There's what they call actionable intelligence, to which our military has responded on a quick basis is improving.

As you notice, when there's a hole in the ground and a person is able to crawl into it in a country the size of California, it means we're on a scavenger hunt for terror, and find these terrorists who hide in holes is to get people coming forth to describe the location of the hole, is to give clues and data. And we're on it.

I didn't mean to dis the New York Times editorial page, but I just didn't — I'm not reading it a lot these days.

DUBYA: I don't know what you're talking about, about international law. I've got to consult my lawyer.
REPORTER: Can I clarify one thing?
DUBYA: Yes, you may clarify something.
REPORTER: Thank you very much.
DUBYA: Depends on what it is, though.

And then I obviously made the decision to go into Iraq. And by the way, a free and peaceful Iraq is in our nation's interest. It's in our security interest — that affected the economy. When you turned on your TV, it said, America is marching to war. That's not very conducive for — that's not a very positive statement. It doesn't build a lot of confidence — people, you know, marching to war, why would I want to invest in my home? Or why would I want to come to Home Depot if we're fixing to go to war?

I want to thank you for what you're fixing to do, which is to man the grass roots, and to get on the phones, and get the signs out, and to turn out the vote.

We marched to war. I don't if you remember, on your TV screens, last summer it — a year ago, summer — it said, 'March to War'. You turn on the TV, and there it says: 'March to War'. That's not a very conducive environment in which people are willing to take risk. It's not a positive thought. It's a necessary, in my judgment, obviously, to make America secure.

I'm sure there's a lot of people frightened — biotechnology is a long word and it sounds — they may say, well, I don't know if I'm smart enough to be in biotechnology, or it sounds too sophisticated to be in biotechnology.

The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff — they weren't that ingenious, by the way.

She's doing a fine job of coordinating interagency. She's doing what her — I mean — it shouldn'a — the, the, the role of the National Security Advisor is to not only provide good advice to the President, which she does on a regular basis — I value her judgment and her intelligence — uhh — but, uhh — her job is also to deal interagency, and to help unstick things that may get stuck — is the best way to put it. She's an unsticker. And — is she listening? Okay, well, she's doing a fine job.

DUBYA: That's why we're workin' hard to get more Iraqi policemen. That's why we're workin' hard to build up the Iraqi armed forces. And that's why we're workin' hard with freedom-lovin' Iraqis to — to help ferret these people out before they attack and strike. And, uhh...
DEB (REPORTER): But, sir —
DUBYA: No, that's your question. Randy.
RANDY (REPORTER): Mr. President...

[Australian] Prime Minister [John Howard] was a distinguished visitor of ours in Crawford, Texas, at our ranch. You might remember that I called him a man of steel. That's Texan for "fair dinkum."

Of all the people in the world who understand Texas, it's probably Australians.

As members of the press corps here know, I have, at times, complained about leaks of security information, whether the leaks be in the legislative branch or in the executive branch. And I take those leaks very seriously. ...I'd like to know who leaked, and if anybody has got any information inside our government or outside our government who leaked, you ought to take it to the Justice Department so we can find out the leaker. ... And, you know, there's a lot of leaking in Washington, D.C. It's a town famous for it. And if this helps stop leaks of — this investigation in finding the truth, it will not only hold someone to account who should not have leaked — and this is a serious charge, by the way.

Today when I landed, I met a fellow named Roy Bubeck. You don't know Bubeck at all, and I didn't either — maybe some of you do.

First, I want to welcome Bernie Kerik to the South Lawn, and to the Oval Office. ...He showed up at times of chaos and confusion. Because of his leadership, his knowledge and his experience, he was able to stand up a police force in Baghdad in a very quick period of time. I think he told me opened up 37 different precinct stations — 35 different precinct stations. They activated and trained 35,000 Iraqi police force.

Thank you all very much. Siéntese, Embajador. Thank you for coming. Bienvenidos. Mi casa es su casa.

You know, this nation is blessed by the talents and the hard work of Hispanic Americans, and we're really blessed by the values of familia y fe that strengthen our nation on a daily basis.

I'm proud of the Sergeant. I'm proud to call him, citizen. I'm proud to call him, fellow citizen to America.

One of the things that's interesting about the Stanley Cup is that each player gets to spend time with it. It must be pretty neat. The Cup has traveled throughout North America and Europe. It's been to some famous sites recently. It was at the McDonald's drive-through in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. It must have been a pretty interesting moment for that burger flipper. Fill her up.

It went to Filthy McNasty's Bar and Grill in Toronto. I don't know who took it there, but — I bet you're pretty happy the Cup can't talk — if you know what I mean.

There's a lot of neighborliness taking place in the state of Virginia and North Carolina and Maryland, where if somebody hurts and somebody's lonely, somebody needs help is finding refuge and solace because a fellow citizen has taken it upon him or herself to help somebody in need.

I'm so pleased to be able to say hello to Bill Scranton. He's one of the great Pennsylvania political families.

And finally, Mayor Al is with us, the Mayor of Monroe. Al Cappuccilli is here. Thank you, Mayor, for being with us. You must be filling the potholes. Picking up the garbage. That's the way to go.

