News Conference with Senator Joseph Biden
September 29, 2004 Wednesday
HEADLINE: NEWS CONFERENCE WITH SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE)
SUBJECT: IRAQ, DIPLOMACY AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM
LOCATION: SENATE RADIO/TV GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
BODY:
SEN. BIDEN: It's hardly a secret that we have more than an image problem overseas. The fact of the matter is, there are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world who seem not to understand our motives and our intentions. We are, as a consequence of our policies as well as a consequence of us being the sole superpower in the world, at this point generating the enmity of large portions of the world's population. And that matters a lot in terms of our security and our capacity to have successful foreign policy.
The Pew Research organization reported in June of 2003, which is over a year old, and I quote: "The bottom has fallen out of support for America in most of the Muslim world." I'm quoting now. "Negative views of the United States among Muslims, which had been largely limited to countries in the Middle East, have spread to Muslim populations in Indonesia and Nigeria, where support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism also has fallen in most"-excuse me-"where support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism also has fallen in most Muslim publics," end of quote.
Now some of this stems, as I said, from anger about America's status as a superpower. We get that same resentment in Europe and in Asia and all over the world, and it's understandable-not warranted but understandable.
But a good deal of it also comes from our policies-the policies we are now pushing in terms of our security, in foreign policy and in the Middle East. But a significant portion, in my view, although it's never-Pew did not dice it out this way-a significant portion comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of our motives, a fundamental misunderstanding of our intentions, and a bastardization of our views by Al-Jazeera and many other Arab networks who appoint and assign motives to us that don't bear any relationship to our intentions and have a significant negative impact on us and on our policies as well as on our security.
And whatever the cause, it's a foreign policy challenge of the first order. Most foreign governments, democratic or not, have to respond in varying degrees to their own public's opinion-their public opinion about who they will side with and who, in fact, their government will be empathetic or sympathetic to or with. u
And American foreign policy is not going to be able to be successful if the people in these countries have a strong bias, a strong unfounded bias, against the United States of America.
We're going to have to deal with this problem, and today I'm proposing an ambitious-and, some will say, overly ambitious-and substantial increase in our international broadcasting to countries with significant Muslim populations.
This is the second report I've issued, referred to as Initiative 9/11. And in this report, I call for, as I said, a very ambitious increase in the resources that we are going to devote to-we should devote to-broadcasting in the Muslim world. As I said, it's called Initiative 9/11.
Since the time I introduced that first initiative in 2001, the Broadcasting Board of Governors-that's the entity that is in charge of and makes policy for and recommends policy for all our international broadcasting-the board-the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency that operates these broadcasts, has reestablished Radio Free Afghanistan, reinvigorated our radio broadcast to the Middle East and initiated a pan-Arab television satellite service to the Middle East. And the administration should be complimented for embracing these recommendations.
Some of these initiatives have seen dramatic results. Radio Sawa-that's the name of the radio station that was put in effect by the Board of International Broadcasters. And that is a leading international broadcasting entity now in the Middle East.
A survey conducted in Morocco earlier this year shows that Casablanca and Rabat, Radio Sawa is the number-one station among all listeners over the age of 15. Some 88 percent of the people in those cities under the age of 30 listen weekly, and 64 percent of those over the age of 30 do so as well-a gigantic success, a gigantic success.
And what that does-it was a brainchild of a fellow who I had gone to a couple of years ago, who had been an incredibly successful entrepreneur here in the United States, a guy named Norm Pattiz, Westwood One, and he has a number of radio stations here in the United States. And I said, "What would you do to get the folks in the Middle East to listen to a radio station, so that you could then provide actual hard news that they would listen to, rather than just come on with some, you know, all-news station on the radio and expect people to turn it on?"
He said, "I'd do the same thing we do here in the United States." So he put together a radio station with good music, music that they want to hear in those areas, in those countries, and guess what?
You're up to 88 percent listenership in certain parts of the Muslim world now, and they get 10 to 15 minutes of hard news-hard, honest news. Not USIA, not any propaganda; hard news. That's exactly what's happening. They report our situation, warts and all. They report the mistakes the United States makes. They report them, but they also report the truth about what's happening on the ground as they see it.
The audience numbers are not as high in other countries. They range from 2 percent in Lebanon to 7 percent in Egypt, 45 percent in Kuwait. But these data are incredible in a field where you are doing pretty well if you attract 5 percent of a weekly audience.
In February of this year, the Broadcasting Board of Governors initiated a 24-hour television station, broadcast by satellite in Arabic to the Middle East. Al Hurra is the name of the station. It's only been on the air for seven months, and already the survey data are encouraging. Recent data indicate that some 33 percent watch it weekly in Kuwait, 20 percent watch it in Saudi Arabia, 19 percent in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. And that's not nearly as high as Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya, which are more dominant, been around longer. But after seven months, the United States and honesty-honesty is back in the game. You actually have people listening to this 24-hour all-news format. Equally important, a significant number of people surveyed in the region regard the broadcast as, quote, "very reliable" or "somewhat reliable."
