White House Report: Suicide Bombing, Axis of Evil, Mideast,

(Bush on suicide bombing in Israel, Zinni talks, Axis of Evil) (1000)


BUSH CONDEMNS SUICIDE BOMBING IN ISRAEL ON PASSOVER



President Bush condemned in the strongest terms the March 27 Passover
suicide bombing in Netanya, Israel, that killed at least 15 people.


"It is awfully hard to realize there can be peace in a place like the
Middle East. My heart broke for those innocent lives that are lost on
a daily basis and today there was another suicide bomber who murdered
innocent Israelis," Bush said in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was
traveling.


"This callous, this cold blooded killing, it must stop," he said. "I
condemn it in the... strongest of terms. I call upon Mr. Arafat and
the Palestinian Authority to do everything in their power to stop the
terrorist killing because there are people in the Middle East who
would rather kill than have peace.


"If the United States is firm and strong in routing out terror, if the
United States stays ready in our quest for peace," said Bush, "I
believe we can achieve peace in places where people think we'll never
have peace. The road is going to be hard, there is no question about
it. It will test our will, it will test our determination."


The President was on a domestic trip to South Carolina and Georgia to
raise funds for Republican candidates for office and to promote his
plans to protect the United States from terrorist attacks. He ends the
trip in Texas where he and First Lady Laura Bush will spend the long
holiday weekend at their ranch.



BUSH REFERS TO HIS AXIS OF EVIL REMARKS IN MARCH 27 SPEECH



"I also want to explain right quickly what I meant when I was talking
about the axis of evil," President Bush said in remarks March 27 to
emergency workers in Greenville, South Carolina.


"Let me put it to you this way: We cannot allow nations that have got
a history of totalitarianism, dictatorship -- a nation, for example,
like Iraq, that poisoned her own people -- to develop a weapon of mass
destruction and mate up with terrorist organizations who hate
freedom-loving countries. We can't afford to do that, for the sake of
our children and our children's children," Bush said.


"History has called this nation into action, and we're not going to
let the world's worst leaders develop and maintain and deploy and aim
at us or our friends the world's worst weapons," the President said.


He reminded the audience that soon after the September 11 attacks on
the United States, he had announced that nations are either with us or
against us.


"And I made it clear that if anybody harbored a terrorist, or they fed
a terrorist, or they hid a terrorist, they're just as guilty as the
murderers who took innocent life on September the 11th. And thanks to
a mighty United States military, the Taliban found out exactly what I
meant," said Bush.


In his remarks, the President said that his most important job is to
work with federal, state and local officials to prevent terrorists
from again hitting the United States.


And he said homeland security efforts in rural areas of the nation are
just as important as they are in America's big cities.

BUSH SAYS GOOD PROGRESS BEING MADE ON TENET ACCORD



Asked early March 27 during a visit to South Carolina about the
situation in the Middle East and whether he plans to talk to Israel's
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bush said:


"I don't today. I'm sure the Secretary of State is in touch in the
area, with the leaders of the area. But let me say this -- and I think
the important thing about the Middle East is that we're making very
good progress on the Tenet accord. In other words, there's a chance
we'll have an agreement on the security arrangements necessary to
hopefully then get into Mitchell.


"General Zinni is still in the area. Let me put it this way: I'm
optimistic that progress is being made and I've asked General Zinni to
continue to work with both parties, regardless of whether or not
they're headed to Beirut or not. The most important thing is getting
into Tenet, getting into a security arrangement.


"And we're optimistic, and we'll see."



George Tenet, the Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,
has proposed a security plan between the Israelis and the Palestinians
that if adhered to by both parties would enable them to begin
discussing how to resolve political issues under the Mitchell Plan,
named for former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.


The U.S. Middle East envoy, retired General Anthony Zinni, is in the
region meeting with both Israelis and Palestinians in an effort to
help them resolve their differences.


Asked about the decision by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat not to attend the March 27-28 meeting of Arab leaders in
Beirut, Bush did not respond directly. Instead he said that "the most
important thing for my administration is to work with both parties to
make progress on a settlement in the area.


"And the first stage of any progress is going to be an agreement on
what's been called the Tenet agreement, which is the security
arrangements. And I believe we're making -- I know we're making very
good progress. Whether or not we're able to sign an accord soon or not
remains to be seen. But progress has been made and that is where the
focus of this administration is, to get into Tenet."


Asked his reaction to the speech in Beirut by Saudi Arabia's Crown
Prince Abdullah, Bush said he had not yet seen the text of the speech.
"I may have a comment later on, once I get the text of the speech."


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Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)