By: E&P Staff After President Bush's major speech today, raising the threat of terrorism and the possible takeover of many countries, Press Secretary Scott McClellan faced skeptical questions from reporters. Sometimes testy, McClellan argued that, yes, the new threat is reminiscent of the fears of Communist takeovers decades ago.
Here are sections from the transcript:
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Q Scott, all this talk about a radical Islamic empire stretching from Europe across to southeast Asia, even some Republicans are saying that it has the appearance of the President trying to cover up bad policy in Iraq by unduly alarming people.
MR. McCLELLAN: I haven't heard any Republicans say that. Do you have one in mind?
Q A couple in mind, yes.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, do you want to share them with me?
Q You can call them and ask them, but I'm just wondering what you think of that?
MR. McCLELLAN: I -- you made a statement. I haven't heard any Republican make such allegation. So I was just wondering where that came from.
Q What's your response to the allegation that you're trying to cover up bad policy in Iraq by unduly alarming people?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's an allegation by John Roberts.
Q Pardon me?
MR. McCLELLAN: Are you saying it's an allegation by John Roberts?
Q It's not my allegation, no.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, go and look at what the President said in his remarks. Today's speech is one in a series of speeches that the President continues to make about the war on terrorism. It's important to understand the nature of the enemy that we face. This is a determined and lethal enemy with a clear strategy. The President outlined that strategy in his remarks. He quoted some of the leaders of this radical ideology that they seek to spread. And he laid out very clearly what their strategy is. I think you can go and look at some of the propaganda and comments that terrorists have made, and it clearly shows what their strategy and what their goals and what their beliefs are.
Q Does he really think they could take over countries like Italy, Spain, Austria, France?
MR. McCLELLAN: This is an enemy that is patient, it is determined, and it is lethal. It is a enemy that is determined to spread a hateful ideology. And what they first want to do is try to establish a safe haven. We took away a safe haven from them when we went into Afghanistan and liberated the people of Afghanistan. They want to establish a country that could be a safe haven from which they could plan and plot their attacks and be able to topple non-radical Muslim governments in the Middle East, and then carry out attacks against the civilized world.
That's why the President made the decision after September 11th that we were going to take the fight to the enemy, that the way to defeat this enemy is to take the fight to them and to spread freedom and democracy to defeat their hateful, murderous ideology.
Q But again, does he really believe that they could take over western countries like Spain and France?
MR. McCLELLAN: That's what their strategy -- go back and look at what the President said in his remarks, because he clearly spelled out what their strategy is. I'm not sure that he characterized it the same way as you just did.
Q Does he think that's realistic?
MR. McCLELLAN: Look at his remarks. They very much have a strategy --
Q He warned of a radical Islamic empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- much like the strategy of communism to dominate and intimidate the world.
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Q And in terms of the priorities in the war on terror, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, where does that fall?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's a priority. We continue to pursue him, to bring him to justice for the crimes he has committed against humanity.
Go ahead.
Q Scott, when you talk about Syria and Iran and that the U.S. is, if anything, toughening our policy towards Iran particularly, what evidence has there been that the toughening of policies to date has had any effect on their alliance of convenience or support of terrorism? And what more should or can be done? It doesn't look like anything is -- it looks as though things are getting worse, now, four years after 9/11.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that's why the President pointed out in his remarks it's important to hold regimes like this accountable for their behavior and for their actions. And that's --
Q Who's going to hold them accountable then?
MR. McCLELLAN: -- that's why we work very closely with the international community to address these matters and address these concerns that we have. We have the Europeans working very closely with us to move forward on reaching an agreement with Iran to stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
You saw some of the comments made by the President of the regime in -- at the United Nations, and it only increases the concerns of the international community. There is growing concern when it comes to Iran's development of nuclear weapons.
Q So there's a growing concern, but is there any evidence that that concern has led to any diminishment of their activities that are troubling you more today than they were four years ago?
MR. McCLELLAN: They continue to be a state sponsor of terrorism, they continue to move in the wrong direction. They are out of step with the rest of the Middle East. They need to stop their support of terrorism; they need to change their behavior; they need to give their people greater freedom. Our policy on Iran is very well-known.
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Q One more question on the speech. In telling us yesterday that this was going to be a significant speech, you said that the President was going to speak in unprecedented detail. What parts of the speech did you have in mind?
MR. McCLELLAN: About the first half of it. When he talked about the nature of the enemy.
Q Right, but his points were things that we've heard him say many times before: that the enemy is determined --
MR. McCLELLAN: He's never spoken in that much detail about the nature of the enemy, like he did today. He has spoken about the nature of the enemy, you're correct. But he spoke in very specific and detailed ways about the nature of the enemy, their strategy and their ambitions and their goals and their beliefs.
Maybe you missed the first half of the speech, but I would encourage you to go back and look at it and I'll be glad for you to come up and show me where he talked about all those things before.
Q That's a little gratuitous to suggest I wasn't listening, Scott, don't you think?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'm sorry about that, Mark.
Q I listened --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, then, it sure didn't seem like it, because I think most people in this room recognize that it was much greater detail that he talked about than ever before.
Q Care for a show of hands on that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Sure.
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