Transcript: Ambassador Francis X. Taylor, Coordinator for Counterterrorism,
Department of State Media Roundtable,
US Embassy Madrid, Spain
March 8, 2002

Taylor: I don’t have any statements so I’d be happy to take your questions.

Reporter: Could you tell us what you talked about with Mr. Morenes? Did you talk about Al-Qaeda and E.T.A.?

Taylor: We had a very wide ranging discussion on numerous issues involving not only the global campaign against terrorism and Spain’s superb support to the campaign and our coalition partners as well as the recent efforts of the Spanish authorities in working on ETA. We talked also about our commitment, as announced by our President back in June and reinforced many times in conversations with Spanish officials, to work with Spain on the problem of terrorism involving ETA as well as international terrorism, that may be occurring on Spanish territory.

Reporter: Could you tell us what more apart from meeting with Mr. Morenes you are you going to do here in Spain?

Taylor: Well I had been planning for some time to come to Spain even before the events of 9-11, and certainly given the unequivocal Spanish support for our campaign since 9-11 had wanted to come to reinforce our appreciation for all that Spain has done in working with the U.S. and working with our coalition partners on terrorism. A lot of our campaign discussions are about improving capacity, that is, capacity of law enforcement, improving the capacity of intelligence through intelligence sharing as we try to build a coalition around the world. And so, much of our discussion was not only about what was happening but how we could work better together from a law enforcement perspective, from an intelligence perspective, indeed from a military perspective. There are Spanish forces that are in the military theater of operation around Afghanistan to ensure that we continue to work together on the issues that face us in this campaign.

Reporter: Excuse me, so that means that you are going to interview or already that you have met some officials from defense ministry or even from the intelligence?

Taylor: I had a very broad range of meetings, I have met with the foreign ministry, I have met with the office of the Presidency, I have met with the intelligence service, that’s what’s so unique about this campaign that we’re involved in that we have looked to rally the power of our diplomatic, our economic, our intelligence, law enforcement services as well as our military services and focusing their combined capabilities against the threat of Al-Qaeda . Certainly the military aspects in Afghanistan have been widely reported, but I think the greatest part of this campaign is the relationships that we have built with our partners around that world where we have improved intelligence exchange, where we have improved law enforcement cooperation, where we have built structures to search for, locate and freeze financial assets of terrorist groups. So we had a discussion across a wide range of issues that are so key to all of our colleagues that work with us in the campaign.

Reporter: How can the U.S. help Spain in the fight of terrorism, especially in the fight against E.T.A?

Taylor: We have listed E.T.A for some years as a foreign terrorist organization within the State Department and more recently have listed E.T.A on our Executive Order concerning terrorist financing; we have listed them also on the Patriot Act Exclusion list of organizations where members are not allowed to come to the United States of America. We have also recently named 21 E.T.A members on the Executive Order concerning the locking of financial assets. We support very strongly the efforts of the Spanish Government to investigate the violence that E.T.A has perpetrated against the Spanish people for 30 years. We want to extend our intelligence and law enforcement capabilities to help the Spanish Government perform that vital mission.

Reporter: And how can Spain help in the U.S. in the fight against terrorism?

Taylor: Well, I think Spain has already demonstrated its value to the coalition with the series of arrests they have made of people associated with Islamic extremist organizations that have been here in Spain. We look forward to continued cooperation with them, with Spanish authorities on further investigations on those types of activities that may be occurring within Spain in the future. Spain’s presidency of the EU I think provides a very powerful platform, as the president has announced, for terrorism to be the primary focus of the Spanish Presidency, and working to build tools that will allow the EU and its member nations to be more effective in their operation together as well as with other coalition partners in the exchange of information, particularly for law enforcement purposes that will help close the seams that allow terrorism to operate within Europe or elsewhere around the world.

Reporter: I just wanted to ask if there is any specific demand for more military or intelligence effort from the Spanish side?

Taylor: From the beginning of this campaign our president indicated that we will not demand anything from coalition partners, that we expect coalition partners to give what they are able to do, but probably more importantly, to build their capacity to attack this international threat from within their own borders, to work collaboratively with their regional partners, to work collaboratively with their international partners. Certainly, Spain has not stepped away from any of that. In fact, it has been a model of cooperation with the coalition. So, there’s no need to demand where there has been such a great bit of cooperation not only with the United States but with the entire coalition. You know, Spain, is one of many nations who for years has suffered from terrorism. I think the Spanish understand probably better than others the anxiety, the concerns, that terrorists create within the body politic and I don’t think we had to demand one thing for them to understand how we felt about 9-11, how the world felt, and to say we’re with you in pursuing the international efforts to end terrorism as we know it as a political tool.

