For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
January 11, 2006
Interview of the Vice President by Tony Snow
Via Telephone
The Tony Snow Show
11:35 A.M. EST
Q Mr. Vice President, it's an honor. Welcome.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Tony. How are you?
Q I'm doing fine. First thing I want to ask you about is Sam
Alito. The hearings continue at a torturous pace, and for those who are
watching, I pass on my condolences. However, it's been interesting to
me -- there have been a series of attempts to try to chip away at him,
but maybe the most interesting comes from Senator Kennedy, who has one
focus and one focus only.
(Sound bite is played.)
Q Is the United States torturing anybody?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, we're not. I hadn't heard that quite
presented in that way, Tony. But, no, we're --
Q -- cut out all the irrelevant stuff and get to the -- cut to
the chase.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right. Right, well, the -- there's been a
debate obviously as to the McCain Amendment that was adopted in the
Defense Appropriations Bill. But the United States does not torture.
That's not our policy. It never has been.
Q Do you think Senator Kennedy understands the legal basis for
what takes place in U.S. detention facilities?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't know. Sometimes I think people get
caught up in the -- trying to make a political argument so that they
don't spend a lot of time on the facts with respect to any particular
situation.
Q Do you think that applies to the criticism of Judge Alito?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think it does. I think if you look at Sam
Alito -- and I'm -- the process we went through to pick, to recommend to
the President Judge Alito for the Supreme Court has been an exhaustive
one. We really started on this shortly after we got elected. And of
course, a lot of effort has gone into it. We've looked at all of the
members currently sitting on the federal bench, and so forth, as well as
state courts. Judge Alito, like John Roberts, emerged as really a
preeminent jurist of his era, a man who has already got 15 years of
experience in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, who has got an
outstanding judicial record, who has written extensively, who has
written, I guess, thousands of opinions at this point, but a man, who by
any standard, including the Bar Association, has been deemed to be
highly qualified for the court, probably has as much experience as
anybody who has ever had, in modern times, been nominated for that post.
So I think you need to look at that broad record and make judgments.
And what I see happening now, unfortunately, is some of the groups on
the other side trying hard to find some way to shoot him down. And so
far I don't think they've been successful at doing that. But in the
course of doing it they sometimes distort his record.
Q Talking today with Senator Mike DeWine, he said, yes, it's
over. And that's kind of my view. Judge Alito has comported himself
with composure and grace. You would be happy to perhaps hear that
yesterday in the conversations, Senator Joe Biden had 78 percent of the
words in the interviews with Judge Alito. Judge Alito only got to get
in 22 percent just because the Senator was holding forth at great
length. But do you see any real bumps here? Do you think Sam Alito is
going to get confirmed?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm confident he'll get confirmed. I think --
the way he's handled himself in these hearings is evidence for anybody
who hadn't been able to look at the case before that this man is
eminently qualified for the post he's been appointed to. And I think
he'll get a very positive vote. I venture to guess he'll get more than
60 votes.
Q Do you -- I gather also you've just talked about the
exhaustive process that went through, that there are others "on the
bench"? In other words, should another vacancy arise, there is a series
of names already ready to be vetted once again.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think it would be safe to say that if
there's another vacancy, the President is prepared to do his duty, and
to pick an nominee that will be an effective member of the Supreme
Court.
Q In hindsight, how do you assess the Harriet Miers choice?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, the -- I think -- know all the arguments
that went into that, and the decision ultimately made for Harriet to
step down when she decided to withdraw her nomination, which is too bad.
I really -- I've known Harriet now and worked closely with her for the
last five years. She's a very able, capable woman. I think she would
have made a good justice.
In the end, obviously, it generated a fair amount of controversy,
and so she decided to step aside rather than to continue to pursue it.
But she's still serving very ably and in a very important position as
the President's Counsel here in the White House. And so she's earning
her pay.
Q Mr. Vice President, you have been spending a lot of time in
recent days talking about the war on terror and how important it is to
take it seriously. The Weekly Standard over the weekend published a
long piece by Steve Hayes, who talked about emerging evidence of
longstanding ties between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. You've heard it
said many times there's no linkage between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
You've heard Democrats beat you and the President about the head and
shoulders with this. Were there links to -- between Saddam Hussein and
al Qaeda?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think Steve Hayes has done an
effective job in his article of laying out a lot of those connections.
I hark back to testimony by George Tenet when he was Director of the
CIA. He went up before the Senate Intel Committee in open session --
this is on public record -- and said there was a relationship there that
went back 10 years. What was never established was that there was --
that -- a link between Iraq and the attacks of 9/11.
Q Right, and I've heard you and the President say that many
times.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.
