Briefing with Bulgaria's Passy May 5 after their meeting

"Justice will be served and there will be accountability on the part of all individuals, both those who were directly involved and all those in positions superior to them who should have known or should have done something," Secretary of State Colin Powell said May 5 concerning the reported abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. personnel.

Powell spoke during a joint press briefing at the State Department with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy following their meeting. Passy is the current chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The secretary noted that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Powell himself and other top administration officials "are all out on television communicating to the world, the whole world, the Arab world and the rest of the world, how shocked we all were by this series of pictures that came out that documented behavior that was totally unacceptable, inconsistent with the values and standards upon which this nation was founded."

"I'm sure that Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and my colleagues at the Department of Defense are taking this with the greatest seriousness, and I know the President is," Powell said.

"We have moved aggressively to deal with the charges" of abuse, he said.

Passy in his opening comments said he and Powell had discussed "how to enhance the role of OSCE in the future."

Passy added that he had assured Powell "that Bulgaria is strong ally in Iraq and we shall be looking forward to do the job together and to give the chance to the Iraq people to govern their country by themselves."

Powell also answered questions about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan and human rights violations in Sudan.

Following is a transcript of the press briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
May 5, 2004

REMARKS

SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN L. POWELL
AND BULGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SOLOMON PASSY
AFTER THEIR MEETING

May 5, 2004

C Street Entrance
Washington, D.C.
(4:50 p.m. EDT)

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great pleasure to receive my Bulgarian colleague, Foreign Minister Solomon Passy. And as he just noted, this is his first visit to the State Department since Bulgaria has formally become a member of the NATO Alliance. So it's another added reason to welcome him.

I began our conversation this afternoon by thanking him for the leadership he provided as Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE for the Anti-Seminism -- Semitism -- Anti-Semitic -- Semitism conference we had in -- did I get it right? (Laughter.)

QUESTION: No. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY POWELL: Sooner or later, huh?

QUESTION: You were getting close. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm getting close. Anti-Semitism conference -- (laughter) -- we had in Berlin last week. It was a very successful conference and there was a great deal of enthusiasm for having another conference next year, and we're looking into that possibility in Madrid.

As always, I thanked the Minister for the strong support that Bulgaria has given to us in the global war on terror and for the contribution that they are making in Iraq.

So, Mr. Minister, it is always a pleasure to receive you. Solomon, welcome. I'd like you to say a word.

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY: Thank you, Secretary. Thank you, Colin. It's really a pleasure. Thank you for the very warm reception.

We were talking for -- on how to enhance the role of OSCE in the future because this is one very important transatlantic organization which will have a role to play in future. And I also assured my host that Bulgaria is strong ally in Iraq and we shall be looking forward to do the job together and to give the chance to the Iraq people to govern their country by themselves.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the Administration is asking for another $25 billion for Iraq. Can you tell us a little bit -- because it wasn't supposed to happen. You were supposed to have had enough. What's caused this need, please?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think as the Pentagon reviewed its requirements and needs and the spending rate and some of the challenges presented to it by increasing the level of troops that will be in Iraq above the level we thought would be in Iraq, it decided it was prudent to go forward with the request for another supplemental that I understand will be restricted to defense expenditures.

But I would yield to my colleagues at the Defense Department or at OMB [Office of Management and Budget] to go into greater detail on it.

QUESTION: Do you have a handle on how many additional troops you're referring to?

SECRETARY POWELL: No. I think it's been announced that the level that is there now, roughly 138,000, is the level that Secretary Rumsfeld and General Abizaid and General Myers believes is appropriate, which is a higher level than we thought we would be at at this time of the year going into June. And so additional troops are being called up or deployed in order to be able to sustain that level beyond the three-month extension period of the troops who were detained a few weeks ago to stay for a longer period of time.

But I would refer to the Pentagon for those kinds of --

QUESTION: You're on television, Mr. Powell. What will be American reaction if the outcome in Libya for Bulgarian doctors is not so positive for Bulgaria?

SECRETARY POWELL: The Minister and I have discussed this issue every time we have gotten together. I hope that the Libyan decision coming down from their courts, hopefully in the next 24 hours, will be a positive one and we can resolve this matter. And I have assured the Minister that the United States will continue to follow this matter very closely and do everything we can to bring pressure on the Libyan Government to resolve this matter so these people are released and can return home.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, if you're tired, it's probably because of all the hullabaloo made about your -- the various interviews and stories about you going around town. But is there anything you'd like to say about this GQ [Gentlemen's Quarterly] article? Do you dispute the accuracy of any of the characterizations of policy?

SECRETARY POWELL: I've spent an enormous amount of time answering questions about articles and books. I'm well. I am pursuing a very vigorous schedule. I think you all are familiar with my schedule. And it's -- it's too bad we have to spend time on these kinds of issues. Let's get on to the substance, and I don't want to ask -- answer any more questions about these kinds of things.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Dr. Rice addressed the people in the Middle East. Today, the President talked to the Arab press. He stopped short of apologizing. What more do you think the Administration can do, really, to stop the damage that's already done to the American image in the world regarding the pictures?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think we all -- the President, the Vice President, Dr. Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld, myself and our colleagues, Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz, General Myers, Deputy Secretary Armitage -- we are all out on television communicating to the world, the whole world, the Arab world and the rest of the world, how shocked we all were by this series of pictures that came out that documented behavior that was totally unacceptable, inconsistent with the values and standards upon which this nation was founded.