Reporter: According to the campaign in Afghanistan the last phase of the big operation in the east but according to some news it is not going very well for the troops of the United States. Even this morning I heard that the operation was going to finish, but not because the United States and some more troops are going to win against the several hundred or thousand Talibans and Al-Qaeda, but because there is a defeat. What can you tell us about that operation?

Taylor: Well I don’t generally discuss military operations but I must respond to any sort of indication that United States will back away from our commitment to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The report that I saw this morning indicated that military operation is going as planned. We’d anticipated a stiff resistance. We recognize that the terrain and the weather conditions would make for a very difficult military operation. I don’t think we should read into the fact that it’s taking more than a day or two to execute as anything other than how we had planned to execute our military forces, and those other nations that have joined us in this operation and we will pursue this until it is properly concluded.

Reporter: A couple of questions: one, why are you visiting other countries, and second one, do you know about where Mr. Bin Laden is?

Taylor: If I knew that I could win $25 million. No. Bin Laden continues to be on the loose. We are continuing to pursue him. We do have a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture, but we can’t tell you specifically where he is,. I think President Bush said from the beginning what our objective is. We will find him and we will bring him to justice, or we will bring justice to him. So the fact that we have not been able to locate him to date is not an indicator of what we plan to do in the future.

With regard to my travels, I don’t -- this trip was a part of a long planned trip for me to Spain. I have traveled to many countries around the world, working as I do for our Secretary to help sustain and build a coalition against terrorism. I have traveled to Spain, to Russia…throughout Spain, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Paraguay, Rome, Warsaw. Those are the ones that I can remember, and I hope that my colleagues in the other countries won’t take offense that I can’t remember all the places. Indeed, it has been a very, very active period since September 11. My travels are focused on improving communication with our coalition partners with regard to their challenges and our challenges in the Counterterrorism coalition. You will see me continue to travel to represent the United States and the coalition with our partners around the world and there are more than 169 countries that have joined this coalition. One of the challenges I think we face today particularly, is military operation, up until a couple of days ago had died down, is keeping focus. So many people believe that the focus of this anti terrorism campaign is military, is solely military. But the fact is, as I mentioned earlier, our diplomatic, our law enforcement, our economic and our intelligence cooperation is really the cement that will in the long run prove the most beneficial in this campaign against terrorism. And so we work very hard to improve our intelligence relationships, our law enforcement relationships, our financial relationships as we search for terrorist financing nodes around the world. And in the long term, our success will be judged not only by our military success in Afghanistan -- as good as it has been -- but also by the capacity we have built with our partners around the world to recognize and to interdict these groups as they begin to act, not once they’ve acted, and we believe that the things that we’re doing with our coalition will allow us to do that.

Reporter: Is it true that many Al-Qaeda and terrorists went from in Afghanistan and moved to Pakistan, as the--?

Taylor: There were many reports, unconfirmed, of people who were under-that were prisoners in the Conduze area were moved to Pakistan and there is nothing to support that, that fact, nothing at all, so that’s all I can tell you.

Reporter: Iraq has not allowed the UN experts to return to the country. In the last speech made by President Bush, he indicated that there could be a military attack by the United States in the short term and the question is: are you still sticking to that? And the second question is: do you think that throughout all your contact with your European colleagues have you found any kind of misunderstanding misgiving about the interpretation that you have about the threat of Iraq?

Taylor: Well, I think our Secretary of State said it best in his congressional testimony earlier this week. The United States does not seek war with any nation, to include Iraq, but we’re very much concerned about Saddam Hussein’s behavior, his efforts to build weapons of mass destruction, his demonstrated use of those weapons against his own people, as well as others, in the 1980s. Our concern is that he presents a threat to the stability of the region, as well as, depending on his ability to procure delivery systems, a threat more broadly to the world. President Bush in his State of the Union Address told the world that we’re concerned about it, and the President reserves the right to keep open all of his options for responding. But our first hope is that Saddam Hussein will comply with the UN security resolutions, let the inspectors back in, so we can get some sense of what he is actually doing on the ground. We have not had inspectors on the ground in more than three years. But President Bush, as is his right as the President of the United States, reserves the right to determine how the U.S. responds at the appropriate time when that is necessary. And he has made that very clear, as our Secretary made that clear.

