For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 3, 2003
Press Gaggle with Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
9:39 A.M. EST
MR. FLEISCHER: Okay, let me give you a little update on today, and
then a couple other items. The President today will deliver remarks to
military personnel and families and provide an update on Operation
Iraqi Freedom at Camp Lejeune.
Camp Lejeune is home to the Marine Corps Expeditionary Forces. It
includes an active duty, dependent, retirees, civilian population of
nearly 150,000. It was established in 1941. Camp Lejeune has grown
from its original facilities of a farmhouse and tobacco barn to a
246-square-mile military training facility that includes 14 miles of
beach for amphibious operations, and internationally recognized
training capabilities.
He will, after his speech, which will be before -- don't have the
number in front of me. I believe it's some 10,000 Marines -- after the
speech, he will eat lunch with the Marines, and then he will have a
private meeting with the families of fallen Marines who were based at
Camp Lejeune.
Q Ten thousand Marines you said at this -- in the crowd?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, it's a large -- large attendance at the
speech.
Q Do you know about how many families represented?
MR. FLEISCHER: There will be approximately half a dozen or so,
probably -- maybe five families of those fallen. The reason for that
--
Q -- from Camp Lejeune?
MR. FLEISCHER: The Marines are from Camp Lejeune, but the families
are not. There's only one family in the Camp Lejeune area. Others had
to come from wherever they live because their relative was based at
Camp Lejeune. There are additional Marines who were killed whose
families will not be there today because they don't live near Camp
Lejeune.
Q Can you give us those names by the end of the --
MR. FLEISCHER: I believe the names are going to be withheld. The
families requested privacy. If that changes I will update it, but I
asked shortly before I left the White House and I was informed the
families want privacy.
Q Is it 12 Marines from that base -- 12 Marines who lost their
lives?
MR. FLEISCHER: My latest information is 11 Marines from Camp
Lejeune have been killed.
Let me do two other things. There are some -- two bad reports on
the economy out this morning, and the President views this as more
reason for Congress to pass the job growth economic stimulus plan that
he proposed. Today's bad news makes it even more important for
Congress to act and pass the President's proposal.
Finally, let me skip ahead to tomorrow. I want to inform you about
an event --
Q What was the bad news?
MR. FLEISCHER: Unemployment insurance, first-time claims are of
the highest level in almost a year. They increased by -- initial
claims for unemployment insurance rose 38,000, to 445,000. And also,
the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing report for
March came out, and business activity index for non-manufacturing
sector decreased by six index points, well below market expectations.
A final item for tomorrow, I want to highlight this today --
tomorrow afternoon the President will have a meeting in the Roosevelt
Room with a group of Shia, Sunni, and Christian Iraqis, all of whom
have fled torture, persecution in Iraq and live in the United States.
He looks forward to meeting with these free Iraqis to talk about the
progress and speed being made in the war, and discuss the humanitarian
situation on the ground.
Q Will that be open or closed?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm working on the coverage now. I don't have a
determination. We will try to hand out a factsheet later this
afternoon on who these people are. But let me share with you some of
their stories.
Rahman Al-Jebouri -- he was a prolific writer while attending
Baghdad University in the '80s. During his sophomore year he was
apprehended and jailed after writing a fictional story that was
interpreted by the Hussein regime as criticism of the war with Iran.
He spent four years in jail and was released only after signing a
pledge of allegiance to the regime and a promise not to write again.
In 1991, he joined the uprising in southern Iraq, but fled to Saudi
Arabia as the revolt failed. After living in a refugee camp for four
years, he came to the United States, with the help of the United
Nations, in 1995. He now lives in the Washington area.
Ms. Zainab Al-Suwaij -- and we'll give you all the spellings on
these -- she is Shia. She was born in southern Iraq. When she was 20
years old, she joined the 1991 uprising against Saddam in Karbala.
During the revolt, she saw the city jail and saw firsthand the
instruments of torture that were used by the Iraqi regime. As the
uprising began to fail, she fled Iraq and drove to Jordan. She now
lives in Boston and heads the American Islamic Congress Organization,
dedicated to building interfaith understanding.
We will try to provide you additional biographical information on
all the people that he's going -- that the President is going to be
meeting with tomorrow. Some of their tales are quite graphic. All
their tales are quite sad, but all their hopes are quite high, now that
they see the day of liberation for their country coming.
Q Ari, this is the President's first meeting with the
families. Can you tell us a little bit about how you expect -- how
many people you expect to be there and how you expect the President to
--
MR. FLEISCHER: There will be a little more than 20 people. These
will be brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives, and mothers and
fathers of those who have fallen in service to our country.
Q Representing how many of the killed?
MR. FLEISCHER: These are the ones who were able to make it to Camp
Lejeune -- again, understanding that many of them don't live in the
Camp Lejeune area, despite the fact that the Marines were based there.