The plan that I put forward seeks to build on that success. It calls for a significant expansion of radio and television broadcasts to the Muslim world outside the Middle East: in Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and East and West Africa. It would also extend Al Hurra satellite broadcasts to Europe, where there are significant minority populations from Islamic nations.
The costs of implementing this proposal are $222 million one-time cost and an additional $345 million annual cost. This represents a 60 percent increase over current budgets for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is now $570 million.
This will implement one recommendation of the 9/11 commission, which stated, and I quote-this is the 9/11 commission-"Recognizing the Arab and Muslim audiences rely on satellite television and radio, the government has begun some promising initiatives in television and radio broadcasting to the Arab world, Iran and Afghanistan.
These efforts are beginning to reach large audiences. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has asked for much larger resources. It should get them." End of quote. That's from the 9/11 commission report.
The 9/11 commission didn't recommend a specific budget number or provide a detailed plan. I'm doing that today. Broadcasting is only one part of our public diplomacy program. We have other proven programs, especially international exchanges, that are also underfunded and understaffed, and we should do more in this area as well.
I want to be clear. This won't have any immediate impact. It will be a significant challenge to set it up and will require additional resources and personnel, and it will require diplomatic efforts to be able to make sure we can broadcast in all these areas. But we cannot afford to fail to try. We cannot afford to let other people around the world whose interests aren't the same as ours characterize our motives, characterize our actions and totally misrepresent what we're doing on the ground and in terms of policy.
We have a big problem. Unless we're able to-not win the minds and hearts of all the Muslim world, I just want the Muslim world and the rest of the world to understand, as honestly as it can be portrayed, who we are, what we stand for and what our motives are. I want them to see us warts and all. This is not about propaganda. This is about essentially taking American broadcasting like it occurs here in the United States, critical of an administration, critical of a Congress, but honestly reporting to the best of their knowledge what's happening and send it overseas. This is not about shaping the news, this is about saying this is who we are, these are our motives, judge us on the facts. Judge us on the facts.
And if we do not make that effort, we will have ceded the field to those who do not have our interests at heart, who misrepresent our motives, misrepresent the facts and misrepresent our intentions. And that is a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous circumstance for this generation of young people in front of us to find themselves in. Really. And I can't think of anything more important. I really can't.
So with a lot of tools in your foreign policy tool kit, the strongest tool the United States has is truth. And self-examination. That's what separates us from so many other countries; not our culture, not we're better, smarter or stronger. The truth, and the willingness to be introspective and say, yep, we screwed up, yep, this is a good thing. That's all I want.
And let me tell you, if we do not do this, I suggest to anyone, tell me, tell me, tell me how-in the first half of the 21st century, without a better understanding of who we are-how things will not get worse, with 1.2 billion people in the world who share our basic values but don't know it, who in fact have a distorted picture of who we are.
I'll conclude by saying this is not going to solve the policy differences we have. It's not intended to because we'll have honest disagreement about policy. I respect any other nation that fundamentally disagrees with a policy initiative we have, as long as they understand it. My dad used to say never mind a man being angry with me as long as he knows why-as long as he knows why.
And so this is a major initiative. It's an add-on to what I suggested over two years ago. The president at that time was very-President Bush was very receptive initially. He's taken some of the initial report and supported it, but it needs a much bolder, a much more thorough, and a much more urgent attention, and this is all doable in my view.
I'd be happy to take questions.
Q Senator, who actually would be doing these broadcasts?
SEN. BIDEN: Well, let me give you the-that's a really good question. Let me tell you how it works now.
And I strongly recommend-I would like to-what I was going to do, although I didn't know-I probably would-I don't know whether it would hurt their credibility or not, but I'm being serious when I say this. Al Hurra, their broadcasting stations and television stations are just across the river in Virginia, and I think every news agency should go take a look at them. What they do-and some have already. There's already been some stories written.
This is an extremely modern operation. Absolutely there's not a major network who wouldn't want these studios, they're so up to date. All of it's in Arabic. They've gone out and they've hired former anchors from Al-Jazeera and Al Hurra and-I mean, excuse me, and Al- Arabiya. And what they do, it's all in Arabic. It is total journalistic independence in what they support, like Radio Free Europe was all through the Cold War. And it is funded by, obviously, the federal government.
And so just like Radio Free Europe, its credibility rests upon its journalistic independence because you have to fight uphill the fact that, just like Radio Free Europe, it was funded by the federal taxpayers. There is no censorship. There is no-no-this is not Voice of America-and even though that is pretty independent as well-and it is run totally independently under the direction of the board. But you can't escape the fact it is funded by U.S. tax dollars.