The military commanders, when they were made aware of this in January, the very next day after they were made aware of these allegations, General Sanchez launched an investigation. And during the course of the next several months, until last week when the pictures were seen, the investigations were pursued aggressively and action was taken against individuals. And in Baghdad, General Kimmitt, the spokesman of the command, on the 20th of March, announced that charges were being filed against soldiers for misbehavior.

So we have not been trying to hide anything. We have moved aggressively to deal with the charges. But when the pictures were actually seen last week, it brought a reality to it and a vividness to it that shocked and stunned all of us to think that our soldiers could have done anything like that. It is inconsistent with their code as soldiers, it's inconsistent with our values system, and we are doing everything we can to learn all about this matter and all about our actions in other places of detention that we are responsible for.

And justice will be served and there will be accountability on the part of all individuals, both those who were directly involved and all those in positions superior to them who should have known or should have done something. We're going to be looking at all of that.

And I'm sure that Secretary Rumsfeld and my colleagues at the Department of Defense are taking this with the greatest seriousness, and I know the President is. And the President went on Arab television to make sure that the people of the Arab world knew that it was a deeply disturbing matter for him and he was going to do everything he could to get to the bottom of it and to reassure our Arab friends that this is not behavior that is consistent with American values.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, sir, in retrospect, would it have been more prudent to wait until Mr. Sharon received the endorsement of his Likud Party before the President of the United States endorsed his plan?

SECRETARY POWELL: The endorsement that the President gave, I think, is still good and is still useful. The Likud Party didn't vote for it, but when we look at the Israeli public there is an 80 percent approval rating for this kind of initiative. And to the extent that the President's embrace of this initiative helped generate that kind of support within the Israeli public, that's useful. And I think Prime Minister Sharon will be able to use the President's embracement of the plan, embracing of the plan, and this public support to ultimately prevail in getting the plan approved, and we can move forward.

I was very pleased that yesterday the Quartet reviewed all of this and put out a positive statement that brought the Quartet together, reminding everybody that mutual agreement between the two parties is the way in which final status issues will be resolved and that we took account of certain realities on the ground but we do not prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations between the parties.

Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. Foreign Minister, can I ask you --

SECRETARY POWELL: Aaah, good.

QUESTION: Yeah. (Laughter.) I would just like to ask you, related to the allegations of mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq, does this affect Bulgaria at all, your commitment to what's going on there?

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY: Oh, of course -- of course, we strongly disagree, we strongly condemn such actions, which we find inappropriate and inadmissible. But such an actions, of course, cannot change our firm conviction to do the job.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY: Thank you.

(The Secretary escorts the Minister to his car.)

SECRETARY POWELL: Anybody else wants to dip-stick me? Give me a break. Come on, guys.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what -- do you really think that the dispute between Spain and Morocco that you mediated was over "a stupid little island"?

QUESTION: "A stupid rock"?

SECRETARY POWELL: I mean, what are you referring to?

QUESTION: Well, there's a quote. Your --

SECRETARY POWELL: I haven't read the article.

QUESTION: And is Ana Palacios one of your best girlfriends?

QUESTION: Yeah, we were a little jealous of that.

SECRETARY POWELL: She's one of my what?

QUESTION: Apparently, she's one of your best girlfriends. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Have you read the magazine?

SECRETARY POWELL: We're on the record? (Laughter.) I haven't read it. I really haven't read it.

QUESTION: Actually, could --

SECRETARY POWELL: Guys, you follow me around all day. You see me. You know what I'm doing. I'm doing my job. And I don't have time to fool with this anymore.

QUESTION: Can I ask you a substance question? Is Jordan going to get a letter?

SECRETARY POWELL: Is what?

QUESTION: Is Jordan going to get a letter of assurances?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, we'll see the King tomorrow, and I think the King will be pleased.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the next step in Darfur. The USAID team is going out. Eleven members are going out on Friday.

SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, we got visas for them. Yeah.

QUESTION: But the violence is continuing and the mission is not to -- of these eleven members is not to end the mission -- end the --

SECRETARY POWELL: No, they can't end the violence. No, we have to get the Government of Sudan, and we're working with them. The Special Rapporteur will be reporting to the United Nations later this week and I've been talking to some of my foreign minister colleagues.

I just got off the phone with Joschka Fischer about how we have to have greater response in the international community to put pressure on the Sudanese to call off these militia units that are causing the trouble so that we can get relief to these people. They are only about four weeks until the rainy season and so, I mean, there's no army that's going to go in there and put down the insurrection. We've got to use the pressure of the international community on Khartoum.

And the word we're getting back out from the DART team and the others who are in there -- Jim Morris of the World Food Program is in there. He'll be reporting on the 7th, Friday, and we'll know a lot more about it and the whole world can see a lot more about it.

I'm pleased that it got some newspaper coverage this week so people can see this disaster that is unfolding under our noses and eyes.

Do you want to know who else I like more than someone else? (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Yeah. That's the one we want to get into on-air.

SECRETARY POWELL: I've got to read this article. (Laughter.)

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)