Q And you correct it any time somebody tries to raise it.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right. And so what some people have
done is gotten very sloppy and said, well, there was no link between
Saddam Hussein and 9/11, and then jumped to the conclusion that there
was no relationship at all with respect to al Qaeda.
And the Iraqis -- the fact is we know that Saddam Hussein and Iraq
were heavily involved with terror. They were carried as a
terror-sponsoring state by our State Department for many, many years.
Abu Nidal operated out of there; Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Saddam
Hussein was making payments to families of suicide bombers. All of this
is very well established. And Steve Hayes is of the view -- and I think
he's correct -- that a lot of those documents that were captured over
there that have not yet been evaluated offer additional evidence that,
in fact, there was a relationship that stretched over many years between
Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda organization.
Q Meanwhile we have the spectacle of Iran, and Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who continues to poke his thumb in the eye of the West.
Mohamed ElBaradei, now of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says
he's fed up. It appears now that Iran is in the process of starting up
nuclear reactors that have been shut for some period of time. He had --
he has now vowed to press ahead. He said today, "We think that nuclear
energy is our right and is permitted in the framework of law,
unfortunately some cruel people want to deprive Iran from achieving this
goal." Do you have any doubt that they're trying to build up a nuclear
weapons program?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I think it's pretty clear that that's
their objective. If what they're really interested in is generating
nuclear power, generating electricity from running reactors, they've
been offered that opportunity, a guaranteed source of fuel that would be
enriched only to the level necessary to run a civilian reactor.
The Russians would then take back the spent fuel so that it
couldn't be reprocessed for the plutonium in it. And the Iranians could
achieve their objective of having nuclear energy.
They've not been satisfied with that. What they want is the
ability to enrich the uranium themselves, and that would allow them to
take it up to a much higher level and purity that is required for
nuclear weapons. The effort we've made to date through the EU, the
European Union, working with the Brits and the French and the Germans
has been to reach a diplomatic solution to this problem. But so far
they've been unsuccessful. And given the track record there, as well as
given some of the more outrageous statements that the new President has
made, Ahmadinejad, doesn't inspire confidence, I don't think, in anyone.
It obviously is an increasingly significant problem that the world is
going to have to address.
Q Should the world be considering a serious economic embargo of
Iran?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the next step will be probably
to go before the U.N. Security Council. And that would be probably the
number one item on the agenda would be the resolution that could be
enforced by sanctions, were they to fail to comply with it.
Now, that's speculative at this point. No decision has been made
on that, but that will be next step once the Board of Governors of the
International Atomic Energy Agency meets and concludes that the
diplomatic track they've been on isn't going to work, then the next step
would be for the Board of Governors to vote to refer the entire matter
to the Security Council.
Q Pretty well established that the vast majority of Iranians
hate their government and like the United States. Would it be fair to
say that at least in the abstract we would like a regime change there?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think it would be fair to say we'd like the
Iranian government to operate in a way that is consistent with the
standards that we expect of members of the international community. Not
only do they appear to be on the path to develop nuclear weapons, but
this also has been one of the prime terror-sponsoring states in world.
They've been the prime mover behind Hezbollah. They have got a track
record with respect to supporting terror that is a very bad one, if I
can put it in those terms.
So this is a nation, whose government I don't believe serves them
well at this point. I think you're right that there are a lot of
Iranians who would like to see the policies changed. And we'll see what
happens. They have -- occasionally hold elections, but they're very
special kinds of elections. They're really not free and fair elections.
The old guard controls who actually gets on the ballot, and so we have
not seen, say, them produce what I would think of as a responsible
government.
Q Two quick questions everybody wants me to ask you: number
one, would you please reconsider and think about running for President?
(Laughter.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, Tony, I appreciate the interest, but no
when I finish this tour, that's going to be it.
Q Second, your health: They were beating Scott McClellan to
death the other day asking about gout and everything else. How you
doing?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm doing fine. I'm back at work, have been
for some time. Of course, I've got a history of coronary artery disease
that goes back nearly 30 years. But the wonders of modern medicine have
kept me going and let me live a full, normal and active life in spite of
all that. And I'm fortunate today to have good doctors who take good
care of me, so when I do have one of these episodes everything always
comes out all right.
Q Now, did you walk through the doors of the Dick Cheney Center
when you went in the other day?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I didn't. (Laughter.) You mean at the
hospital over there?
Q Yes.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, we went in the regular entrance, the
emergency room.
Q Well, Mr. Vice President, glad to have you in good health. As
you know, I'm a big believer in medical technology, as well. And thanks
so much for joining us today.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: All right, Tony, good to talk to you.
END 11:46 A.M. EST
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