That's why they put such an incredible emphasis on being able to broadcast even those warts, even those mistakes.
For example, when we make a raid on a terrorist operation in, say, Fallujah-I'm making this up; I can't think of a specific example, but this is what happens. And let's say, God forbid, the weapon has an errant path and it kills civilians. They report it. They report it on that channel that civilians were killed. So it's not like you only show the successes. It's just like Radio Free Europe was. And the reason why it works, it's indigenous; they have in country-and there's someone from the board here today-they have in country all indigenous people who are the reporters on the ground, and it's a large network of reporters and personnel that is, as I said, independent, as the board-as the rules of the Board of International Broadcasters provide it; we set it up.
Yes?
Q Yeah. I'm Egyptian and Muslim, as you say --
SEN. BIDEN: Yes.
Q Okay. And I've really been impressed by your speech. However, you've stated that how could we change the stereotypes in the Arab world about the United States? Actually -- (inaudible) -- I never heard Sawa Radio -- (inaudible) -- that (magazine ?) you have. The (whole ?) main problem is using the word "victim." You know, you are -- (word inaudible) -- Muslims by this word because --
SEN. BIDEN: Islam's --
Q-terrorists isn't Islam. I'm Muslim. I'm not terrorist, you know.
SEN. BIDEN: Yes.
Q It's about (interest ?). People (with terror of life ?), they want to justify their acts, building on their religion. (Other ?) people do that. Christians sometimes did that, and history proved that the Jews do that and -- (inaudible) --
SEN. BIDEN: Got it. Every religion has done that.
Q Okay. My question is, you are planning to make us understand you. How do you-what are your plans to understand us?
SEN. BIDEN: That's a very good-that is a very different question, and that relates to our foreign policy and that relates to our focus on-let me be very specific. Let me tell you what I did just in this-and many people in the government and the administration are doing what I did.
Five years ago I realized I didn't understand Islam very well. So I went up to Harvard University and hired a professor who is a Ph.D. in Islamic studies. His background is cultural anthropology focusing on Islam. And I hired him, and I brought him down. And for three years before-two years before 9/11, even-anybody thought about it, he would give me a tutorial, regularly, on Islam, so that I learned all about Islam. I tried to become a student of it.
Everyone in this country who is in a position of authority is attempting to educate ourselves more about Islam. But understand that the vast majority of the members of the ruling-ruling-of the political parties in this country who have any authority fully understand the statement you just made; that this is not a-if you notice, we're not talking about a cultural war; we're talking about war within a culture.
We're not talking about East versus West. We're not making the case that all Islam is bad or even 5 percent of it is bad. As a matter of fact, it's the opposite.
And part of the-I'll give you one little example. In Radio Sawa, one little vignette: There were two-as you know better than most, the most popular people in Egypt are young rock stars, just like there are in the United States of America. And so two of these young rock stars, one from Jordan and one from Egypt, were touring the United States. Radio Sawa went and interviewed them out in Los Angeles, and afterwards, after their concert, interviewed them and asked them what they thought of America. And the young rock star from Egypt said, "I didn't realize there's a mosque here in Los Angeles bigger than any mosque that exists except in-I didn't know. You know, Muslims can actually practice their religion here."
That's all we want the Muslim world to know. We want them to understand that this picture of us as being anti-Muslim, as persecuting Muslims, as hating Muslims, is not true. And the only way you can do that, as you know-the vast majority of the people in your country are like you: young and bright. They're not old. The majority, over 50 percent of the population-I think it's close to 60 percent of the population-in the entire Arab world is under the age of 30. And they have a completely different view. I just want them to see us.
We have to do a better job of understanding the Muslim world as well, and that's what we're about. That's part of the process. That's why we've hired-that has been hired-almost all the people who work at these stations are indigenous Muslims from the countries in which they broadcast. That's what we're trying to do.
And I'm sure we're going to make mistakes. I am sure we're going to make mistakes. But it won't be for lack of trying to do better.
Yes?
Q Senator, you said this is not expected to have immediate impact. Let me ask you to shift over to a subject that presumably is expected to have an immediate impact, which is the elections in Iraq in January. Considering the violence we're seeing in Iraq on a daily basis-and it seems to be intensifying-what do you sense are the prospects for a comprehensive, organized election, an election that will have some legitimacy for the outcome, if you have these attacks on polling places and police stations and other conditions? What-how do you see those prospects?
SEN. BIDEN: Prospects are still real that it can be done. The president cannot, quote, "stay the course." He has to change the course. The president has to change what he has been doing in terms of policy on the ground for there to be the likelihood that we'll be able to have legitimate-let me define by legitimate-what I mean by legitimate.