I think it's going to be sad. I think it's going to be, if I know
the President, a tough meeting, an emotional meeting. But from his
point of view, it's an important meeting. This is part of the duties
of the Commander-in-Chief, and this is part of his job. And he went to
Walter Reed to meet with the wounded from Afghanistan. He has met with
families in other very difficult situations before, going back to
September 14th, 2001, when he met with the families of those who were
at that time believed missing at the World Trade Center. And he's met
with other families whose children or husbands or wives were killed in
Afghanistan.
Q How does this usually go? Does he kind of make comments, and
then meet individually? Or how doe --
MR. FLEISCHER: No, his comments will be in front of the large
crowd. And then what he'll typically do is he will go in and just
spend time with every single individual soul in that room. And it's --
I've been with him for almost all of these, I think for all that he's
said he's done, and it really is an amazing scene, because you have
families that are in the early moments of their grief. In many cases,
their relatives have just fallen. This is in the last two weeks. And
they're aggrieved. They're pleased that the President is there. And
they talk to him about their loved one, they share stories about
whoever it was. That's what's happened in the past at these events.
He just spends so much time with each one. He kind of just locks
in on the individual he happens to be talking to at that moment. And
it's almost as if there's nobody else in the room, except those two.
That's how he talks to -- and Mrs. Bush will, of course, be with him
for this, as well.
Q Ari, can I ask about the question of whether to press on to
Baghdad or linger on the outskirts for a while -- is that a question
that rises to the President's level, or does he delegate that
entirely?
MR. FLEISCHER: A decision that General Franks makes.
Q How concerned are you about chemical weapons being used at
this point, and what are the consequences?
MR. FLEISCHER: We remain deeply concerned about the possibility
that chemical weapons can be used. The consequences, of course, are --
the President has warned Iraqi officials not to follow orders, that
they will be tried as war criminals if they do. And it remains a
concern, a deep concern.
Q Ari, you said it's a decision for General Franks. Has
General Franks or anybody else in the command joined in the NSC
meetings or other briefings so that the President has been in on the
consultation on this issue of the Baghdad drive?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President leaves these decisions to the
military planners. They make the call. It is their decision about the
timing and the tactics of the war. The reason for that is because it
should not be a decision that's made on any other basis than on the
military facts on the ground, made by the military officials that the
President has charged with winning the war.
Q Right, but you've made a special point of saying that the
President has been a tough questioner of his military leaders and
wanted to be involved and informed, maybe not making the decision, but
that would make the case for somebody like General Franks coming into
the NSC meeting and having a chance to discuss this with the
President.
MR. FLEISCHER: Every day, DOD officials will inform the President
about what is next across the battlefront. And that's how the
President stays updated on the latest events, and that's the process.
Q But how can he ask these tough questions if General Franks
isn't having a conversation with him?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't understand the question.
Q Well, you've been making a point for days now that the
President asks -- likes to ask tough questions and see his role as
keeping people accountable. How does he ask those questions if Franks
isn't in a conversation with him?
MR. FLEISCHER: Nobody said he's not in a conversation with him.
Franks is in a --
Q I just asked whether General Franks was briefing the
President by videophone on the issues of when you take Baghdad.
MR. FLEISCHER: The answer is yes. It's not on a daily basis, but
it's on a regular basis.
Q Do you know if he did it today?
MR. FLEISCHER: I believe he did yesterday. But keep in mind,
there's a military chain of command by design. And the chain of
command works from General Myers -- I mean, General Franks to General
Myers to Secretary Rumsfeld to the President.
Q Any new information on the pilot of the fighter jet that went
down over southern Iraq?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's a DOD issue.
Q Any new speculation about Saddam?
MR. FLEISCHER: Continue to not know.
Q -- about the crowd size. You said 10,000 Marines, but we
were told, I think, 30,000 expected total. Is that family and friends,
or is that number wrong?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let's go to the source: 12,000 attendees,
including 12,000 Marines.
MR. DECKARD: That's 20,000 attendees, I think.
MR. FLEISCHER: Isn't that what I said?
MR. DECKARD: Twelve thousand and 12,000.
MR. FLEISCHER: Oh, 12 and 12. That doesn't add up. (Laughter.)
Q Twelve including 12.
MR. FLEISCHER: I would like to thank Reed Dicken's protege for the
correction. Twenty thousand attendees, including 12,000 Marines.
Q So who are the rest?
MR. FLEISCHER: The other 8,000? They happened to be wandering by
the base. (Laughter.) Families, dependents, others who live there;
civilians who are based at Camp Lejeune. Reporters, pool of 13 --
20,013 will be there. Cameramen count twice.
Okay.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
9:50 A.M. EST
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