MR. SNOW: All right, welcome. Let me run through the President's schedule, then we will get to a readout on events in Iraq. First on the schedule today. The President right now is meeting with governors in the Roosevelt Room, the topic of discussion the line-item veto. He will be having a meeting after that with the President of Chile, and he will be lunching with the President. There will also be a meeting with the President of Latvia. The President and Mrs. Bush will be heading to Camp David at about 3:00 p.m. Let me give you a readout -- oh, I'm sorry, a couple of other things before we proceed further. In addition, we are announcing -- and I think you've probably already seen the announcement of a trip to Hungary. The President will -- I'll just read it out. President Bush will visit Budapest, Hungary, for a bilateral program on June 22, 2006, following his participation in the U.S.-European Union summit in Vienna, Austria. In Budapest the President will celebrate Hungary's historic sacrifices in the name of freedom by commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, underscore the success of the U.S.-European partnership in securing freedom in the region, and highlight the lessons offered from Hungary's successful transition from tyranny to free market democracy. And you can read the rest of the press announcement elsewhere. Jobless claims are down to 302,000. That's 35,000 down from the previous week. But to put it in context, we have also noted in recent weeks that that number was artificially inflated by a strike in Puerto Rico, so what you have is a set of good economic numbers. Let me now begin by -- for those of you who haven't heard -- giving you sort of a time line of what happened yesterday. Yesterday at 3:30 p.m. or so, right after Dirk Kempthorne was sworn in as the new Interior Secretary, the President met in the Roosevelt Room with a large group of Democrats and Republicans, members of five different congressional delegations who traveled recently to Iraq. And the President was getting not only their observations, but recommendations. During the course of that meeting, Ray LaHood, Representative Ray LaHood offered the helpful suggestion that things would be better if somebody would get Zarqawi. There was a little snickering in the room at the time. Little did we know. Now, National Security Advisor Steve Hadley excused himself from the meeting on a couple of occasions because he was getting a lot of phone traffic from Iraq. As it turns out, at 3:45 p.m. he had a conversation -- that's Eastern time -- he had a conversation with Ambassador Khalilzad, who informed him that there had been a strike in Baquba and they thought they had Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. At 4:20 p.m., another phone call -- the President was still in the meeting, by the way, with members of Congress. The National Security Advisor thought it would not be well-served to come in and make an announcement because at that time they were still -- they weren't completely certain that Zarqaqi, in fact, was one of the victims in the bombing raid. At 4:20 p.m., the Defense Secretary also called -- again, the President was still in the meeting with members of Congress. At 4:35 p.m., at the conclusion with the meeting with members of Congress, the President was in the Oval Office, along with Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, National Security Advisor Hadley, and the Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. At that time, the National Security Advisor informed the President of two things, first that Prime Minister Maliki had completed his cabinet, and secondly, that there had been a strike in Baquba and they thought that they had gotten al-Zarqawi, to which the President responded, "That would be a good thing." According to those in the room, he received the news with pleasure -- or he was pleased by it. I think "with pleasure" is probably not the right way to say it. He was pleased by the news. At 9:10 p.m., Steve Hadley received a phone call from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who informed him that they had, in fact, done some forensic reviews and that the fingerprints, tattoos and scars on the body did, in fact, match those of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Ten minutes later, at the conclusion of that conversation, the National Security Advisor called the President and informed him. This morning, upon reaching the Oval Office, the President did have a couple of conversations. At about 6:45 a.m. he and Prime Minister Tony Blair had a brief conversation, the President informing the Prime Minister of what had happened and the Prime Minister passing on congratulations. Then at about 7:00 a.m. began a phone call with Prime Minister Maliki. And I'm just going to grab my notes and give you a couple of readouts on that. It was about a 25-minute conversation. It lasted until about five or six minutes before the President actually commenced speaking in the Rose Garden. The President congratulated the Prime Minister on a new cabinet, and he said that he had shown strong leadership by making decisions and standing by them. They talked about the chief objectives of the new government in Iraq, which are reconstruction, reconciliation, and security; in particular developing professional, well-trained and disciplined police and military forces. The President said that, "You're going to have our help, you've got my confidence because you've shown you can lead." He issued an invitation for the Prime Minister to join on Tuesday by teleconference his cabinet -- that is the Iraqi cabinet -- with key members of the U.S. Cabinet, who, as you know, will be at Camp David. As the President announced in the Rose Garden this morning, there will be a session in Camp David on Monday and Tuesday involving Cabinet officials -- in some cases some outside experts, as well as joining us by teleconference will be Generals Abizaid and Casey and Ambassador Khalilzad. Two-day working session looking forward in Iraq. And I think that gets us up to date. Questions. David. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: This meeting has actually been sort of in the planning stages for a while, and it's been timed to coincide with the full development of an Iraqi government and cabinet. Now there will be discussions of security, absolutely. And we've already seen the United States responding to some of the expressed needs of the Maliki government, for instance taking some forces out of Kuwait and putting them in al-Anbar province. What we're really going to be talking about is how to support this new government. As I've said before, the Maliki government gives the United States a partner in developing peace in Iraq. You now have a defense minister, you now have an interior minister, you now have a security apparatus in place. And that is going to enable not only the President, but also key officials in this administration to work directly with their counterparts. But the meeting -- it would be a mistake to categorize this, David, as a war cabinet meeting, because it's not. The topics not only will include military matters, but it will include economic development, it will include energy -- including getting electricity supplies up -- it will include cultural matters. It will include a broad range of things. But what the United States is going to be doing, rather than resetting -- the question now is, how do we help the Iraqis? To use the formulation the President has used many times, how do we help them stand up? And that is going to be one of the key items for discussion. The other thing that's going to go on is that there will be discussion about this new Iraqi government, because we do have people who have had the opportunity to work with them, and we're going to be speaking with them, obviously, by teleconference. Go ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Well, I think there are two things. Actually more than two things. It's an interesting situation. You can anticipate, and I think we've seen already, that some of the first reaction is going to be for terrorist and insurgent forces to try to demonstrate that they haven't been weakened by committing acts of violence. And we've seen some of that in Baghdad today. The second thing, I think, is that you are going to see that terrorist leaders have received a message, which is, you can't hide. Zarqawi, obviously, somebody who was much wanted, and it is worth, I think, praising the U.S. forces who were engaged in this operation. It was a tough and difficult operation, but they've succeeded in it. This also gives us an opportunity to look at the war in a different way. Quite often it's very easy to measure what's gone on in Iraq in terms of explosions and IEDs. We have been crushing the opposition, but what happens is the opposition has been controlling the airwaves with scattered, fragmentary acts of violence. The President made the point this morning in the Oval Office, after he spoke with the Prime Minister: he said, "You know, previous wars you'd win a battle and you'd know you'd won a battle; in this war we can win on the ground every day, but as long as terrorists continue to have isolated acts of violence that capture attention, and in some cases capture fears, they win." In this case, this is the equivalent of winning a battle, because it allows people to focus on the kind of activities that are going on. In the briefing earlier today we learned that this was not one, but there were 17 follow-on operations. This was not sort of a one-off operation, get Zarqawi, dust off your hands and walk away. Instead there has been a concerted effort to go after terrorists. And maybe one of the most important things to understand is that Iraqis are now cooperating. They're providing intelligence. And that sends a message to terrorists that safe havens are going away. If you saw, for instance -- and it was striking -- when the Prime Minister today announced the death of Zarqawi at a press conference, what you had was applause followed by rhythmic applause. We saw scenes of celebration in Iraq. Does this mean that happy days are here again? Of course not. The President and everybody else have counseled that this is -- the war is still on and there are serious security challenges ahead. But on the other hand, I think this was a moment where the Iraqi people realized, again, that they can be effective also in helping the battle against those who have been killing them. Terry. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: The commanders actually will not be at Camp David. They'll still be in Iraq, but they'll be joining us by teleconference. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No. This is not -- again, the facts on the ground, we know we have killed a terror leader, but we also know that there are many other people committed to preventing democracy from taking root. The death of Zarqawi does not change overnight the situation, but I think in the long run it can have ramifications, because it does send messages to the terrorists, and it does send messages to the Iraqi people that they can play a role, as well. But nobody expects a snap change. But there will absolutely be discussions of what lies ahead and how we can best support the Iraqi forces. But in terms of a war council where we say, on this date we're going to withdraw, as the President has always said, the conditions on the ground will determine what happens in terms of the deployment of troops, and those conditions obviously, as reported and assessed by the generals involved. Jim. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I really don't. I mean, the President, at the very -- right after September 11th, cautioned people that this was going to be a long war and that the American people would need to maintain their will and maintain their desire to win the war on terror. It is a day where a lot of people can say, okay, we killed a very bad man. Just to give you a little bit of context on this, Zarqawi moves into Baquba, into an area called HibHib, and what happens -- over the weekend, they found nine heads in a box. They beheaded people and left the heads in a box. They hijack a bus full of students and they slaughter the students. That's what Zarqawi brought to Baquba. So for people in Iraq, I think this sends a powerful signal. Whether it's the most important day or the most positive day, I don't know, but it's certainly a positive development. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Let me ask you this, because I suppose another way of looking at this is if somebody hadn't flipped, if somebody hadn't tipped off everybody, Zarqawi would not have been targeted. So a lot of this is dependent on another terrorist, perhaps, wanting to see Zarqawi dead so that they could move into the created vacuum. ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: General Caldwell was talking about that earlier today. Boy, I'll tell you what -- it was al-Masri, I believe.* If somebody can look that up, pull it up. But General Caldwell, in his briefing, was talking about it, and I'm not going to try to fake it for you. What we'll do is I'll have these guys look it up and I'll go through it here in just a couple of minutes. But he did have what he thought was sort of a logical follow-on, somebody who would be the logical successor, somebody who has been involved in IED operations and so on. Whether that's the logical successor, I don't know. But that's -- his word is a lot better than mine. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. No operational details. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Again, I'm not going to tell you anything in terms of operational details. It would be irresponsible. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I'll give you a readout after the meeting. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Let me -- I want to be careful. This is not PR. PR is selling soap. This is trying to build a basis for democracy. I really wouldn't want to dismiss what has happened -- this was not a PR move. This was an important security move going after the guy who amounted to the top field general for terror in Iraq. Go ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Right. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: We're going to find out. As I said, I think at least part of the fear is that in the next few days there may be an attempt on the part of terrorists to say, look, we're still strong, and to commit flashy acts of violence. That would be something that one might anticipate. But I don't know. And I think it takes a sort of prescience that none of us in this room have. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Yes, of course. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: That's a good question. Okay, in what way does it turn the tide? Several ways, really. First, you have a brand new government; you have a defense minister and you have an interior minister. Both of them are going to have to work together in fighting violence, in fighting terrorists within their midst. A police force is going to have to be able to keep the peace while also observing and respecting human rights. And that kind of a signal -- if people believe they can trust the police to turn over the terrorists in their midst, that's an important breakthrough. In addition, the military is going to be mounting operations in a number of places. You saw the Prime Minister go down the other day to Basra. That really impressed the President. As a matter of fact, one of the congressional delegations, I believe it was the one with Roy Blunt and Steny Hoyer, had gone to meet with Prime Minister Maliki and they were told, sorry, he's not here today, and it was because he went down to Basra. And he said, we're going to fight terrorists and we're going to make a stand here. To the extent that it helps build the determination and confidence in the new Iraqi government and of Iraqi forces, who will be working with the United States and eventually taking full command of what goes on in Iraq -- to the extent that it builds their confidence and their professionalism, it's an important thing. But we don't want -- I don't want people to get giddy about this, or euphoric. What you want to do is to make sure that, absolutely a positive sign, and absolutely one that could have very positive ramifications over time. But we need to understand it is still a war, and there are still going to be tough days. Steve. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No. I'm going to take a quick look, see if I can find it yesterday in the notes, because he actually was talking after Ray LaHood had made the helpful suggestion that they go ahead and kill Zarqawi. The President had said -- had made it clear that there were ongoing efforts to get Zarqawi, and he talked about the special forces. And one of the things he took pains to do this morning, also, is talk about the extraordinary accomplishment, in a time when people have questioned the valor of American forces. I would point to several things here. Not only did you have this operation, but it's also an example of what's gone on in this war. You had targeted, 500-pound bombs that hit a single building. The idea is not to kill civilians, the idea is to kill the bad guys. No country has ever spent more in the way of resources or gone more out of its way to protect innocents. And the men and women who fight there, and do it under extraordinary stress and pressure, need to get full credit for what they do every day. This is one of