U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing #38, 00-04-26
From: The Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) at <http://www.state.gov>
799
U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
I N D E X
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Briefer: James P. Rubin
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1 Release of Patterns of Global Terrorism 1999 Report on Monday, May
1, 2000
GREECE/TURKEY
5 Secretary Albright's Participation in the Greek-Turkish Dialogue
SERBIA (KOSOVO)
5 Murder of Yugoslav State Airline Director Zivorad Petrovic
5 Allegations that Russians Participated in War Crimes in Kosovo
5 Ambassador Dobbins Athens Meeting with the Leaders of Serbian
Opposition
ARMS CONTROL
6-8 Reaction to Senator Helms Speech Stating No Amendments to ABM
Treaty Arms Control Dialogue is Centerpiece of Albright-Ivanov
Meetings / Albright to Outline Changes to ABM Treaty in Three D's:
Not Destroying ABM; No Decoupling of Offense & Defense; and No
Chance of Deferral / Senate Consultations
9 Putin's Expression of Understanding & Flexibility on the Existence
of New Threats
CUBA
8 Elian Gonzalez Case / No Official Request for the Eight Additional
Visas / Travel Plans for Teacher & Cousin
10 Length of Stay for Classmates
IRAN
8-9 US Position on Growing Conservative Backlash Against Majlis Elections
MALAYSIA
9 No Update on Kidnappings
COLOMBIA
9 US View on Reported Agreement & Progress of the Peace Process
MEXICO
11 US View on Presidential Debate
BANGLADESH
11-12 US View on Extradition Clause / Any Connection Between Cancellation
of POTUS Visit to Memorial & Usama bin Laden
PERU
12 US Involvement in Peru Presidential Elections
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
DPB #38
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2000, 12:02 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
MR. RUBIN: Well, you know, a long time ago they used to call this the
"noon briefing." We changed that a lot. And on my last day, I wanted to
come as close as possible as we could ever be to this returning to the noon
briefing. It's now up to you, Mr. Boucher, to start the briefing every day
at 12 o'clock. I'm sure you'll meet that standard. I have no doubt
about that.
MR. BOUCHER: Just for the record, you're two minutes late.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: We only have one notice, that the Department will release our
Global Terrorism Report for 1999 on Monday, May Day, the first day of Mr.
Boucher's briefing schedule, barring any major crises on Friday this
week.
That is the only announcement I have to make. And now I'm here to answer
your questions.
QUESTION: I think Charlie wants to somehow muscle in here.
MR. RUBIN: Is he the President of the State Department Correspondents
Association?
QUESTION: Very active.
MR. RUBIN: Can I ask you a question? How many members are there?
QUESTION: It's an intelligence matter.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Jamie, emblematic on behalf of my colleagues, first of all, I
want to say we bought you a small gift. It is quite small and I assure you
it falls under the $25 gift to federal employee category. So, emblematic of
your ability to do a wonderful job from the podium, a job that your
superiors I'm sure are very proud of, to spin every day, we've got you a
little yo-yo here. And I call it the trifecta yo-yo because it is not only
emblematic of your spinning ability but it also comes with a strobe light,
which says a little something and, of course, it's made in China.
(Laughter.)
So I think we've hit the trifecta. There's a possible fourth use. At a
certain age, a few years from now, you might be able to show your son a few
tricks and then he'll say, pops, let me have it.
MR. RUBIN: Thank you very much. Thanks everybody, appreciate it.
(Applause.)
QUESTION: Jamie, that's about it. We thought we'd go to lunch - it's a
nice day - and find a couple of anonymous sources, get the wire, file early
and then go home. Unless - (laughter) - no, wait a minute - get out of
here. Unless - no, no, we've got a big question here and if he doesn't
answer it, it's going to be on your head.
Is the skeleton ready? Because - (Laughter.)
QUESTION: The skeleton on the Libya report. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: You are original in a lot of ways but I think you will be best
remembered for developing the concept of a skeleton to a framework, to a
possible interim agreement, that might lead to a final agreement, that
could lead to a comprehensive settlement.
MR. RUBIN: Well, you know, that's why we call it the peace process,
Barry. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: But unless you want to say something about Iraq which we
haven't heard in a year - I guess the menace is gone - it's Joe who has the
floor.
