Release Date: March 25, 2008
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Secretary Chertoff: Well, I’m delighted to be here. It’s my first visit to Kuwait, but I’ve long been eager to visit. I was actually planning to visit last year, but then we had a congressional debate issue that required me to remain in the United States. But I’ve finally arrived, and I look forward to my meetings tomorrow with the Amir and a number of senior government officials, including the Prime Minister.
One of the main responsibilities of my Department is to deal with the issue of the border; that’s air, land and sea. And some of you may have read about some of the issues that we have — some of you may have read about issues involved in people coming across the land border between the ports of entry, and that gets a lot of publicity, but equally important is how we deal with people who come at our airports or our seaports.
Secretary Rice and I are, as Mr. Fennell said, engaged in what we call an initiative to have secure borders and open doors, which is designed to take advantage of modern technology to make the process of entering as a visitor or as a student or as a businessperson more efficient, more convenient, but also more secure.
There are three parts to what we are trying to do. One is to use more secure documents, including electronic — e-Passports and similar types of documents, so that it is easier to verify who a person is, and that allows them to enter in more quickly. The second is, of course, to use the visa process to have some information about people so that we can make a judgment before they come to the United States about whether they will be admitted. And the third is to use biometrics, specifically fingerprints, as a way of ascertaining someone’s identity and determining whether they have a criminal record, for example.
Now we have set up two model airports, one in Dulles Airport in Washington and one at Houston International Airport, where we are greeting people with a welcoming video and attempting to design the airport waiting area and entry area so that it is more friendly for passengers who are arriving from long flights.
For most people, the vast majority of people, the actual experience of passing through our Immigrations and Customs, once the line has — they’ve made it through the line, is actually three to four minutes.
The process is, for the traveler, they show the inspector his or her passport and visa, a photograph is then taken and compared with the record and the file of the visa, fingerprints are then taken, which we use to compare to fingerprints we have on file and also in other kinds of records, and of course the traveler will be asked a few questions about where he or she intends to go, how long they intend to stay, what the purpose of the visit is, and things along that line.
Although I’m sure from time to time everybody hears stories about someone who is taken aside and questioned further, actually that’s only a very small minority of people who come through. The vast majority don’t actually spend more than a few minutes with an inspector.
Finally, to step away from the immediate issue of our airports, it’s a particular pleasure for me to be here because the United States and Kuwait have had such a strong relationship, particularly over the last 20 years since the Gulf War of the early ‘90s, and then of course the support we’ve had from Kuwait for our armed forces who are currently engaged in military activities in Iraq and in other parts of the world. So we prize this relationship and we want to ensure that it continues to be very strong and very friendly.
And now, questions.
Question: Do you have statistics about the number of passengers coming to the U.S. in the past year? And is there a record of — is the record increasing or decreasing? Do you have any specifics about Kuwaiti passengers?
Secretary Chertoff: I don’t have specifics to Kuwaiti passengers. I can tell you that we’ve had about 80 million air travelers over the past year, and if you include people who’ve come across the land borders — 80 — it’s been about 400 million. Some of those, of course, are multiple entries back and forth. In general, across all categories, the numbers of this year’s have risen.
Moderator: If you want, I can probably find out the number of tourist visas this year. I know it’s gone up, but I don’t know the number. I can find out and email it to you.
Question: Two full questions. Part one is, what were the reasons to take security procedures at the airports and points of entry? And second question is, what do you anticipate — discuss with the government of Kuwait tomorrow unofficially?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, let me answer the first question by saying that like all countries, we want to ensure that the people who come into the United States are first of all not criminals or terrorists. Secondly, we want to make sure that the people who come in as tourists do not expect or intend to stay beyond the scope of the visa and become illegal immigrants.
As far as my meetings tomorrow are concerned, that will relate to security cooperation, which will benefit both countries, as well as ways which we can continue to promote travel and trade between Kuwait and the United States and the strong, friendly relationships that we have.
Question: President Bush has mentioned, and he also mentioned in Kuwait in his visit, that the U.S. — government of the U.S. fights terrorism overseas to prevent terrorists from performing terrorist acts in the U.S. What’s your comment on these thoughts and these statements from the President, given the fact that some Arab countries are in contradiction with those statements?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, I think actually we fight terrorism overseas not only to prevent ourselves from having to confront it in the United States but to prevent our friends and allies around the world, including in the Arab world, from having to confront it. I remember — well, let me — I’ll let you translate that.
I remember, for example, that I think within the last two years, Zarqawi, when he was the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, ordered a bombing of a wedding in Amman that killed a number of the wedding party, including, I believe, the bride and the groom. And that was an act of terror perpetrated against an Arab country. More recently in the last few months we saw al Qaeda in the Maghreb set off bombs that killed schoolchildren in Algeria. So this is a threat against all of our friends, and we all benefit when we join together in fighting this kind of terror.
