View the President's Remarks
12:11 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: It's my honor to
welcome the leader of one of our nation's best friends, the Prime
Minister of a country that has had so much to do with our nation and
its development.
I'm also pleased to be able to give him a
lunch -- after all, I had one of the best lunches I've had since I've
been the President because of the Prime Minister. We had a
long discussion about our mutual desire to rout out terrorism where it
might exist. He understands as well as I understand that the
war on terrorism will be waged on many fronts, and I'm so pleased with
the efforts of his government to join with us in disrupting the
financial networks of terrorist organizations. I'm pleased
that we're sharing intelligence. I'm pleased that the Prime
Minister understands that al Qaeda has cells all around the world and
he's more than willing to work with us to disrupt those cells, to bring
people to justice. We're making progress.
So, Mr. Prime Minister,
welcome. It's my honor to have you here.
PRIME MINISTER
BERLUSCONI: Thank you, Mr. President, I am here, first of
all, to express our great pain and sadness for the attack on September
the 11th and to say to you if the same attack had been -- had occurred
on an Italian city we would have felt the same pain as you are.
And also I'm here to express to you our
desire to be as close as possible and to provide both moral and
material support.
As I mentioned earlier this morning, this attack was an attack not
only against citizens, but also against freedom and
liberty. The U.S. is the defensor of liberty all over the
world, and that's what this attack was about.
THE PRESIDENT: We'll answer a
couple of questions.
Q These anthrax
attacks, sir, do you believe that there is any connection to bin
Laden's organization? Your Vice President, on Friday, seemed
to indicate there may be some possible link.
THE PRESIDENT: There may be
some possible link. We have no hard data yet. But
it's clear that Mr. bin Laden is a man who is an evil
man. He and his spokesmen are openly bragging about how they
hope to inflict more pain on our country. So we're watching
every piece of evidence. We're making sure that we connect
any dots that we have, to find out who's doing this. I
wouldn't put it past him, but we don't have hard evidence, yet.
Q Do you have
anything that points towards bin Laden, besides your
gut? And has there been any other reports of anthrax tainted
mail being received by U.S. businesses or government offices today?
THE PRESIDENT: There has been
today. I just talked to Leader Daschle. His
office received a letter, and it had anthrax in it. The
letter was field tested. The staffers that have been exposed
are being treated. The powder that had been field tested is
now, obviously, going to the CDC lab.
Beyond that, I don't know more about
it. I spoke to the Leader; he is, obviously, concerned, as
am I. The key thing for the American people is to be
cautious about letters that come from somebody you may not know,
unmarked letters, letters that have got -- that look
suspicious. And give those letters and packages to local law
authorities.
Again, the process is working; but, today,
the Senate Majority Leader, his office did receive a letter.
Q Was it definitely
anthrax, or just a preliminary test, do you know?
THE PRESIDENT: The field test
shows it to be anthrax. Ron, there's more tests being
conducted as we speak. The Leader believes it is anthrax,
but we'll find out more as time goes on.
They've got the letter. As he
said, it was a letter that had been wrapped a lot and that the powder
was within the confines of the -- within the envelope. It
wasn't on the outside of the envelope, it was within the
envelope. And a staffer opened the letter. They
obviously became suspicious of the material within the letter and
immediately called in for a field test. The field test was
done, shows it to be anthrax, and then all people are being treated.
Q India says it
opened fire on Pakistani positions in the Kashmir region today, this
just an hour or two after Secretary Powell landed in
Pakistan. How helpful is something like that?
THE PRESIDENT: I haven't see a
report yet, John. And I think it is very important that
India and Pakistan stand down during our activities in Afghanistan;
stand down, for that matter, forever.
But I am -- I need to find out more about
the report; I will find out more about the report. As you
noted, our Secretary of State is in the region. One reason
he's there is to talk to both sides about making sure that there is no
-- that if there are tensions and, obviously, there are, that they be
reduced, that we are mindful that activities around Kashmir could
create issues in that part of the region, particularly as we're
conducting our operations in Afghanistan.
Q Mr. President,
you have mentioned that you would -- the other evening in your press
conference, that you would like to see more action from the
allies. And you mentioned what the U.K. is
doing. What would you say about what Italy has
done? And what was the subject of your
conversation? Would you like to see something more done by
Italy? And, also, from Europe, would you like to see more
economic action from the European side to help the U.S.
economy? Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank
you. First of all, we're taking measures here at home to get
our economy started. There is some optimism, as some numbers
recently have shown that consumer confidence is getting stronger, that
people are getting to get on the airways more, that people are
traveling. So there are some positive signs.
I hope to work with -- I am working with
Congress and hope to get a stimulus package that will dovetail nicely
with the tax cuts we had this summer, coupled with some of the spending
measures we've taken since September 11th.
First of all, I'm very pleased with the
cooperation and support of Italy. They have been very strong
from the beginning. The Prime Minister has been very, not
only supportive, but has asked how to help in significant ways to fight
terrorism.
Again, I repeat to you, this is a war
that's going to be fought on a variety of fronts. One such
front will be to disrupt financial -- the finances of the terrorist
organizations. And he was discussing with me some executive
orders that had been taken recently that showed Italy's desire to be
very firm about disrupting finances. There is a sharing of
information that goes on.
I'm confident that if we put out the word
that we needed more help from Italy they would be more than willing to
help. Each of us has a role to play. And the
Italian government, under this good man's leadership, is playing a very
significant role.
We're going to go eat
lunch. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER
BERLUSCONI: Grazie.
END
12:22 P.M. EDT
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