those chances to understand exactly what goes on, and the President feels strongly about that. So that's -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Because that's exactly the point to make -- there are a continued string of victories, if you want to call them that, of going after terror cells -- why don't we call it successes. I think victories would place me in the uncomfortable position of sounding giddy about what are really targeted operations against discreet terror cells. And those have succeeded. We see them all the time. But they're not nearly as splashy as what happened today, when somebody blows up a bomb in a marketplace in Baghdad and kills innocents. They know that they can manipulate those pictures to give the impression of success. But if you take a look, for instance, at some of the al Qaeda memos to Zarqawi, where you had direct pleas, will you stop beheading people, it's bad PR; when you had some indications that Zarqawi was beginning to lose confidence -- I mean, this is -- what's happened is, the practice of killing Iraqi civilians, surprise surprise, is not all that popular with Iraqi civilians. And so you begin to see the development of confidence among the Iraqi people, not only in the confidence of the American forces, but most importantly of being able to develop security forces where Shia, Sunni and Kurds alike can trust the people who are working for their national government. That's the next big step. Jim. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: We could have, but we thought we'd let you sleep. No, it was decided that the Prime Minister of Iraq ought to announce this important development on Iraqi soil. And so you saw the press conference with the Prime Minister and General Casey where they announced it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Yes. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And I'm curious, from the point of view of public opinion, polls suggest that the war is still pretty unpopular among Americans. And I'm wondering if you can just address the significance of these day's events on kind of keeping the American public supportive of a continued presence and engagement in Iraq? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: I don't -- you don't talk about buying time. I mean, the only thing you can do is to continue to try your best -- you don't have to try your best, but to continue to make sure you're going to win. And we're now in that period of transition. And it really does mark a new day. And it's an interesting one, when you have a Prime Minister who has shown the kind of leadership and the verve that Prime Minister Maliki has, and the President now can say to the Secretary of Defense, you deal with the Minister of Defense. And there is the ability now to start doing coordinated work with the Iraqis in a way that simply has not been possible before. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Tony, there has been talk in intelligence circles in recent months that Zarqawi had overtaken the significance of Osama bin Laden in the terrorist hierarchy. Does the President believe that the death of Zarqawi today is perhaps even more significant than the death or capture of Osama bin Laden would be? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Again, we're going to have to see. You know the theories, Brett. He's the general. Does this mean that suddenly that some of the other arms in the terror network begin to wilt away? We don't know. We've also heard reports in recent years that al Qaeda has, in fact, splintered, that bin Laden no longer had the kind of command that he did, and therefore, you had autonomous units developing. We don't know what's going to happen. What we do know is we have to stick with the job because there are still others remaining, and we've got to take care of them, as well. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Well, absolutely -- you mean, when we're talking at Camp David. I think we're going to try to assess it. I mean, certainly the topic is going to come up, but I think it also comes up not merely as Zarqawi, but Zarqawi and the terror network and what's going on with insurgency, and old Saddam loyalists. I mean, all those things fit into the picture, and it's one of the reasons why we want to hear from General Casey and General Abizaid. Cynthia McKinney made the point yesterday in the meeting with the President that the one thing they had gotten from generals there were thorough and honest assessments of what's going on.** And that's part of what we expect to get to. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I'm sorry, I heard with my left ear this morning on the way over here, somebody, I believe it was a general briefing from Baghdad, using the phrase, "treasure trove" of intelligence that was gathered. What else was gotten on the scene or in these other 17 strikes that you can tell us about? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Yes, absolutely. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Yes. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: You guys are all -- why are you so hellbent on saying, we're going to get out tomorrow, or you know, make a good news headline? But the facts on the ground, we've got six additional dead guys out of the terror network, but there is still a significant problem here. So I don't think -- of course, there is going to be a discussion of the way ahead, and there will be discussions, if this happens, what happens here. But I think you need to frame this more in terms of how the United States and the Iraqis cooperate. And I think we're still at the point of assessment. We now have a defense minister -- in six, eight, ten hours -- so none of these things are going to be -- you can't analyze them in sufficient detail at this point to say, at some date we'll be able to do this. I mean, we know that the ultimate objective is for the Iraqis to take full responsibility and for the Americans to come home. But there is certainly no timetable and that's not going to be part of the discussion. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: We'll have to see how the public assesses this. Again, as I mentioned before, war can be a grueling thing, but I think if people begin, once again -- there has been insufficient focus on how incredible the people who are fighting over there are, and the kinds of hazards they endure, and the kinds of precautions they take, and the kinds of successes they achieve, because, again, an exploding bomb in a marketplace is just -- it's an easier picture and an easier story. If the American people begin to see that a new government in Iraq -- one that had been opposed through three election cycles and the development and the inauguration of a new government -- not only is standing up, but is showing leadership, and you've got a Prime Minister who is clearly not a figurehead, who is somebody who does have a bias for action, I think it gives people a chance to say, okay, let's take a look at what's happening here. And again, the American people are fairminded. We'll have to see what happens in weeks ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Don't have any information on that. Obviously, $25 million bounty, but again, the point here also is, we're still at the point -- all of these questions bear on operational details. If we say, this guy gets $25 million, that may tell a lot of things about intelligence-gathering. But having said that, I've got nothing on it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: You know what, hurl it to the Pentagon. Just don't know. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Lester, we'll come back to you. I think we've got a lot -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q You seem to be saying that the way this is seen is that we're letting the drama of the explosions color the way we're seeing everything. But we're certainly hearing plenty of stories from reporters there who are saying they would like to go out on the street and tell these other stories, but they can't because, as we've seen in the CBS case and others, it isn't safe yet to do that. ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Tony, do you think, does the White House think that a success story such as this one has transfer -- in other words, does it help the President negotiate other things on the Hill, for example, a push on immigration, or get a little more muscle for something else? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: I understand that -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No, the President understands what the polls are, but he also understands what his obligations are as Commander-in-Chief. And if the polling data is contrary to the national security interests, guess what -- national security interests win, period. That's how he views it. And so you can look at the poll data -- and we do, we've taken very cold and honest looks at the poll data -- but the one thing as Commander-in-Chief, he is not going to fail in Iraq. He is not going to permit failure, and therefore, even if at times that may seem to fly in the face of public opinion, he knows his job as Commander-in-Chief of the United States is to carry out his constitutional obligations. And one of the things that is a strong point of this President is that he'll do it, regardless of what the polls say. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: We're still working on it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: It's going to be a broad discussion of policy in Iraq. For instance, some of the conversations are going to be, how is Iraqi culture changing, I mean, how are the Iraqi people changing, how has the war affected them; how do you make sure that you interact effectively with the Iraqi people, given what's happened over the last three years. Those are -- it's not all troop movements, it's trying to figure out the most effective way to work with this new Iraqi government. And as we've said, there's going to be a teleconference -- it will be a pretty extraordinary thing -- with the President and Prime Minister and their respective cabinets. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Again, we're coming up with a list. I'll tell you what, I'll leaf to my page here, because I can tell you who we have confirmed. And we are still sort of finalizing some of the guest list on it. But the Camp David attendees will include, obviously, members of the Cabinet who are directly engaged in the war, as well as some who might be considered indirectly -- the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy, for instance; the Vice President; the Secretary of State; Secretary of Defense; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; the National Intelligence Director; the National Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor; the Director of Central Intelligence; White House Chief of Staff; other relevant White House staffers. That's sort of the general outline right now. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Through me. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: There will -- wait until the schedule comes out. There will be opportunities to find out what's going on. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Wait until we release the schedule and we'll be able to give you full details. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No. No. Look, war has its effects on Presidents, too. And the President has taken a very serious look at what has gone on in Iraq and, again, has been trying to assess as vigorously as possible how you win it, and how you create a freestanding Iraq. Those are the things that he's concerned about. So, no, there was no attempt to sort of cross-hatch this with previous comments. Is this on this topic, Lester? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: You'll have to wait. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Yes. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Well, we were all sort of like, "well, yeah!" I mean, I think -- the response was kind of jovial within the room. People were going, whew, good one, Ray. Little did we know that maybe even at that moment it had already taken place, because -- I mean, it's at the bottom of the second pages of my notes, so it very well could have been after the fact, but none of us knew it at the time. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I'll let you know if there are congratulations, thanks or other things. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Maybe he should suggest ending world hunger, also. (Laughter.) Following on Peter's question, we saw the President's very somber tone out here in the Rose Garden. At any time during this -- for want of a better word -- was there any jubilation on his part, was he smiling? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Let's hold -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Oh, okay. Proceed. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: That's up to the people who are calling for immediate pullout. I mean, the people who are making calls about the war have to ask themselves a question, what is the best way to win? And I will let them answer for themselves. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No, no, no. This, literally, has been -- I was in planning -- this has been going on for a matter of weeks. You don't just throw together a summit like this. It has -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: It's not like, when Zarqawi dead, no. The idea is to coordinate with a fully formed Iraqi government, because -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: When the President makes those decisions, I don't say, sir, why did you do it? You just work on the planning. I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I don't even want to presume to speak for him on that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Tony, on terrorism and domestic security, are the rates -- are the security levels -- alerts going to go up? Do you have any particular suggestions? And this phrase that's sometimes batted around, be vigilant and not vigilante. How do you draw that line? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: The way we've done always. Well, look, one of the things that's happened is, intelligence programs that have been conducted by this government since September 11th have worked. And we saw evidence of that in Canada over the weekend. So nobody here stands down any day. And there are people who are devoting all of -- devoting their careers and their lives right now to fighting terrorism, not only here, but elsewhere. I don't -- for questions about whether it affects terror alert levels and that sort of thing, I would refer you to Homeland Security. We don't set those -- I don't set those, and I don't have any sense of what might happen. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Well, they're two different people captured under two different circumstances -- you know -- again, I'll let historians assess the relative significance. This is an important development in an ongoing war. That's all I can tell you. I just -- I am poorly placed to give you historical significance. Lester. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Yes, Tony, two questions. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the Grand Jury investigation of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for her striking of a U.S. Capitol police officer went into its third month, "with experts saying it should have been wrapped up in a matter of days." My question, as this nation's chief law enforcer, does the President disagree with the National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, Chuck Canterbury, who said, right from the start, this U.S. Attorney handled this case differently because she's a sitting Congresswoman? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: No, what I think he will do is let you, Lester, be his emissary from Rolling Stone. (Laughter.) Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: The President will be going to Kiev. We've just postponed the trip. There will be a trip, but we're going to go to Budapest. This wasn't a good time, and we're going to find a better time. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: You're assuming, Steve, that there's a bilateral relationship with Iran, and there's not. The -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: You know, at this point, when it comes to Iran, I think we'll just allow diplomacy to work its course without trying to engage in any speculation about the back and forth. Let me also just give you -- well, never mind. Go ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: I don't know if he's planned to. As you know, he had a conversation with him last week. But he's got a pretty busy schedule today. He's spoken with two heads of state, and he's got two other heads of state in the White House today. I'm sure he and the King will be talking soon, but I don't -- I don't have a schedule on that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Again, I'm not getting into any operational details at any level. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. SNOW: Our position is simple. We want it repealed. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. LISAIUS: Good afternoon, everyone. It's Ken Lisaius with the White House Press Office. Welcome to our on-the-record conference call briefing on the administration's updated economic forecast. Today's numbers reflect a joint effort on the part of the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Treasury. At this point I'm going to turn the call over to the Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Edward Lazear. DR. LAZEAR: Thanks very much. Today we're releasing an update of the administration's economic forecast. We produce an economic forecast twice a year. This version will be an input into the mid-session review of the budget, but the economic forecast doesn't include any revenue or budget numbers. Those numbers will be released in the mid-session review in July. The forecast includes the key economic indicators needed for an understanding of the nation's economic outlook and for forming the federal budget, such as GDP and the unemployment rate. Today's forecast looks much like the one released six months ago. The economy grew at an impressive 5.3 percent annualized rate in the first quarter of this year. It also appears that the economic strength is broadening, with stronger growth in business investment and exports. The economy has added nearly 2 million jobs in the past year, and more than 5.3 million jobs since August of 2003. Today's updated forecast reflects faster-than-expected economic growth in the beginning of 2006, with the growth projected to moderate somewhat in the future, and then remain at a robust pace. We're forecasting for 2006 3.6 percent real GDP growth, which is above the historic average, about 156,000 more payroll jobs per month, which is about the historic average, and a low unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, which is below the historic average. This economic growth is largely due to the hard work of the American people, coupled with the President's low tax and pro-growth policies. Thanks very much, and I'd be happy to take your questions. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I just was wondering how concerned you are about the slide that we're seeing today in the stock market, which, as you know, comes on the heels of some declines earlier in the week? The markets seem particularly jittery lately, and I'm just wondering if you're concerned about the volatility? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I wondered if you could comment or characterize your level of concern about inflation in the economy and how that -- you know, it looks like you revised up your numbers from six months ago. And particularly what kind of a drag are oil prices going to have and a slowing housing market? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

DR. LAZEAR: No, in fact, I think it's quite the opposite. Again, if you look at the best indicators of inflation that the market has are things like the TIPS data, or if you look at the yield curve. That gives you an indication of how the market is viewing inflation. And all of those indications are consistent with the kinds of forecast that we're giving you, which is right around 2.5 percent, and two-and-a-half percent kind of steady out into the distant future. So our forecast and the market forecast are very much consistent right now. So we're not seeing any significant increase in the future. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you. Your scenario looks very much like a sort of the -- the proverbial soft landing where the growth slows to trend and there's no takeoff in inflation, and the economy continues to generate jobs, and so forth. At the moment, of course, there's a lot of concern in the markets that in dealing with the inflation risk -- the Fed and, indeed, other central banks -- financially raise rates to the point where they tip the economy into at least a growth recession, or indeed, even an outright recession. How confident are you in the scenario that you paint? Do you have a high level of confidence in the soft landing scenario? And what makes you confident that the tightening of interest rates won't, indeed, lead to the economy undershooting? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

DR. LAZEAR: Well, Bob, we do -- we have a large number of variables that are associated with our estimates that go behind the numbers that we released today. But we don't actually release numbers on productivity. That's not to say that we don't have that as part of the model; they certainly are part of our model and there are a large number of variables that are part of our model. But we think of these nine variables as being the main focus of this activity. And the reason for that is that the primary motivation behind this activity is the budget process, and these are the numbers that are crucial for the budget process. So the productivity number, which obviously is of relevance in terms of thinking about the future economy, is not of relevance for this particular process. Things like GDP growth, interest rates, CPI, those are all much more closely related to the budget process, itself, and that's the purpose of this exercise. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

DR. LAZEAR: The unemployment figures -- yes, the unemployment figures are the annual average; that's correct. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dr. Lazear, you mentioned the business investment and you said export growth, as well. And I was wondering, can you just elaborate on the export growth part. I mean, is it sufficient -- do negatives run into deficit? And why do you see export growth; what are the factors playing into that? ... Read more Comment (0), Email this.

DR. LAZEAR: Well, the economy is very strong right now, and we know that movements and currency markets depend on a variety of market factors. We believe that the market factors are the appropriate ones for determining currency movements. And we think that the market is telling us basically what it should be telling us. We see no reason to be alarmed by anything that's happening out there. Read more Comment (0), Email this.