You heard-and he's a friend of mine, and I've known him before he became the prime minister-you heard the prime minister of Iraq visiting the United States saying in 15 of the 18 provinces, they are ready for elections, and the implication, and then Secretary Rumsfeld saying, you know, we could basically hold those elections only where they, in fact, are able to be held, and that would be fine.
That's a little bit like us saying that we're going to hold a general election this year in the United States of America, but no one in New Jersey, Florida, Illinois or California can vote. Now, would anybody think that election was legitimate if no one in Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and California voted?
This election is about legitimacy. This is an election that is going to set out the first stage of a democratically elected Iraqi government. The final election comes in December of 2005. And so it's very important that this election be one that when it's over, the Iraqi people and the region says this was a legitimate election.
But the policies that the president has pursued in failing to get the reconstruction money out for projects that can have immediate impacts on people's attitudes, on failing to have a serious training program until recently for the Iraqi police and Iraqi military so they can guard their own polling places, failing to acknowledge the degree of difficulty by bringing in other people from around the world to train these folks-speaking of Egypt, I spoke to the leader of Egypt, who said no one has asked them to do anything at all. Now the Iraqi government has recently done that, but we had not.
And so there is still time, but time is running out. Time is running out to put Iraq in the position that in the month of January it will be able to have nationwide elections that allow everyone, even in the triangle, to have a reasonable chance of voting.
There will be, no doubt-it's a testament to the courage of the Iraqi people-there will be people who will be intimidated, there will be people who will be shot, there will be people lining up in polling places who will be blown up, God forbid, but this is the modus operandi of the insurgency now. That's why, if you notice, they're targeting police stations, they're targeting recruiting stations, they're targeting the infrastructure that allows Iraq to be able to gain not only sovereignty but gain legitimacy in terms of control, being actually able to control their own government.
And so it's a race. It's going to be very difficult. Unfortunately, and I've said this straightforwardly for as long as this has been going on, the president continues to squander opportunities to get it right. And one of the things that bothers me is listening to he and Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld. It reminds me of that song that was popular 10 years-a calypso song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," like everything's fine when the military knows it's not fine, the State Department knows it's not fine, the Iraqi people know it's not fine, and the CIA knows it's not fine.
But the fact that it is in tough shape now-tough shape now-doesn't mean it is not redeemable. The task is harder, the cost is going to be more-it's going to be more costly, and the risk is higher. But we must-we must, we must-change the policy-change the policy. And I am-I'm fearful that the leadership of this administration, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush, feel that if they change anything, they acknowledge that they made a mistake. And rather than take advantage of the next 30 days before the election to begin to implement changes, I predict to you, whether they win or lose, they will make on November the 5th, November the 6th, they're squandering time for political purposes.
It seems to me they don't want to acknowledge how difficult this is. And when you continue not to acknowledge how difficult it is you don't meet the requests of the commanders on the ground. You don't meet the request and the needs of the Iraqi government. You don't do the things that are self-evidently a failure so far and change them. And that's the frustrating part for me.
And I know some of you are seasoned men and women who have been covering me on this for a long time. I'm not singing any different tune. I've been saying this for two years, and I've tried to cooperate with this administration, I've tried really hard, because I believe three-quarters of it believe-agrees with me. Three- quarters of this administration I think agrees with me.
I believe the State Department agrees with what I'm saying, I believe the CIA agrees with what I'm saying, and I believe the bulk of the people wearing the uniform agree with what I'm saying, just as I agree with what Dick Lugar is saying, and I agree with what my friend, John McCain, is saying, and Chuck Hagel is saying.
And I am-I am just very concerned that the longer the president waits to do the things being recommended to him by all of those entities I just named, the harder it will be to succeed in the end; the harder it will be to succeed in the end. He just keeps raising the bar higher and higher for success. And it's a shame.
But, if the philosopher king had been president when this-when the statue of Saddam fell, he or she would have had great difficulty succeeding. This is something that's never been done in history; it's never been done, what we're attempting to do. So it's difficult by any standard. I don't mean to stand here and say, you know, this is so self-evidently clear exactly how to proceed that anyone could have done this. It's very difficult. But the president and Cheney have repeatedly, repeatedly, and continue to, squandered the opportunities available to us to get this right. And what's getting it right? Having a secure Iraq within its borders, not a threat to its neighbors, not a haven for terror, and generally, basically a representative government that all the major factions can sign-on to-not an Athenian democracy, just that; just that. That's our goal. And why is that our goal? Because we don't want to be there. We don't want to tell anybody how to live their life. We don't want any-we have no designs on any territory. We want to come home, and this administration's policy is making it a lot harder.
Last question. I got to head out to a hearing. Thank you all very, very much. Appreciate it.