MR. LOCKHART: If you can stand aside a little bit, I just want to try to
get comfortable here. This is kind of nice.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Yeah, they're friendly here. No hard questions.
MR. LOCKHART: It's clean.
MR. RUBIN: They always stay on point.
MR. LOCKHART: It's clean, it's bigger, it's definitely more friendly.
It's more full than my room right now, but that's a whole other story.
QUESTION: Sam Donaldson will be in in a minute.
MR. LOCKHART: That's good. That's good.
Jamie, I just wanted to come over. The President asked me to come over
because he had a small token of his gratitude to you which I wanted to
present to you, which is -
MR. RUBIN: If it's a bag of little carrots - (laughter).
MR. LOCKHART: Well, would I stoop to something so obvious? Of course
not.
MR. RUBIN: It's big carrots. (Laughter and applause.)
You see, it was the little carrot that I said. That must have been that
other anonymous official who said big carrots.
MR. LOCKHART: Big carrots work.
MR. RUBIN: Well, thank you and the President.
MR. LOCKHART: If I can, just on a serious note, speaking for the
President, which I supposedly get paid to do, Jamie's service to us over
the last eight years has been invaluable. He has been an invaluable
resource for me, who thought foreign policy was the California electoral
politics when I took this job. And I've learned a lot and everyone at the
White House from the President to Mr. Berger and Mr. Steinberg, and those
who are charged with doing this, are indebted to your service.
We thank you.
MR. RUBIN: Thank you, Joe.
(Applause.)
MR. LOCKHART: You're welcome. Have fun.
MR. RUBIN: Well, I'm going to take my yo-yo and my carrots - and what's
that?
(Squeaking and throwing of rubber duckies.) (Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Well, that was clearly the easiest briefing I've ever had. I
don't know what to do now. I guess --
QUESTION: Tell us the State Department's position if the Red Sox will win
the World Series.
MR. RUBIN: All right. On that note, the noon briefing is hereby
over.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Jamie, tell us why you think the Administration's foreign
policy has been uniquely successful.
QUESTION: Don't worry, Joe has agreed to stay and take on a Kazakhstan
question, as soon as he finds out where it is.
MR. RUBIN: All right. Well, let's line all these up. These will go very
well in our baby's first official bath.
All right. Well, with those important props - carrots, yo-yos, rubber
duckies - is there any foreign policy we need to do today? (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Can you tell us whether or not the Secretary will participate
in this Greek-Turkish dialogue next week, either here or in New York?
MR. RUBIN: She is scheduled to go to New York for that dialogue,
yes.
QUESTION: Do you happen to know what day it is?
MR. RUBIN: I will get that for you after the briefing. That's after my
date of departure, so those dates I've not spent the same energy and
attention in focusing on as the rest of this week.
QUESTION: That sounds like Margaret Tutweiler describing something that
happened before she got here.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Well, it's better before - after than before.
Yes, Matt. I just hereby want to announce that for about two years now I've
been commenting regularly that one of our fine wire service reporters has
failed to wear a tie every day, and so I want to thank you, Mr. Matt Lee
from Agence France Presse - that's Agence France Presse - has worn a tie.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Yes, and red, white and blue. Very patriotic colors.
MR. RUBIN: I'm sure that will go over big in Paris.
QUESTION: Vive la France. Red, white and blue are their colors,
too.
Balkans. Yesterday, the Department released another travel warning in a
series for all of Yugoslavia which said that - particularly noted Kosovo,
and said that despite the efforts of the UN and NATO to clean up the mess
there, it was still very dangerous and unsettled.
And I'm just wondering now, looking back from this point, if you think that
perhaps KFOR might have been more effective and the people of Kosovo might
have been better served if the entire operation had been made up solely of
a bunch of Ukrainians running around with guns? (Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Well, I see you've been doing a lot of careful research, and I
really appreciate you reminding me of that comment by a very esteemed and
thoughtful individual who spoke in very blunt and undiplomatic terms. But I
stand by my position at the time.
QUESTION: That's it?
QUESTION: Yes.
QUESTION: You're going to let him get away with that?
QUESTION: Actually, I do have - do you have any choice words to say about
the assassination last night in Belgrade of the head of the Yugoslav
national airline?