I'm going to describe what we discussed a little earlier... We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who's a parent, and a mom or a dad.

Three million people are now off the tax rolls. 3.9 million households received tax relief. No, we're making a difference.

Companies are seeing more orders, especially orders for heavy equipment. No, things are getting better.

The government has got to do more than just spend money. We'll spend it, but we've got to effect wise policy, it seems like to me. I mean, how often — we write checks a lot on fire- fighting, and we'll continue to do that. But it seems like to me we ought to put a strategy in place to reduce the amount of money that we have to spend on emergency basis by managing our forests in a better, more commonsensical way.

Parts of Iraq are still dangerous because freedom has enemies inside of Iraq.

See, when you hear, red tape, that means there's a lot of rules and regulations that generally are in place to prevent something from happening. And our job is to slice through the red tape to get thinning projects moving forward.

One of the people I've tasked with coming up with solutions to the problems we face is Secretary Ann Veneman. She's done a fabulous job on behalf of the people of the United States. She is a common sense purpose — person.

The Vice President and I went fishing. We threw our first lure at about 6:20 a.m., this morning. Looks like — turns out the fish like cooler weather than hot weather, probably the press corps feels the same way. Turns out this is our hundredth day since major military operations have ended, ended in Iraq.

Of course, it's important that the — that Saddam's sons were brought to justice.

I am mindful that we're all sinners, and I caution those who may try to take the speck out of their neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own. I think it's very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country. On the other hand, that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on an issue such as marriage.

I've asked Congress to fund $100 million for the Compassionate Capital Fund. That's a fancy word for providing money for organizations like the Urban League to teach some of these small faith programs how to apply for grants, how to help manage and train their staffs.

He [the Palestinian Finance Minister] told me he would put the budget of the Palestinian Authority on the Web page, and he did, which means he's a man of his word.

And in the new responsibility society, each of us is responsible for loving our neighbor just like we'd like to be loved ourself.

The more people involved in Iraq, the better off we will be. And that's exactly what our intention is, to encourage people to participate in the — making Iraq more secure and more free. A free Iraq is a crucial part of winning the war on terror. And now I'm going to go see to it that the Prime Minister is well fed. We're going to feed him some chicken.

And I'm glad Laura is here tonight. In my book, she's a fabulous First Lady. And I love her a lot and I hope she loves me a lot for dragging her out of Texas.

I'll talk about the values that make our country unique and different. We love freedom here in America.

And we live in an amazing world. And yet, in the midst of our world, there's a lot of folks who are dying and will die.

We've made that commitment. I've said it clearly more than one time. Like yesterday in Senegal, for example. So nothing has changed from about 12 hours ago on that question.

He is a leader, he is one of the leaders of — every time we meet at, like, the G8, President Wad [of Senegal] is one of the representatives of the African nations, because he believes in the principles of NEPAD and he is a good fellow.

We're laying the groundwork for a national campaign — a national campaign that I believe will result in a great victory in November 2002.

It means that doctors are practicing what they call preventative medicine. In other words, if you think somebody's going to sue you, if you're in a litigious society, then you'll take extra care by prescribing more and more either procedures, or whatever it may be.

The true strength of America is the fact that we've got millions of fellow citizens who are willing to love a neighbor just like they would like to be loved themselves. That's the real strength of this country, because we're a deep and compassionate nation.

We've been through a terrorist attack and a national emergency, we've been through a recession, we've been through corporate scandals where CEOs forgot what it means to be a responsible citizen. People didn't tell the truth. They were not responsible to their shareholders and employees. They will be held to account for their irresponsible behavior. And that was a shock to our system. We've been through war.

Since I was [last] here [in Chicago], thanks to the bravery of our military, and to friends and allies, the regime of Saddam Hussein is no more. The world is peaceful and free.

For the sake of health care for all Americans, we must reform the medical liability system. ...I am very grateful for the Illinois State Medical Society for hosting me today. This distinguished organization was founded in 1840 in Springfield, the same time that Abraham Lincoln was practicing law in that city on North 5th Street. Lincoln was a lawyer who believed in discouraging unnecessary litigation.

I talked about the visit to Poland and to Russia, where we've got good friends in both those countries — at least in terms of their leaders.

The first part of your question is that — is whether or not the weapons of mass destruction question.

I invited the President to come to the United States for a visit in September to visit at Camp David.

Listen, we'll answer two questions a side, alternating. Please address — so don't — one of these things where you ask me and ask the Prime Minister, or vice versa. Let's just ask one question to one of us as we rotate back and forth, if you don't mind.

First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill.

I have found the President to be an easy man to talk to. He expresses opinions very clearly and it's easy to understand.

I'm asking the FEMA people and the Governor and the Mayor and everybody said, is the government moving fast enough? That's the question that I need to know. And some of you said yes, and some of you said no.

So one of my visits — one of the reasons I'm visiting here is to ask the question to people. Because if there's — moving too slow, or people are saying one thing and the other thing is not happening, now is the time to find out.

I also want to thank Tony Fauci. He works for the NIH. He is on the leading edge of finding the vaccines that will help those who suffer from AIDS.