With regard to our comments from our European colleagues, I think that there are people who don’t see the world the same way we see the world. We don’t necessarily believe that’s all, we don’t believe that that’s all bad, as long as we can talk about it. We don’t expect people to see everything the way we do, but we do want to have a dialogue on these issues, we cant turn a blind eye to what we perceive to be a very serious threat to the security of the world and not want to talk about it so we expect to continue our dialogue with our partners around the world on this issue, about North Korea, about Iraq, about Iran. So that we can all better understand how we see the threat, we’ll understand how others see the threat, but try to move towards a solution that will not allow the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the delivery systems that could threaten regions of the world and indeed the United States.

Yes Ma’am?

Reporter: Georgia, this country, in the south of Russia, yesterday the Minister of Information there said that they are going to fight in Aphasia because the Al-Qaeda members, they think are in Aphasia it is a part of this territory as you know from Georgia and they are not going to fight in Panquisi, it is in the south of Chechnya where are Russia, the intelligence services said, that already there are Al-Qaeda members and other Islamic members. Is your department aware that some countries could change the policy of counter-terrorism maybe to solve another problem which origin is different?

Taylor: I am not familiar with the comments of the Minister of Interior so it would be inappropriate for me to comment. I am familiar, however, with our policy with regard to the fact that Counterterrorism is not an excuse for trampling on the human rights of individuals, or not addressing the legitimate political issues that are presented by people in whatever part of the world. Its not a be-all and end-all that countries can use to not discuss the issues that people legitimately raise from a political point of view that need to be addressed politically. We’ve made that point very clear to the Russians about issues in Chechnya. We’ve made that point also clear to the Chinese about issues in Northwest China. So certainly people will try to do that, but I think in this counter-terrorism campaign, we have to be true to our values, our democratic values, and our commitment to the human rights of all human beings and not, when we see situations where people are attempting to use counter-terrorism as a means to not address legitimate political issues, we need to address that, which is what we’ve done.

Reporter: Do you share the opinion that the lack of a plan for peace in the Middle East-for making peace between Israel and Palestine -- is undermining your efforts to build up the coalition to fight terrorism?

Taylor: I don’t accept the fact that there is a lack of a plan. We have the Mitchell Plan, which we believe is the right plan for that region, and our Secretary and our President have worked very hard, since the beginning of the Intifada to try to create a circumstance that would allow the two sides to discuss a way ahead in implementing the Mitchell Plan. More recently, the President has decided to send General Zinni back to the region in hopes of again getting both sides to end the violence that has precluded the kind of dialogue that we believe is so essential to the solution to the problem in the Middle East. We especially want Chairman Arafat to take on more responsibility in terms of controlling those parts of the Palestinian people that are actively involved in the current Intifada that we believe that he has the ability to exert some control over so I wouldn’t except the fact that there isn’t a plan, there has been a plan, the difficulty has been getting both sides to come to the table so that we can discuss the Plan and a way ahead.

Reporter: According to his question, you said that Mr. Arafat should do something more, or as much as possible, against the Palestinians of that terror involved in the Intifada and what do you say about the reaction action or operation of the Israeli military troops and Mr. Sharon’s policy?

Taylor: I think our Secretary made it very clear that we believe that perhaps the Israeli response has not been as effective as perhaps Mr. Sharon had expected it to be and those policies need to be reexamined. Our focus in both cases, both on the Palestinian side and on the Israeli side is an end to violence. We don’t believe that there can be any meaningful dialogue between either side in the violent “one incident leads to another incident leads to another incident” environment that we find ourselves and we want that brought under control so that we can have a dialogue between both sides.

Reporter: After September 11 has Saudi Arabia taken specific steps to contain the radical Islam in its on territory, I’m not talking about terrorist groups, but Islamic organizations?

Taylor: We have worked very closely with the Saudi government to, not only as a result of the investigation. You know that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, but also to look at those fundraising activities and other activities that we believe maybe occurring in Saudi Arabia that we can work together on, and that relationship has grown. So we’re not unhappy with where we’ve come with the Saudis and we think that we will be able to continue to work together on financing and other things that we believe will help us in our broader campaign against Al-Qaeda.

Introducer: Well if that is all. Gracias.

Taylor: Thank you very much I appreciate it.

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