Question: How are you trying to convince Arab countries with this policy, and is that part of your agenda for the trip?
Secretary Chertoff: I think, actually, all or virtually all Arab countries are convinced then — and I think that — for example, the bombing in Amman in the last couple of years and the murder of the wedding party at a hotel I think turned the Jordanian population against al Qaeda. So I think that we don’t need to persuade the Arab countries of the objective. We need to continue to work on the specific ways we can work to achieve the objective.
Question: Can you comment on the policy of the U.S. to manage crisis in the Middle East, given the fact that Syria and Iran are in almost a war state — Iran promoting a war state? And there is the impression with others that the United States does not care about any of the casualties. What else — what are the possibilities of changing, and the U.S. policy will change?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, I think the U.S. strategy here is very clear: We want to prevent aggression in the Middle East, by which I mean one state invading or seeking to control another state. And I think that obviously the citizens of Kuwait have first-hand experience with being victims of that aggression. So what that means is we need to continue to support our friends in the region with assistance and with our presence. It also means we’re obviously concerned to work with the international community to prevent bin Laden, for example, from getting nuclear weapons, which would certainly be a negative — have a negative effect on the regime.
Question: Two-part question. I don’t know if you’re aware of the — it was heard often here there was — the guy who was killed in Syria in a terrorist attack — Mughniyeh? Imad Mughniyeh. There were services done here in Kuwait as a sympathy for his death — but just as a background. The question said: Is there a list of what’s called the blacklist of people (inaudible) to the U.S., and has the threat been updated after big developments in Kuwait? And what is your comment on the siege of Gaza and the occupied territory?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, I don’t want to spread too far beyond the domain of my department. I think I’ll leave the issue of Gaza to the Secretary of State, but with respect to watch lists, we do update our, in general, our terrorist watch lists, when we have information that somebody is a terrorist or connected with terrorism or facilitating terrorism, and that’s based upon specific information that we get through our investigations and our intelligence. But I should say that we don’t simply put people on a watch list because we don’t agree with their politics; it’s because we have a reason to be concerned that they are connected with terrorism or with some other kind of crime.
Question: Are there any specific Kuwaitis that you know are on the watch list?
Secretary Chertoff: Oh, I would never be able to talk about specific individuals. Nice try.
Question: Two whole questions. Number one, since the U.S. announced a launch on a war on terrorism after the event of September 11th, in your assessment is the world a safer place now after all that has been done? And number two, or part two of the question, what is the level, or the — what is the level of cooperation between Kuwait and the United States in achieving a safer world?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, let me answer the second question first — it’s easier. We have a very good level of cooperation and a very good relationship, and we look forward to continuing to build that relationship and expand that cooperation, and that’s one of the reasons I’m here.
As to whether the world is safer, I believe the world is safer, but I do not believe the world is yet safe. And we are reminded of that whenever we see bombings carried out in which innocent people are killed. For example, again in the last few months, two women who were known to the community as being mentally handicapped had bombs placed upon them and those bombs were detonated when the two women walked into a marketplace to kill innocent people. And what was striking is that the bombers themselves were victims because they were mentally handicapped.
Translator: I mean, location, where was it –
Secretary Chertoff: Oh, it was Iraq, in Iraq.
Question: What’s your assessment of the security situation in Iraq at this time? What about withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq? Is this going to happen, or (inaudible) happen before the end of the current presidency of President Bush?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, I think the general assessment of security in Iraq, both what I’ve heard reported publicly and also in my own conversations with people, and I’m not there — obviously it’s not my department so I don’t claim to be an expert — but I think the general consensus is security has gotten much better in Iraq. But still we see bombings, and the threat remains, and we need to make sure that we do not leave Iraq in a precarious situation.
So I think this President, President Bush, is committed to maintaining a level of troops that the military commanders believe necessary to continue to build on the progress that’s been made in stabilizing Iraq and creating breathing space for the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to continue to rebuild their society.
Question: There is a scheduled regional meeting in Kuwait for Iraq’s neighboring countries, and Secretary Rice is the secretary — will attend the conference in Kuwait. What’s your comment — or your vision for that conference, and is there a (inaudible) that you are sort of bringing to this conference?
Secretary Chertoff: Well, as you can probably tell, I’m not Secretary Rice. So I think –
Question: (Inaudible.)
Secretary Chertoff: I do, but I think I will let her describe what her plans are and what her agenda is.
Question: Thank you very much, sir.
Secretary Chertoff: Thank you.
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