Editor’s note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. If you’d like to suggest a question for the White House, submit it to WorldNetDaily’s exclusive interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT!
At today’s White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Scott McClellan about comments Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean made in response to the killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein in Iraq.
WND: Scott, al-Jazeera reported that Saddam’s two sons were “killed in cold blood, in what was a crime.” AP reported from Manchester, N.H., that Howard Dean, when asked about whether these deaths were a victory for the Bush administration, replied, “It’s a victory for the Iraqi people, but it doesn’t have any effect on whether we should or shouldn’t have had a war.” And my question, does the president believe we should have any more respect for Dean’s statement than for al-Jazeera’s?
McCLELLAN: We recognize there are a lot of people running on the Democratic primary. We’ll let them work out their own differences first. But the two individuals you mentioned were leaders of a very brutal regime. Those two individuals carried out horrific attacks on the Iraqi people. And I think you have seen how the Iraqi people welcomed the news that they will no longer be able to carry out their acts of torture against them. They have been removed and they will not be coming back.
Later in the briefing, Jeff Gannon of Talon News revisited the issue of the Husseins’ demise.
GANNON: Last night on “Hannity & Colmes,” Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel said that the United States acted illegally in killing Uday and Qusay. By extension, he’s saying that our troops are criminals and not heroes. Would you comment on that, please?
McCLELLAN: I don’t know what exactly he’s referring to. I mean, this is a military operation, and command and control targets are things that we will – are what we will pursue.
GANNON: Were our actions illegal?
McCLELLAN: No, absolutely not. I don’t know what – in what sense. This is a military armed conflict, and they are part of the leaders, and part of the command and control of the former regime, and people who carried out horrific acts on the Iraqi people, people that were leaders of a brutal, oppressive regime. And the military completed a successful operation, and the president congratulates our military and intelligence community for the job that they did.
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