QUESTION: Secretary Rice, great to speak with you. Good to have you back.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. It's great to be back with you.
QUESTION: Hey, are you able to do football during all this? Are you still watching your Browns?
SECRETARY RICE: Oh, well, yes, unfortunately, I am.
QUESTION: How about the Eagles, too? The punt return. We need a punt returner. You liked Andy Reid last time I talked with you. You realize he's got some problems.
SECRETARY RICE: I like Andy Reid. I think the Eagles are going to be all right. It's a -- you know, it's a division where anybody can win it, so just win ten games and see what happens.
QUESTION: Exactly. That is exactly on the mark.
General Petraeus, Secretary Rice, I thought did a great job at proving the military part of the surge is working. The question hanging over all this and the debate back and forth with reasonable people was the national political government. We've given them time. The surge has bought that. I don't believe that they are getting it together. Give me your insight that indicates they are or they will get it together.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, I agree that the military part of this has created a circumstance in which the violence is coming down, in which clearly we've had an effect on the security situation. And yes, the national government is not moving as quickly as we would want it to move, and they need to move more quickly. But that doesn't mean that there isn't politics or a political process going on in Iraq, and I think that's what Ambassador Crocker was saying.
We all thought that this would be about passing the national oil law, passing the de-Baathification law, passing a provincial powers law. But what has happened, and sometimes you just can't predict in complex circumstances where progress is going to come, what has happened is that the change in the circumstances in Anbar Province -- and you'll remember, Dom, that this was a place that we used to call the triangle of death. This was a place where al-Qaeda was in control. They called it the Islamic Republic of Iraq. This was a place where Sunni insurgents were -- it was a raging Sunni insurgency. We were trying to figure out how we were going to get legitimate Sunni leadership into the national picture.
Well, that's where the political progress has really taken place. The President and I sat with these local leaders who now have won back their province from al-Qaeda, with our help, and are now determining and demanding of their national government that they get resources, that they get projects to -- you know, for jobs for their people. This is really local government. And I think what you're going to see is that you're going to see more and more development of local government across Iraq. The national government is responding by making sure that resources get there. So even if there's not an oil law, they are distributing the oil revenues down to the provinces.
So the political progress didn't come where we thought it would have to, and there still needs to be that progress, but it's not as if there is no political progress in the country.
QUESTION: What would you say to those who are critical though and say -- I think it was Chuck Schumer, Madame Secretary, who said this is because these tribal chieftains just have gotten together or we're helping them through monetarily, it's not really because of military stability that's done this?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, you know, it's just not the case in Anbar. Anbar is now probably one of the safest provinces. And it's safe because these people, with our help, have turned on al-Qaeda, and we and they have driven al-Qaeda out of the province. Be sure, al-Qaeda is going to still try to attack, but there is a different security situation there. And these local leaders, these sheikhs and local leaders, are now turning to questions of how can they deliver reconstruction and services to their people. That's the emergence of local government. We sat with the provincial governor. We sat with the leader of the provincial council. And they are now, having changed the security situation, they're worrying about how to deliver for their people. That's a good story.
QUESTION: Absolutely. Now let me tell you what our listeners are saying. You probably get this in talk radio. The word they say through me is urgency; we don't see the national government getting that. I know they're our allies more than anything, so when I say pressure on them in your conversations, maybe that publicly you can't talk about that. But can you give us a sense of what we're doing to present to them that the American people are -- numbers are behind us, and I think after the testimony even more, but the time clock is running here. That's obvious. Urgency is the word now.
SECRETARY RICE: Oh, absolutely. And when we talk to these local leaders or to these national leaders, we say exactly that. You know, I told them, I said, look, the American people do not understand why you are not delivering on bringing these differences -- overcoming these differences and you're going to have to deliver.
It's -- to be fair to them, what they're trying to do is very, very hard. You know, when you look at our own history, when you look at how we had to overcome so many differences -- you know, think about reconstruction after our own Civil War. It wasn't a great political success.
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RICE: So when you're doing very hard things to overcome very bad differences, particularly because Saddam Hussein wrecked the fabric of this country, it takes time. But we are pressing them. I think they do know that it is urgent that they make some progress. They are acting in a way that allows these local governments to begin to govern. That's why I said, you know, even though they have an oil law, they are getting -- finally getting the money out to the provinces so that the provinces can deliver goods and services.
QUESTION: Okay, let's talk about you personally vis-�-vis General Petreaus, who I've had the honor to interview. Watching him yesterday -- disagreement, okay, but some of the attacks, being called a liar, a dissembler, whatever. You face that. When you're sitting there in that situation, how do you respond? And were you feeling that, the same spot? He's military; he can't respond even in the way that you were able to respond.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, I think we can have political disagreements without impugning people's character, and I've said that on a number of occasions when I've been on the Hill and people have said things about truthfulness or whatever. We can disagree, but we don't have to impugn each other's characters.
