Condoleezza Rice Talks To CBS News

Part I: Wide-Ranging Discussion Covers Iran, Iraq, Gaza And The Meaning Of A "Shrink Hour"

(CBS) 

QUESTION: Is force a realistic option? Could force resolve the issue if the President's days become numbered?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't want to speculate on a hypothetical here. Let me just say that the President is not going to take his options off the table, and I don't think people want the American President to take his options off the table.

QUESTION: Were very early diplomatic efforts being very, you know, sort of preliminary kind of diplomatic efforts being made in Baghdad earlier this year, did they -- was that just -- did it run into a brick wall? Was there no way to actually establish a kind of dialogue or --

SECRETARY RICE: It's a channel that's still there if it makes sense to use it. But I think Ryan Crocker, who carried out those discussions, would tell you, as he's told me, that it has been a frank exchange of views without a meeting of the minds thus far, that Ryan delivered a very strong message -- I think he told the Congress this -- that their operatives are not safe any place in Iraq if they are doing things that are harmful to our forces. And these -- and to innocent Iraqis. But these discussions were really limited to Iraq, as are discussions within the neighbors framework.

Ironically, the nuclear file is the way for the Iranians to access us for broader discussions because we've made clear that if they suspend then we will reverse the 28 years of American policy. I said that I would meet my counterpart. I also said that we could talk about anything. We didn't -- ironically, it's not within the Iraq context that we will talk about anything because that's really about Iraq. But within the nuclear framework, if they will suspend, we can talk about whatever they'd like to talk about. So I've been pretty clear that I -- I don't think the question is why won't we talk to them. I think the question is why won't they talk to us.

QUESTION: If Mohamed ElBaradei comes back next month and says they look like they're in compliance --

SECRETARY RICE: ElBaradei is trying to resolve outstanding issues of the past, issues like what technologies did they buy for P1, P2, why was there -- is there a military component to that. These are issues of the past.

The problem is the current technologies progress, progress on technologies, and the potential future. And that's what the Security Council -- the Security Council track covers both. It covers the past behavior and says that they need to answer these outstanding issues, but it also says they need to suspend and so that they can't keep improving their technology.

And that was one of the valuable outcomes of today with the P-5+1 because there had been some noise in the system that this was really only about the ElBaradei activity, and if they complied with the ElBaradei activity then that would somehow satisfy the requirements of the Security Council resolution. And we have a very clear statement today; I think you see that it's not just ElBaradei, it's also the Solana track. And the Solana track is suspension.

Enough Iran? Charlie?

QUESTION: One more on Iran. There's been mention made of squeezing them, what you're doing in various ways of which you talked about, to getting more reasonable leadership there. What do we know about their leadership and (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RICE: Right. I really don't -- I'm not focused on who the leadership is, but on what they do. And what you'd hope is that you would stimulate more reasonable people even within the leadership to decide that they need to take another course.

Obviously, there was some difference that was emerging, and emerging publicly, a few months ago as you had Ahmadi-Nejad saying, well, the Security Council resolution is just a scrap of paper and any number of people coming out and saying, no, actually, it's not a scrap of paper, that is a joint decision of the international community, that's not just U.S. -- the United States, it's the whole international community. Some -- there is some observable divergence there. Whether or not it is strong enough to have them take a different course, I think is what we're still probing with the continued ratcheting up of the pressure.

QUESTION: President Bush has addressed the Iranian people from time to time. Does that get you anywhere or does that automatically lead to a backlash and become counterproductive to efforts to try to get a government that you would be able to deal with better?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, again, we're not trying to -- this is not a matter of changing their government, it's changing their government's behavior. And so in that sense it's a kind of classical diplomatic effort.

From all that I hear -- and to be very frank, we haven't been in Iran for 28 years and so our depth of understanding and knowledge about the country, our ability to really read it is frankly a bit weaker than I would like it to be. We have good friends who are in the country who can talk to us about what's going on there. But it is a problem and -- but from those who are there, you hear very often that the United States is very popular, Americans are very popular. It is one of the most pro-American populations in the whole region.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RICE: Some say that, in fact, if we can get through to the Iranian people that the United States is not trying to deny Iran civil nuclear technology, but rather trying to deal with the proliferation risk of a nuclear weapons technology, that that is a message that Iranians would be receptive to. Because what does their regime tell them? They tell them they're trying to deny you technology, they're trying to keep Iran backwards, they don't want Iran to be a part of the technological revolution.

