be used and where
they are going to go. But the President has advocated making sure that we
meet our commitments there, as does NATO.

Q Saeb Erekat said yesterday that there will be tri-party talks in
Washington at the end of this month. Does that mean that there's some
progress --

MR. STANZEL: Who said that?

Q Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator.

MR. STANZEL: Okay. I would refer you to the State Department on that. I
don't have any information on that.

Q Back to the time line again. One of the main arguments against any sort
of timetable in past years has been that it would give insurgents, whether
al Qaeda or whomever, militias, whoever, a time to -- it would give them
too much information, essentially. It would allow them to plan for their
own attacks and perhaps plan a lull before attacking the Iraqis right when
they take over. How is that not still applicable? Isn't that still a
problem any time you're talking about even a general time horizon?

MR. STANZEL: I think it's important to remember that the discussions about
time line issues previously were from Democrats in Congress who wanted to
arbitrarily retreat from Iraq without consideration of conditions on the
ground. All of the discussions that we have always had have been based on
conditions on the ground and making progress in the country, and we are
doing just that.

We are making progress on the security situation. The number of attacks has
dropped dramatically in recent months. And that puts us in the position of
working with the Iraqis, who are taking greater control and having greater
success in addressing the security situation in their own country, that we
can have these discussions. But it's important to note that those decisions
will always be made based on conditions on the ground.

Q Scott, it's not just the Democrats, though, who have been talking about
timetables. I mean, the Iraqis now -- I mean, Maliki himself says he wants
some sort of commitment that there's going to be an end of the U.S.
presence there.

MR. STANZEL: And your question is?

Q That's all. I mean, is this a reflection also -- I guess it's another
version of the question I asked earlier -- is this a reflection of the
Iraqi needs and demands --

MR. STANZEL: This is a -- it's a reflection of the Iraqis becoming more and
more capable of addressing the security situation in their country. We want
American troops to be able to come home, transition, as the Baker-Hamilton
report prescribed, to an overwatch and training situation. And working with
the Iraqis, they have -- obviously they have a great desire to have
complete and total control over everything that is going on in their
country -- from security to economic, to political -- and they have made
enormous strides in all of those areas in the last year-and-a-half.

Q Okay, thanks.

END 9:17 A.M. MST
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