MR. RUBIN: Well, we do think this is another indication of the climate of
violence and fear that exists in Belgrade. It's another indication of the
criminality that reigns supreme in Belgrade as a result of the leadership
of Slobodan Milosevic. We think that regime is becoming increasingly
desperate. And every time we see another account of some criminal act or
assassination or closing down of the free press, or trying to make it more
difficult for the people of Serbia to pursue a new government, it's a
further indication of the depth to which Belgrade has fallen under
Milosevic's leadership.
QUESTION: Do you have any knowledge about Russians who may have
participated in war crimes in Kosovo assisting the Serbian forces?
MR. RUBIN: I know those statements and allegations were made during the
war by Kosovo Albanians. I'm not aware that we have any specific information
on that, but I can check that for you.
QUESTION: Ambassador Dobbins met last week in Athens with a group of
leaders of Serbian opposition. Could you tell us something about the
purpose of the meeting or the results? And beside that, could you confirm
the information by the Greek and Italian press that Ambassador Dobbins met
a representative of Milosevic's regime in Athens, as well?
MR. RUBIN: Yes, I don't believe that Ambassador Dobbins had any meeting
with any representative of the Milosevic regime. On the contrary,
Ambassador Dobbins in his work has made it a practice of meeting with
Serbian opposition officials in almost all his trips to Europe. And he did
avail himself of that opportunity in Greece. This is part of our continuous
effort to work with the Europeans and the Serbian opposition so that some
day -- hopefully sooner rather than later - the people of Serbia will be
free of the boot of Milosevic's oppression.
QUESTION: On missile defense?
MR. RUBIN: Please.
QUESTION: Okay. Jesse Helms gave quite a speech on the floor of the
Senate just an hour or so ago. He said he would basically entertain no
amendments to the ABM Treaty for the duration of the Clinton Administration.
In view of that, what does that do for prospects of initiating some sort of
missile defense since you want changes in the ABM treaty before then?
MR. RUBIN: Right. Well, Secretary Albright is right now meeting with
Foreign Minister Ivanov and his team. And she has a full team of officials
from the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Defense
Department. And they are working on this very question. Indeed, arms
control is the centerpiece of the discussions that she's having here over
the next couple of days. There will be a press conference with Foreign
Minister Ivanov tomorrow afternoon.
Our approach in these discussions with Foreign Minister Ivanov is to make
clear our determination to adjust the ABM Treaty because the world has
changed. The world of 1972 of the nuclear arms competition between the
United States and the Soviet Union has changed, and now the real dangers
that we face are from the third countries - the North Koreas, the Irans and
others.
We've been making this case to the Russians. During the course of the next
two days, I expect her to make the case very clearly that, in talking about
changes to the ABM Treaty, three D's apply. The bureaucrats have come up
with the three D's, and they are: number one, we're not talking about
destroying the ABM Treaty; number two, we are not talking about the
decoupling of offense and defense but, rather, both the offensive side and
the defensive side; and that is, strategic arms cuts and adjusting the ABM
Treaty need to move in parallel with the same level of effort and
the same results; and, thirdly, that there is no chance of deferral.
Clearly, the Russians would like to avoid this issue. They've made that
quite clear and they would like the issue deferred. And Secretary Albright
is making clear that deferral is not an option.
So this issue is being joined between the United States and Russians on our
view of what's best for the United States of America, and that is to have a
treaty that allows us to reduce our strategic forces with the Russians, get
deeper cuts than we have now, reduce the nuclear danger that way; but, at
the same time, allow a limited national missile defense that would allow us
to defend against a small number of North Korean or Iranian missile
warheads.
That is, in our view, the best and most secure way to defend the American
people while advancing our security. If the Russians can agree to that, we
will be making a very strong and powerful case that this is the course of
wisdom for the United States. And it is not a surprise to us that there are
senators who wish the ABM Treaty would go away. They've been trying to do
that for quite some time. That's not new. And so what we will do is
make the most persuasive case that we can, if we get this amendment,
that this is the best way to defend the United States while advancing
American security, and we hope that all senators put the national interest
over any potential ideological opposition to a treaty from 30 years
ago.
QUESTION: Is the plan to go to Congress to amend the treaty irrespective
of Russia's position? And how can you --
MR. RUBIN: No, no, we wouldn't go to Congress to amend a treaty unless we
had agreed to an amendment with the Russians.
