March 4, 2003
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Ari Won't Comment on Leaked Memo Showing White House is Bugging Security Council Members
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NEWS ANALYSIS
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by a BuzzFlash Reader
Oh, of course... when queried about the memo in re surveillance of UN members in order to know their voting inclinations with regard to the Iraq attack Ari stonewalls because... it's a secret.... national security ... can't tell... can't breathe a word... D'oh.
This really makes me really, really angry. Enough already!
03 March 2003
White House Daily Briefing Transcript (President's schedule, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Pope's peace emissary, Iraq, disarmament, alleged surveillance of UN members, Turkey, terror alert status, Medicare, Bush/political support, White House reaction to Arab League proposal, second resolution, Miguel Estrada, executive order banning assassinations, medical malpractice, bin Laden, president's possible decision to go to war) (7340)
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed.
Following is the White House transcript:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
March 3, 2003PRESS BRIEFING INDEX
Q: May I also ask you about a report in The Observer newspaper in London, of a memo purported to be from the NSA -- an email message from a man who actually works at the NSA they established -- in which he describes a surge in surveillance of U.N. Security Council members to see what these nations are thinking about an Iraq vote. What's your response?
MR. FLEISCHER: Terry, as a matter of long-standing policy, the administration never comments on anything involving any people involved in intelligence. For example, if somebody were to say to me, is Libya an object of American intelligence -- I would never answer that question yes or no. The administration does not answer questions of that nature. We don't answer who does or does not work in the intelligence community. Once you start that, you start getting into process of elimination and we do not do that about any question, about any report, as a blanket matter of policy.
Q: But, then, if you're a Cameroonian diplomat or a French diplomat at the United Nations, because of what you just said, you're going to have to operate on the assumption that the United States is bugging you.
MR. FLEISCHER: No, it's a blanket matter of policy that we do not answer questions of that nature, whether it's true or not true, and I'm not indicating to you whether it is true or not true. It's a blanket matter of approach and policy that predates this administration.
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