Last year, one of the first preparations for possible war — one of the first parts of our planning for war came when General Tommy Franks — from Midland, Texas I want you to know — went to the same high school as First Lady Laura Bush did — who, by the way, sends her love, and her best — Tommy Franks asked one of the first requests in preparation for possible war was that we send 1,200 Abrams tanks to the field.

They're good, strong, men. It's an amazing experience, when you think about it. Here we are, Easter, the great — one of the great religious holidays, and these guys arrived last night — might have actually arrived Easter day. I don't know if it was exactly midnight, or a little after midnight.

Well, you know, they were — first of all, they were the encouraging people. They were the ones who offered encouragement. I was, believe this or not, somewhat taken aback when I was in their presence. And these guys were so uplifting and so positive, and so obviously thrilled to be here. They got in last night at midnight. They can speak for themselves. I think you can speak for yourselves. At least you did in my presence.

DUBYA: You gotta follow-up question?
REPORTER 1: I just want to ask what your message is to the Iraqi people who are wondering about —
DUBYA: You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, uhh, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos, and order, but we — order out of chaos, but we will. Yeah, John.
REPORTER 2: Sir, given the success of American military...

Syria just needs to know we expect full cooperation. And that we strongly urge them not to allow for Baath Party members or Saddam's families or generals on the run to seek safe haven and find safe haven there. We expect them to do everything they can to prevent people who should be held to account from escaping in their country. And if they are in their country, we expect the Syrian authorities to turn them over to the proper folks.

All of us need to step back and try to figure out how to make the U.N. work better as we head into the 21st century. Perhaps one way will be, if we use military force, in the post-Saddam Iraq the U.N. will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can begin to get its legs, legs of responsibility back.

The American people appreciate Ireland's work... to help secure passage of Resolution 1441. ...We appreciate our own support for ensuring that the just demands of the world are enforced.

[Saddam Hussein] has trained and financed Al Qaeda-type organizations before, Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

I want the United Nations to be effective. It's important for it to be a robust, capable body. It's important for it's words to mean what they say, and as we head into the 21st century, Mark, when it comes to our security, we really don't need anybody's permission.

He has no intention of disarming — otherwise, we would have known. There's a lot of talk about inspectors. It really would have taken a handful of inspectors to determine whether he was disarming — they could have showed up at a parking lot and he could have brought his weapons and destroyed them.

The danger with Iraq is that he can strike in the neighborhood. And the danger with Iraq is that he has got the willingness and capacity to train Al Qaeda-type organizations and provide them with equipment to hurt America.

As I said in my State of the Union address, liberty is not America's gift to the world. Liberty is God's gift to human — to the human — mankind.

By blocking a vote on Miguel Estrada, some Democrats in the Senate are flaunting the intention of the United States Constitution and the tradition of the United States Senate, itself. Alexander Hamilton wrote that the purpose of the Senate confirmation was to prevent the appointment of unfit characters. No one can possibly call Miguel Estrada unfit.

This is a — we've got some mighty challenges — to make sure the country is more prosperous and more hopeful, and the world more peaceful. But sin duda, we're gonna achieve what we need to achieve, porque este país es gra — es, es, es, es un gran país, with great values and great hope and great strength.

There you are. You look just like yourself.

And you have an example now, as champs, to help solve America's issues one person at a time.

We owe it to our citizens to protect us within the Constitution that we're all sworn to uphold, and we will do that.

And so those are two aspects of this plan that makes sense. One is how to encourage people to have — how do we encourage Congress to let people have more money in their pocket, for the good of economic growth and jobs. And what do we do about stimulating small business activity and growth. The third aspect of the plan is really to make the tax code more fair.

I'm the person in this country that hugs the mothers and the widows if their son or husband dies.

Well, the role of inspectors is to sit there and verify whether or not he's disarmed, not to play hide-and-seek in a country the size of California.

And as I said in my State of the Union, the idea is to see that a car born today — I mean, a child born today will be driving a car, as his or her first car, which will be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.

I believe we can achieve peace at home and I believe we can achieve peace abroad.

But Cecil decided to become a mentor. He brought his young mentoree with him today. I decided I'd trick the guy and say, you got any goals? He looked me right in the eye and said, "I'm going to be an architect."

We can make a huge difference, a significant difference in the lives of thousands of our fellow human beings. I want people to step back at some point in time and say, thank God for America and our generosity as lives were saved.

No child in America should be left behind in this country.

[Saddam Hussein] is adept at deception and delays and denying. He asked for more time so he can give the so-called inspectors more runaround.

Some mom fixing to have a baby wonders out loud — when she wonders out loud whether or not the doc is going to be there to deliver the baby, it's a — we heard a story, by the way, about that — it's a sad situation.

I think that one of the greatest contributions to Poland to our country is Polish Americans — people who are enterprising, hardworking, God-fearing, family-loving people. One of the great strengths of our country is our diversity, and part of our diversity is the fact that a lot of our citizens were born in Poland and/or their fathers and mothers were born in Poland or their grandparents were born in Poland. Truly, one of the great blessings and gifts from Poland to this country is the Polish heritage.

He really doesn't care about the opinion of mankind.