QUESTION: Excuse me, I spoke too rapidly. There are things you have to go
to Congress with regarding the ABM, the succession - the accession of
Russia, Ukraine, et cetera, to the Treaty, for instance.
MR. RUBIN: That's a separate protocol, yes.
QUESTION: I'm asking - the question before you is: What about Senator
Helms' rather clear warning? Are you still willing to risk --
MR. RUBIN: Well, there's nothing new about Senator Helms' view that he
doesn't want to see the Senate approve anything that could strengthen the
ABM Treaty. We think there are two protocols that could strengthen the ABM
Treaty. We're going to consult with the Senate about the best way to
proceed; in the meantime, proceed apace with the Russians in this intensive
way over the next couple of days, leading to a summit in June with
President Clinton and then President Putin - because he's now President-
Elect but by then he'll be then President Putin - and work on that
then.
If we are able in the course of that do arrange for this amendment to be
approved, then we would consult with the Senate on that, too. I'm not
prepared to speculate on what time we would submit these protocols or any
potential amendments we negotiate with the Russians to the Senate.
QUESTION: When you speak of consulting with the Senate, do you mean
specifically Senator Helms as well as --
MR. RUBIN: Well, of course. He's the Chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee. His views are obviously well known to us, but we would obviously
consult with him.
QUESTION: So you're not taking no for an answer?
MR. RUBIN: Well, Senator Helms is not the entire Senate. He's an
important senator and, we have - in the past, treaties have been approved
that he voted against and that he opposed.
QUESTION: Is it the understanding of the United States - have you been
sitting in on the discussions with Mr. Ivanov - that there will be no
further reductions on the part of the Russians of their nuclear stockpiles
as long as there is some chance that the ABM Treaty would be modified in
this country; is that correct?
MR. RUBIN: That's not the Russian position. The Russian position, as
stated by President-Elect Putin is that, if the ABM Treaty is eliminated by
American action, they will consider themselves no longer bound by the START
II and the START I Treaty. But that's not a problem for us because we're
not interested in destroying the ABM Treaty. That's one of the D's that
we're not interested in. We're interested in amending it. If we succeed in
amending it, then this will not be a problem.
QUESTION: You're talking about the complete destruction of --
MR. RUBIN: They've said if the ABM Treaty becomes null and void, their
support for these other agreements will become null and void.
QUESTION: Has the United States Government received information by the
Cuban Government that a cousin and a teacher of Elian are on their way to
the United States? And have you received the request - the official request
- of the other eight visas?
MR. RUBIN: Right. On the official request for the other eight visas, we
have not received any request on that. The visas for the former school
teacher and the cousin were issued some time ago. I do not have any
information about their travel plans. That would be done privately and it
wouldn't be something that would be announced by the State Department.
QUESTION: How concerned is the US about this - what appears to be the
beginning of a conservative backlash in Iran against February's Majlis
elections?
MR. RUBIN: Well, we have watched very closely over the years the
political developments in Iran, and we responded to a number of those
developments with important announcements by the Secretary of State, most
recently in her speech last month. We have watched this very closely. We
are obviously concerned whenever press freedom - whenever there is a
crackdown on press freedom. And we have watched, as most of the world has,
with interest and encouragement as the Iranian people have embarked on a
path toward greater freedom and democracy.
In the end, however, the pace and scope of change in Iran will be
determined by the Iranian people themselves. We believe that freedom of
expression and freedom of the press should be safeguarded, which is a
safeguard that is built into internationally recognized human rights. But
how Iran evolves is something that will be determined by the Iranian people
themselves.
QUESTION: How serious would the US interpret a deferral of or actually a
cancellation of the next round of these Majlis elections?
MR. RUBIN: I am not going to speculate on what might happen. Obviously,
in Iran or in any country in the world, if there is a step back from
democracy, we'd be concerned.
QUESTION: Can we go back to the ABM issue?
MR. RUBIN: Oh, good. I like that best.
QUESTION: I knew you'd be delighted. When the Secretary was in Moscow,
she talked about a certain flexibility on the part of then-Acting President
Putin.
MR. RUBIN: Right.
QUESTION: Is that still the case? Because what he said in New York and
what he said here has been slightly contradictory.
MR. RUBIN: Right. What we thought was interesting was the extent to which
- I'll fix that in a second. Thanks.
