First of all, the mission continues. We remain engaged in the Middle East, we remain prepared to help the parties reach a cease-fire, and we remain very active in encouraging Chairman Arafat to take the steps that are necessary to stop the violence. We believe very strongly he must lead now. He has to use all necessary means and with absolutely no further delay to arrest those responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks, to destroy the formal and informal structures that perpetuate terrorism, and we look to see the results. We think the violence must stop now.
As far as General Zinni's whereabouts today, he is in the region. He is with Assistant Secretary Burns in Amman. They are meeting with King Abdullah and other senior Jordanian officials there in Jordan. They will move on to Cairo for consultations with President Mubarak as well.
DOWNLOAD --->>> https://t.co/DZyf8SOTkW
As far as his onward travel beyond that, I don't have anything for you at this moment. Considering whether he might come back for discussion with us here or I suppose some time at Christmastime, but that hasn't been decided. The issue for us to remain engaged and to keep working this as best we can.
MR. BOUCHER: I can't tell you when. I think it was in the last few days. But the why, I think, is quite clear. And that is we have always felt it is important that Arabs and others who are interested in the peace process, Arabs, Europeans, the Russians and others, continue to deliver the message that now is the time for action and now is the time for results and that is the message that we believe everybody should be giving to Chairman Arafat. And so we do that through various kinds of consultations and this is one opportunity for Assistant Secretary Burns and General Zinni to join up together and to have some serious discussions with key players like Jordan and Egypt.
QUESTION: One more and I'll drop it. Was there some concern on your part that these two countries, which are the only two Arab countries to have formal -- to formally recognize Israel, that they weren't --
MR. BOUCHER: No, I would put it in the other direction. We have always welcomed the role that they have played. We think that their involvement has been important and useful and helpful in this process. We continue to think it is and therefore we think it is useful for us to consult with them and talk to them quite closely as we try to move this forward.
MR. BOUCHER: We are encouraging them as we encourage all governments to make clear to Chairman Arafat that the burden is on him to lead, that it is time for him to take serious steps to stop the violence.
MR. BOUCHER: He talked to both of them on Wednesday. And let me double-check and make sure that he hasn't talked to them since then. But I think Wednesday was the last time he talked to Prime Minister Sharon and Chairman Arafat.
QUESTION: With respect to what has gone on in the Middle East the last week, there are other groups, such as Hizballah, and they are starting to cause trouble. Does the same criteria enter in with -- as what they did with Hamas, with what you expect may occur with Hizballah? In other words, write them off and start to pull back on financial type of --
MR. BOUCHER: And we expect Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to take a leadership role in stopping all the groups that are conducting terrorist attacks. It is not only named ones; they need to take effective steps to end the violence. That requires arrest, that requires closing down the formal groups, the informal networks, the facilities and infrastructure that support terrorism.
MR. BOUCHER: Sure. I would love to. We went through a careful interagency review, and we have decided to post on our Rewards for Justice website rewards for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of individuals responsible for certain acts of terrorism against US citizens in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, or rewards for the prevention of such acts.
Though any person who provides information leading to the arrest or conviction of an individual for an international act against US persons or property may be eligible for a reward, we had not previously made the decision to explicitly advertise on the website rewards for these specific acts of terrorism.
A decision on whether or not to undertake a more aggressive advertising campaign on the website for these cases has always been based on an assessment of the likely impact on efforts to bring the terrorists to justice, on US interests in the region, and on whether these steps can be helpful in solving the cases.
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think it's actually up yet. We have taken the first step by contacting families, and next of kin, seeking their consent to use the names of the victims. Once we have that permission from the families, we will proceed to put it -- the information on the website.
QUESTION: To follow up on that. A particular question on it. Is this a change in US policy in that you are now acknowledging that terrorist strikes against Americans in Israel who by and large are settlers are terrorist attacks and therefore that has implications for the US being seen to be siding with the Israeli view of the settler question?
MR. BOUCHER: The long answer is that we have, I think, made clear on a number of occasions in the last year during the violence that there were Americans killed in some of these acts of terror or some of the horrible bombings killed Americans, hurt Americans. I think -- I can't remember if it was the Sbarro or the Dolphinarium, but there were several Americans killed in some of those big bombings. So we are concerned about Americans that are killed in acts of terror. We don't think any questions about their status or their activities justifies the killing of innocent people. So, no, it is not a change in policy.
QUESTION: On this issue, just two quick ones. Could you explain how the US law enforcement side of this is going to work, considering that we are now asking Arafat to handle through the Palestinian Authority, been asking him to handle the arrest of any terrorist including, I'm assuming, these folks? And, second of all, does this in any way signal that we don't think that Arafat is willing or capable in any way of taking care of this problem himself? Because it says, any information leading to the arrest of these individuals. So I'm assuming the US is going to arrest these individuals when it's --
MR. BOUCHER: And it may not be the US who arrests them. If we get information that can lead somebody else to arrest them, we work with law enforcement agencies all over the world. So I think you are just making assumptions about this that just don't really pertain, frankly.
QUESTION: Just to follow up, my understanding of the issue before is one of the big sticking points as to why this wasn't done before was because it may undercut Arafat's authority to take care of these arrests in the manner in which he sees fit --
MR. BOUCHER: It is not a jurisdictional question. There just isn't any jurisdictional question. The issue in these cases has always been if you call us up and tell us about something we had no idea, on some small island in the South Pacific somebody was going to try to bomb an American, with or without any advertising our part, we can pay you a reward if you give us information that helps us with local authorities or whoever prevent a terrorist act against an American or find somebody who carried out a terrorist act.
In all these cases all around the world of terrorist acts that may harm Americans or may threaten to harm Americans, we choose to advertise certain ones. We choose to advertise the ones where we think we can make progress in the investigation by advertising for information. We choose to advertise ones where we may even have some assistance in publicizing or making people more aware and therefore more careful about their security.
I said efforts to bring the terrorists to justice, US interests in the region, whether the steps can be helpful in solving the cases. So it is really a question of at what point in the investigations, at what point in the patterns of terrorism that we decide it's appropriate to go out and start being more specific. We're looking for terrorists anywhere that might try to harm Americans. And in particular, you might be more sensitive, you might be aware of this series of events, that series of events, and that series of events. And so we advertise certain ones at different times.
QUESTION: One more crack at the apple and I'll drop it. You guys get a tip on the Rewards for Justice Program, there is a terrorist that is involved in the '96 bus bombing who is living in Nablus you want to go over here, it turns out to be right. What happens? Do you hand that over to Arafat and say, you've got to arrest this guy?
QUESTION: Can I go back to Zinni just for one second? There was the -- out of the region there was some indication that Zinni was going to go back to Jerusalem and then also for meetings with the Israelis and the Palestinians on Sunday. And what you just said, I think, unless I misheard you, was that his onward travel after Cairo hadn't been determined.
MR. BOUCHER: The expectation is that his job to do is in the region, is in Jerusalem and meeting with the parties. So I think that is the operative assumption. But as far as specifically, we don't have a specific decision on what happens.
MR. BOUCHER: As the Secretary said, as Mr. Armitage has said, and various others, he is the elected head of the Palestinian Authority. And that is why we expect him to exercise leadership. We expect him to take actions that demonstrate leadership of his community and of his administration.
And as I said before, we are looking to him, to do certain specific things: arrest those responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks, destroy the formal and the informal infrastructures that perpetuate terrorism. We are looking for results. We are looking for an end to the violence.
795a8134c1