At this morning’sangry presser.
Must Not Have Been Briefed This Morning
Right here in the Oval Office, I get briefed nearly every morning about the nature of this world, and I get briefed about the desire of an enemy to hurt America.And it’s a sobering experience, as I’m sure you can imagine.
Neither Does The President
Now, the Court said that you’ve got to live under Article III of the Geneva Convention, and the standards are so vague that our professionals won’t be able to carry forward the program, because they don’t want to be tried as war criminals.
Compare and Contrast
First:
And that Common Article III says that there will be no outrages upon human dignity. It’s very vague. What does that mean, “outrages upon human dignity”? That’s a statement that is wide open to interpretation.
Second
And, finally, we’re going to have to treat people with dignity in this country.
Check In With The Checker-Inner
One of the key things I told them was we had ended what’s called “catch and release.” That was a — you know, a Border Patrol agent would find somebody, particularly from — not from Mexico, and would say, well, we don’t have enough detention space, so why don’t you come back and check in with the local person you’re supposed to check in with, and then they’d never show back up.
Just One Of The Reasons
And one of the reasons he was declared a state sponsor of terror was because that’s what he was.
SPRIONG!
I must say, having gone through those gyrations, you’re looking beautiful today, Dave.
Some Points Are More Equal Than Others
Q But sir, this is an important point, and I think it depends —
THE PRESIDENT: The point I just made is the most important point.
[snip]
Q No, but wait a second, I think this is an important point —
THE PRESIDENT: I know you think it’s an important point.
Huh-the-What Now?
And it’s not — there isn’t — you know, Americans — you’ve got to understand, this is universal. And the idea of just saying, well, that’s not important for us, to me, or the future of the country, it’s just not acceptable.
Sharing Information With Criminals
There’s no doubt in my mind we needed to make sure the Patriot Act was renewed to tear down walls that exist so that intelligence people could serve — could share information with criminal people.
It’s OK If Dick Does It
No one should ever question the patriotism of somebody who — let me just start over. I don’t question the patriotism of somebody who doesn’t agree with me.
From Here On Out Funerals Are To Be Known As “Deals”
And as I understand, they’re working on the deal and how to honor [Ann Richards], and she’ll be lying in state in the capitol, and —
It’s A Judgement Call
In other words, if you say, I’m going to rely upon their judgment, the next question is, how good is their judgment; or is my judgment good enough to figure out whether or not they know what they’re doing?
Afghanistan and Iraq Invited Us In?
They were asking me about somebody’s report, well, special forces here — Pakistan — if he is in Pakistan, as this person thought he might be, who is asking the question — Pakistan is a sovereign nation. In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation, we’ve got to be invited by the government of Pakistan.
A Big Brett Favre Fan
They tried to kill him. And we’ve had a good record of bringing people to justice inside of Pakistan, because the Paks are in the lead.