What we were interested in and intrigued by was the fact that Acting
President Putin, who has since become President-Elect Putin and will soon
be President Putin and will be then- President Putin, indicated an
expression of understanding for the new threats that exist in the world and
offered to work with us on those new threats, both on assessing what they
are and on figuring out ways to deal with them, while maintaining the
fundamental principles of the ABM treaty.
Well, that's our position. We want to maintain the ABM Treaty, but we want
to make an amendment to deal with one of these new threats. In Foreign
Minister Ivanov's comments in New York and in his public statements in one
of our nation's major newspapers, he has indicated that there are new
threats and he has proposed the way to deal with them is through anti-
tactical ballistic missile cooperation, below the threshold of the ABM
Treaty.
And we think that's fine and that's a necessary area to work on, anti-
tactical ballistic missiles, but it's insufficient. So it's necessary but
insufficient to work on ATBM and I want to therefore say that we still
believe that it is possible that as we and the Russians cooperate and work
together in the coming days, that they will see the wisdom of proceeding
down the course that we've set forth. And we've heard nothing since that
meeting the Secretary had with Acting President Putin that indicates that
he has moved backwards from that position that we regarded as constructive.
QUESTION: Do you have any updates on the hostages, the Malaysian hostage
situation?
MR. RUBIN: We have no update. As far as we know, there are no Americans
in the remaining group, but you would have to approach the other governments
on that.
QUESTION: Jamie, apparently across the pond, the site of your future home,
the Foreign Office is considering a request from the British Association of
Talmudic Scholars and the London Branch of the Israeli Correspondents
Association to have you PNG'd from the United Kingdom. I am wondering if
you have any comment on that.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Wow. Well, I am hoping to have a meeting very shortly with the
British Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Christopher Meyer,
and I will take this issue up with him and raise my concerns about this
matter and hope that he can resolve any potential issues that might emerge
in the future.
QUESTION: I'm going back to Cuba. Sorry.
MR. RUBIN: Do you have any more in that notebook? (Laughter.)
QUESTION: This is not a joke. (Laughter.)
This one is more or less serious. Regarding comments yesterday about, for
example, the expected length of stay of these schoolmates, usually, as I
understand it, the INS grants length of stay at 30, 60 or 90 days. Does
this mean that there has been a decision in advance that these kids would,
for some reason, be allowed to stay less amount of time?
MR. RUBIN: My understanding is that the visas will restrict their time to
precisely two weeks.
QUESTION: Do you have anything on the two new people who are coming? Are
there any sort of measures taken on --
MR. RUBIN: The other one, I believe, was for 90 days. The original visas
were 90 days. The new set of eight would be two weeks each.
QUESTION: Okay, thank you.
MR. RUBIN: Yes.
QUESTION: Do you have any comment or reaction today to the new plan of
President Pastrana to deal with the other - the second paramilitary
group?
MR. RUBIN: Yes. We don't have any details on this reported agreement. In
our view, the government of Colombia must be free to make its own decisions
on what will best yield progress on the peace process and we welcome
developments that help Colombia move towards peace and national reconciliation.
That's our reaction to that. We don't have all the details. And we think
it's up to the Colombian government to make these decisions and we
welcome efforts at national reconciliation.
QUESTION: Can I ask you another question on Latin America? Do you have
any comments about the presidential debate last night in Mexico?
MR. RUBIN: That sounds to me like not only is it a political matter but
it's an internal matter in another country, so I get to say, no, on both
political grounds and - and whatever the other argument is.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Thank you, Jamie. This has been a unique opportunity for me,
since you are parting us. And on behalf of all my peers and friends and
colleagues here, we have been so grateful to you and very thankful to
you.
Since I come from Bangladesh and since the historic visit of the President
has been made in that region, and I see on my right and left there is no
one from South Asia, so I take the indulgence of getting - on behalf of
South Asia, we would like to thank you and we are privileged enough to have
Christiane Amanpour here, your honored wife, and the baby that we have been
talking about. So all the best and the best of press from all us in your
long journey that you will be taking in the next few days or few months.
And we wish you all the best.
The question on Bangladesh is -
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: It better not be on the oil and gas industry.
