State Department Noon Briefing

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2001, 1:00 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Q: Change of subject? Yesterday I asked you an assassination team from
Iraq crossing into Turkey, but you didn't say anything about that.
Unfortunately today, a terrorist attacked and killed six Turkish
security officials, including the chief of police in the city of
Diyabakir in southeastern Turkey.

So do you have any reaction about that?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't have anything right now. I will have to check on
it and see if we can get you something.

Q: UN nuclear experts, who were - the IAEA, who was in Iraq --
praised the cooperation, but they won't apparently tell other
international experts what they found. Can you explain that? Can you
tell - I mean, are we asking them for more clarification?

MR. BOUCHER: Once again, either you are reading farther or more into
an article than what I saw. What I saw briefly was a couple quotes
praising the fact that they had gotten cooperation. I assume that in
the normal course of business, that these experts do report back what
they found to the appropriate agencies and organizations.

Q: This says here, "refused to comment when asked whether the group
had found evidence Iraq was rehabilitating its nuclear weapons
facility."

MR. BOUCHER: That doesn't mean they won't tell us. That means they
won't tell you.

Q: Well, that's true.

MR. BOUCHER: I mean, let's get serious here. There is a difference
between not commenting in public when you are on your way out the door
and going back and doing your analysis, preparing the report and
submitting it to the appropriate bodies.

Q: So you expect to be told?

MR. BOUCHER: We would expect to hear, through one organization or
another, what the results of these findings were.

....

Q: On that question of Iraqi sanctions, because that was one area
where the Secretary has, on several occasions already, made it clear
he intends to depart from previous practice. Has he asked for any kind
of internal review of the Iraqi sanctions? I know he hasn't had time
to speak to the allies that he wants to coordinate with. But is there
something internally in motion asking for ideas about how you might
reenergize them? Or is that too early?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes, he has people looking at it. I don't know whether I
should characterize it as a sort of formal review. I'm not quite sure
it reaches that point in bureaucratic terms. But he has people looking
at it. It is certainly an area of interest and one that I would expect
he will be talking with allies and other governments about as we go
forward.

Q: Who would be looking at it?

MR. BOUCHER: First and foremost, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

Q: And the policy planning people, as well?

MR. BOUCHER: I am sure there are a number of people involved that are
looking at it. I am not sure if they have sort of formally constituted
a group yet.

Q: Not to try and delve too deeply into it, but because there is this
review of sanctions in general, what you're talking about here,
Jonathan, is a separate review just for Iraq. Whereas, the Secretary
has said he might like to eliminate other sanctions, he wants to
reenergize the sanctions on Iraq? Or is it part of the same process?

MR. BOUCHER: I am not trying to specify a particular bureaucratic
process. I didn't use the word "review," because I'm not sure a sort
of formal review has been instigated and whether a committee has been
formed to look at it. What I do know is he has asked various people in
this building to look at the issue of Sanctions on Iraq and come up
with ideas about how he might achieve his goals of reenergizing them.

He has separately asked other people in this building to look at the
whole panoply of US sanctions so that we can get a handle on that and
look at how we conduct those. Certainly, there is no question in his
mind about the need for the international sanctions on Iraq to be
maintained and reenergized, so that Iraq can't reconstitute its threat
to the region.

Q: Is he thinking of expanding that into some kind of interagency
process, bringing in the NSC and the Pentagon --

MR. BOUCHER: We will have to see how that develops. I am not sure
where it stands right now.

Q: (Inaudible) - looking at? And I am asking because the report --
well, it's not dated today but it was issued today. It's an advisory
panel on proliferation. It's Lloyd Cutler and Howard Baker and Susan
Eisenhower and other such folks. And he did make a point at his
hearing about how concerned he is over proliferation, loose nukes --
not only loose nukes, proliferation.

Is anything - they had a proposal, but I think that question belongs
at the White House. But I think I could ask you here, you know,
whether he is having anybody look at that right now? Is there any
review?

Well, one of the points is that it's - the US Government is doing a
good job, but things are spread out among various departments. And
they are suggesting having - that awful word - a czar at the - they
apologize for it - with special responsibilities to coordinate the
proliferation problem, action on proliferation. Is anybody taking a
look at that right now?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. I wasn't aware of the reports; I haven't
checked. I am sure that any report from a group like this, people will
look at. But, as you know, we have in recent years consolidated some
of the proliferation activities in this building and organized them in
this building. Whether more needs to be done, I think the new
Administration will address over time if they decide to.


(The briefing was concluded at 1:45 p.m.)