And it's even more important -- you know, you have this military man who has given his life to the service of his country. He is the leader of our men and women in uniform in our most vital and difficult circumstance, which is Iraq, and so he should be accorded respect. He is a man of integrity. He is somebody who calls it as he sees it. And I think he acquitted himself very, very well yesterday, as did Ambassador Crocker -- another thorough professional who's just there trying to do a good job for the country.
QUESTION: Absolutely. A little preview, Madame Secretary, of the President's speech tomorrow night. We're hearing he'll sign off with some caveats, I guess, around the 30,000 troop withdrawal by the summer. Is that something we might hear?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the President has talked to General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. I think he respects very much what they have said. I'm going to let the President say what he'll say going forward, but I think you can be certain that he understands that we are making enough improvement in the security situation, and if we keep making that security that the number of American forces are going to come down. They are going to probably continue to come down as those improvements are made. But what he doesn't want to do, and General Petraeus did not want to do, is to sign on to artificial timelines beyond the point at which the surge has had its impact.
The other thing I think you'll hear from the President is that everybody wants American forces to get through this period and to be doing different things in the future. We have interests in Iraq that are long-term interests and we certainly have interests in the Middle East that are long-term interests. We are going to be in a position to ensure the territorial integrity of Iraq against its troublesome neighbor like Iran. We are going to be making sure that there are no terrorist safe havens. We are going to be training the Iraqi armed forces. Those are going to be our principal responsibilities in the future.
But General Petraeus wanted to make sure that he's got enough forces to finish the job of providing population security so that political reconciliation can take place. And I think the President will accept what he says on those grounds.
QUESTION: A tough area for me and a lot of listeners -- we've just had the sixth anniversary of 9/11. Usama bin Laden is still out there with a tape. I wasn't thrilled with the response of the Homeland Security person from the White House saying he's virtually impotent. Americans want this guy brought to justice, one way or the other. Can you understand that people don't see this as a guy that's out of the loop, that it's just too painful for them? And what can you tell us is being done, in your view, to get him?
SECRETARY RICE: Oh yes, everybody -- and most especially the President and people like me -- want Usama bin Laden to be brought to justice. And there are whole units of people who are trying to bring that about --
QUESTION: Well, might I interrupt and ask what would you say is the biggest problem? Is it that Pakistan is a very difficult, volatile situation, and that is what the difficulty is?
SECRETARY RICE: No, I would say if you flew over Afghanistan and Pakistan, you would immediately see the problem -- high mountains with caves and holes -- and it's just difficult to find somebody like that. And he's hiding. You know, the interesting thing is this isn't somebody who's out there bravely leading the fight. This isn't somebody who's out there putting himself on the line, although it's fine from al-Qaeda's point of view that young, maybe unsuspecting Muslim people will go to their deaths as suicide bombers, but none of them seem to be very anxious to make martyrs of themselves. And so that's the hard part is that he has a lot of places to hide.
But I will say, you know, we've killed or captured an awful lot of his lieutenants, a lot of the best talent of al-Qaeda, and we're going to continue to do that. But I want to assure the American people we understand that the kill or capture of Usama bin Laden, bringing him to justice, is important to the American people. It's important to us.
QUESTION: Okay, one more question, Secretary Rice. Looming over all this, of course, is Iran. I don't know if the President will address that tomorrow night. Fox News reporting today German officials will not [sic] withhold support for any new sanctions, the sense that we're ratcheting up, we're focusing more on the Iranians, which are the source of a lot of this. What can you tell us about that?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the Germans have assured us that they are -- and by the way, they have been and I'm sure they are -- very much a part of the coalition of states that is determined to hold Iran accountable for its continued defiance of the international community. And the Germans, the French, the British and, in fact, the Russians and the Chinese -- we are the coalition that has brought two Security Council resolutions against Iran. We're going to work on another Security Council resolution.
But let me assure the American people of one other thing: As the Security Council is going along, we are also putting a lot of pressure on the Iranian economy by making it impossible for them, making it really hard for them, to use the international financial system for illicit purposes. That's why you see us sanctioning Iranian banks. That's why you see us sanctioning Iranian individuals. Even if the United States does that unilaterally, it's hard for Iran to use those banks in the international financial system for illicit purposes. But I'm confident of the support of Germany for this policy.
QUESTION: Secretary Rice, thank you, as always. Who do the Browns play on Sunday?
SECRETARY RICE: Let's see. I know we had Pittsburgh and it might be Cincinnati. It's Cincinnati within the top three, of the first three. But let me just say this: Start Brady Quinn.
QUESTION: (Laughter.) You heard it here first. That's going to reverberate across the nation. You think he's ready, huh?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, look, can it be worse than 34-7?
QUESTION: No, I think you have it there. I think you're right on the money with that. Thank you so much for reaching out to the Big Talker.
SECRETARY RICE: All right. Take care.
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