QUESTION: I understand that. And I believe that that has been taken care
of by Secretary Bill Richardson.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Well, Jamie, on this since you're giving me the floor and I
have the indulgence, on the question of Bangladesh, the prime minister of
Bangladesh during the visit of President Clinton made it very clear that -
about the extradition clause which has been - either in the process of
being implemented or has been given a serious thought to it. What is the
position of the State Department on this vital issue, which is emotional
in nature, and also - it is also a type that the Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina has made it very, very clear?
And, number two, the question is that, on the security lapses that
prevented the President to visit the memorial in Savar was that any
indication of any bin Laden activities in Bangladesh, quoting the President
that Bangladesh is a moderate Muslim country? What is your comment?
MR. RUBIN: Well, let me make a couple of comments to that. Number one,
there is nothing in my briefing book on that subject - either of those
subjects. Number two - I've been waiting to say this a long time?
QUESTION: Are you going to resign in protest?
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Number two, I don't know the right answer to that question.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: And rather than giving you the wrong answer, we are going to
take that question and Richard Boucher is going to answer it for you.
QUESTION: Just as a note, as a footage to that, then thank you very much
once again from my behalf and on behalf of Bangladesh. We are very thankful
to you and to your wife. Thank you very much.
MR. RUBIN: Thank you. Oh, one more over there, yes.
QUESTION: Still on Latin America. You said you don't have any views on
political issues in countries. But yesterday President Clinton signed
Resolution 43 that puts conditionalities --
MR. RUBIN: No, we were talking about a presidential debate - what is
exchanged in a presidential debate. But I appreciate you continuing down
this path. I really do.
QUESTION: But the president of Peru says that the signing of the
Resolution 43 is a direct intervention by the United States to the
electoral process in Peru. What do you respond to this?
MR. RUBIN: Yes, my response is that we have taken what we thought were
the appropriate steps in the final days during the first round of
elections. And we believe it's extremely important that the democratic
trend that has swept Latin America be maintained and that elections be free
and fair. And we will not hesitate to make comments about the importance of
free and fair elections and our reaction to the failure to have free and
fair elections. So that is something we believe in very strongly and we
will continue to comment on.
Now, since - oh, my God. Okay, go ahead.
QUESTION: Wait, wait, wait - let her have the last one. I got one
more.
MR. RUBIN: Okay, go ahead.
QUESTION: This being your last day, I was hoping that you might be able
to take a little veil of secrecy off some of the things you've said before,
so I'm asking you now to finally confirm for the record that, in fact, all
of US foreign policy is based on wire reports.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: And to dispel this myth out there that national technical means
involves espionage and satellites and other types of reconnaissance and is,
in fact, really some guy on the third floor typing away,pulling up old
versions of MapQuest on the Internet.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: You know, my only response to that is to take these little
yellow duckies and see if I can still juggle.
(Applause.)
MR. RUBIN: Yes, I hear - yes, yes.
QUESTION: His earlier question. Your revelation of your meeting with
Ambassador Meyer deserves a follow up. You're not going to do an Anthony
Hopkins on us and switch your citizenship and become a diplomat? (Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: I have no intention. I already have a British wife and a son
who has two options. Last question. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Well, I'm not sure whether it's the last one, but following up
on some of the comments about your concerns of leaving this high profile
job and moving to England, much has been made, Mr. Rubin, of you leaving in
order to spend more time with your wife and child and, indeed, to become
Mr. Mom. So what I want to know is how you can assure an understandably
skeptical son about your commitment to one day change a diaper?
(Laughter.)
(Applause.)
QUESTION: Tell Tony Blair he has to change diapers.
(Laughter.)
MR. RUBIN: Well, if they had provided me an answer to that question, I
would have been surprised. Let me say this, that I will do whatever is
necessary and appropriate. (Laughter.) Thank you all very much.
Let me just say that it's been a great honor to stand here and represent
the United States through this podium for such a long time. And as much as
some days it may have not looked like it, it was a privilege to exchange
with you difficult questions, hopefully decent answers. And the time when
issues were debated here, discussed here, and I faced sometimes difficult
questioning - particularly in the context of Kosovo - was the most
challenging professional experience of my life. And I will remember it both
with fondness and a little bit of anxiety. And I just want to thank all of
you for doing it so professionally. Thank you.
(Applause.)
(The briefing was concluded at 12:35 P.M.)
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