Well, we have to counter that message because we would be very pleased to be in a circumstance where we could be working with the Iranians on civil nuclear technology. We've actually said that we would consider that -- on medical research using nuclear technologies. This is about the fuel cycle and the capacity to turn the fuel cycle into nuclear weapons grade material. That's what this is about. And it's not an easy message to get through, to have penetrate, but that's just an example. That and the fact that we'd like the Iranian people to know that their aspirations for a freer, more democratic way of life are shared by the United States.

So those are the kinds of messages that we try to get through, and there are a lot of Iranians who listen to the radio of the diaspora and the television stations of the diaspora. It's a society that's fairly well connected on the internet and the like. So I actually think the regime has a harder job than, say, the North Korean regime in keeping its people in the dark about what is going on.

QUESTION: What is your sense about how powerful Ahmadi-Nejad actually is? And are you concerned that there's been a fair amount written that all this attention is actually enhancing his reputation?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I have no idea of what the power politics looks like inside of Iran.

QUESTION: The spin, the Iran spin?

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, look --

QUESTION: You don't? I mean --

SECRETARY RICE: No, no, I mean whether -- what he controls and what he doesn't. And you know, it's a very opaque decision-making process, and so I don't know.

As to whether or not the attention to him -- well, I could see an argument by which the fact that he comes and he gives speeches and he's received and so forth --

QUESTION: Interviewed by every network, you know --

SECRETARY RICE: (Inaudible) every network. But frankly, the things that he says are so outrageous and receive such a skeptical -- to be nice about it -- skeptical response, it's again a question of what's getting through to the Iranian people. And if that skeptical response is getting through to the Iranian people, I don't know that it does him any good. I do know that when he took on, if you will, the United Nations Security Council, took on the world, that it didn't play particularly well in Iran.

[getloud1]

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[coffee_guy1]

She''s a auntie jeejee, iceman.

[taotxzen]

Condoleezza who? Wasn''t she once Secretary of State?

Too bad the Bush Gang puts zero stock in diplomacy.

%u2018Brang %u2018em Own!%u2019

[gkc99]

It''s sad to see a lady of such obvious talent--she was a child prodigy on the piano, it is reported--fall prey and buy in to such an evil group of co-conspirators. But you''re known by the company you keep, and Condie is the enabler of the Bushit regime that provided cover when Colin Powell quit the state department in disgust over the lies and incompetence of Decider-in-Chimp Bushit. She''s easier on the eyes than Rummy was, but that doesn''t excuse her role in the Evil Empire of Darth and his lackey Curious George. Well not to worry, when the Repugs get booted next year, I''m sure Rupert Mordork will find a nice safe warm place with a million dollar salary in some Rightie thinktank.

[brianbwb-2009]

Why do people assume that because Condi Rice is BLACK, she must have grown up in an inner city tenement, without a father, and with a mother who scrubbed floors ? Posted by Iceman_1960

Maybe it is because of her thuggish, don''t snitch on the boss, kill ''em if they don''t toe our line attitude. I ain''t see no body kill no body''. It is straight out of Compton. Wes'' siiide! She would have been a great Crip member, except she works for a "White" sociopath.

Or maybe it is her slavish devotion to her "massa", and her willing blindness to Bush''s crimes against humanity, and the continued support thereof that invokes an image of someone who is still a "house slave", albeit one who has had a rudimentary education.

Just so no one is confused, I am a "Black" man.

[ramos937]

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[ramos937]

Trump was right. SecState Rice has one big advantage - she looks good. But, nothing else. It is difficult to discuss the message and not the messenger but here goes. Global warning probably outranks Iraq as an immediate issue but we simply lack the credibility to be of much use. The UN meeting was the place for all to meet and try to arrive at an international understanding and not the ad hoc Bush meeting which was a distraction/impediment. At the end all Bush/Rice could do was to encourge the setting of goals. Goals without consequences are of no use whatsover. We still must join other nations in setting goals with teeth in them. To do this, we will have to wait for the next President.

[iceman_1960]

"Actually to have risen to her current job from the most humble of origins is quite a career accomplishment in itself."
- Posted by donbl1 at 09:24 PM : Sep 29, 2007

Why do people assume that because Condi Rice is BLACK, she must have grown up in an inner city tenement, without a father, and with a mother who scrubbed floors ?

"Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in the neighborhood of Titusville. She is the only child of Presbyterian minister Reverend John Wesley Rice, Jr., and his wife, Angelena Ray. Reverend Rice was a guidance counselor at Ullman High School and minister of Westminster Presbyterian Church, which had been founded by his father. Angelena was a science, music and oratory teacher at Ullman."

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice#Early_life_and_education

[whispyseas]

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[socrates392]

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