Tuesday, June 19, 2007

White House Press Briefing

Press Briefing by Tony Snow

Q Have we cut off all funding to Gaza, and has all fuel been cut off?



MR. SNOW: What we have said is that we continue to try to work on providing humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people, but we also have made it clear that we will not be supplying directly to Hamas.



Q I know, but my specific question is are we going to starve these people, the Palestinians --



MR. SNOW: Again, it has always been our policy to be providing humanitarian aid directly to the Palestinian people, and it continues to be.
So...Hamas aren't Palestinians?



"We won't be providing aid to Hamas, but we will be to all Palestinians".



Ace.



More good questions followed by lies from Tony Snow:

MR. SNOW: I think what the President is doing right now is showing support for our friends. And there are many people in Gaza who I think today are right now the victims of wholesale abuse of their human rights. And we support their efforts -- the people who want democracy, who want freedom, who want stability, who want the ability to build full lives, those are the folks that we're supporting and continue to support.

Q One could argue that they have democracy, that Hamas was elected a little bit over a year ago; they're a democratically elected government, and yet this administration and its allies have sought to undermine them. I wonder how you square the notion of democracy in the Middle East and undermining a government when you don't like who is elected.

MR. SNOW: Well, they have actually pursued a constitutional solution right now. I don't think that what you would call -- correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you've seen a vigorous exercise in democracy in Gaza in recent days. I think you've seen just the opposite. What this administration has said is that we will not deal with a terrorist organization, but we have also invited those in Hamas to go ahead and abide by the Quartet principles.

Q But is the administration for democracy in the Middle East, regardless of who gets elected? Or if it doesn't like the results will it go against --

MR. SNOW: We've been through the debating points on this many times. We are for democracy in the Middle East. We are also against going in, routing out and slaughtering people you disagree with.

And finally:

Q In regard to Gaza, how can what's happened be interpreted as anything other than a serious setback to the President's agenda for democracy in the Middle East?



MR. SNOW: I think it's a serious setback for the Palestinian people. But on the other hand, what you've also seen is President Abbas stepping forward, putting together an emergency government, naming a new Prime Minister, and taking affirmative steps. And we are certainly going to support him on that.



You've got to keep in mind terrorists, in fact -- terrorists are going to do what they can to disrupt the cause of democracy. We've now seen it in Gaza. We saw it before in Lebanon. We certainly see it in Iraq. We see it in Afghanistan. That is less a repudiation of the President than a revelation of the kind of people we're dealing with and why it's important to assemble international coalitions that are willing to stand up to them and provide support for the people who are putting their lives on the line to support democracy.



Q But the administration had encouraged the elections, and now what you've got is an emergency government forming. How is this --



MR. SNOW: Well, you have an emergency government because a government that elected itself on a non-corruption pledge now seems to be having moved in a different direction.



Thank you.
Note how Tony Snow consistently fails to answer the actual question, and responds with things that don't really mean anything. This bit was good

I wonder how you square the notion of democracy in the Middle East and undermining a government when you don't like who is elected.



MR. SNOW: Well, they have actually pursued a constitutional solution right now. I don't think that what you would call -- correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you've seen a vigorous exercise in democracy in Gaza in recent days.
"They have actually pursued a constitutional solution right now". I think this highlights a difference in the understanding of the word "democracy". The journalist assumes it mean that people vote for who they want and those people then hold power. Tony Snow think's democracy means the right of the richest and most powerful (and most favoured by the US) to impose whatever power structures they wish, and then defend themselves with that very American word "constitution".



Snow's next point is "they may have been democratically elected, but after we refused to let them take power and stopped giving them back money that was theirs, they got pissed off and picked up guns, so HA! We win."





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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like another normal explination from the American administration. They don't need to explain themselves. Kings of the World...