NY B9 Farmer Misc- WH 1 of 3 Fdr- 1-27-02 Tony Snow-Fox News Sunday Interview of Cheney 459

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Fox News Sunday

January

27,

2002SNOW: Enron,whoknew?Bin Laden,deadoralive? Yasser Arafat,friend

or

foe?

Tax

cuts,

yes or no? And

what does

the

president

do

with80percent approval ratings?We'lltoss those questions

to

our

special guest, Vice President Dick CHENEY.Plus,

Brit

HUME, Mara Liasson,

Bill

Kristol and Juan Williams

offer

their

wit and

wisdom. This

is the

January

27

edition

of

Fox

News

Sunday.

Good morning, and welcome to Fox News Sunday. Our special guesttoday,

the

vice president

of the

United States,

Dick

CHENEY..

Mr.Vice President, good morning.

CHENEY:

Good morning,

Tony.

SNOW:

There's been a bombing this morning in Jerusalem. Just theother

day

President Bush said

of

Yasser Arafat,

NV

I

am

disappointed

inYasser Arafat.Hemust makeafull efforttorout

out

terror

in the

Middle

East.''How did today's

events

affect

that?

CHENEY:

It's just

one

more example

of the

extraordinarily

difficult

circumstances that exist there.Clearly,

when

Yasser Arafat

returned

to

Palestine,

as the

peace

process-began

several years ago, he renounced violence,terrorism,

and

promised

to

enter into

a

peace process

to try totrade

land for peace and resolve the outstanding conflict.

In

recent months, obviously,

the

level

of

violence

has

increased, and a lot of that due to suicide bombers that launchfromPalestine against Israeli civilians.This attack this morning is just one more instance that proves

that

there

is no

effective control

of the

terrorist attacks that

are

being launched against Israel.

SNOW:

When

you say

there's

no

effective control,

do you

believe

Arafat

is

trying

to

control

it?

000342

One of themost disturbing events recentlyhasbeenthediscovery

of

this Karine

A

ship,

a

ship trying

to

move

50

tons

of

military equipment--weapons,

C-4

explosives,newextended-range rockets--to Palestine.

SNOW:

From Iran

to

Palestine.

CHENEY:

ProvidedbyIranandapparently through Hezbollahto

Palestine.

And the thing

that's

especially disturbing about this, not onlywoulditescalate violence obviously--the onlyuse for the C-4

is

to make the suicide bombers more effective or kill morepeople when they detonate--but

it

also,

in

effect,

has the

Palestinian

Authority

andYasser

Arafat,

the keypeople around

him,working now with Iran, which is absolutely dedicated, hasstated repeatedly that

a

major

objective

of

their foreign policy

is

to destroy the peace

process—and

with Hezbollah, which isalso clearly

one of the

world's

foremost terrorist

organizations

devotedtoendingthepeace process.

Soit

raises serious questions whether

Mr.

Arafat

is in

fact

really

interested

in

moving

forward with

the

peace process.

^

SNOW:

Raises serious questions.

Do you

think

there's

any

question that he was not involved

in...

CHENEY:

In my mind, and based on the intelligence we've seen,the people that were involved were so close to him it's hard tobelieve that

he

wasn't.

_

SNOW:

He wrote a letter to the president saying he

knew

nothingabout it. How would you characterize that statement?

CHENEY:

Well, it doesn't help.

It's

not credible for him tosuggest that.Thepresidenthasdone everythinghecan, spenta lot oftime

and

effort

to try to

promote

the

cause

of

peace.

He's

called

for

a Palestinian homeland, first president to ever do that. Colin

Powell

made

a

very important speech

in

Louisville

a few

weeks

ago

on the whole Middle East situation. We sent General

Zinni

to

the

area

to try to get

negotiations re-started again.

Butas

long

as we see

this inability,

if you

will, whether

it's

deliberate

or

whether

it's

through lack

of

authority,

to

control

.

000343

the suicide bombers and to end terrorism attacks,

it's

very hard

to

see how we

move

forward on the

peace

process.

SNOW:

Who

must take

the

first step?

CHENEY:

Well, I think Arafat has to demonstrate that he really

is

serious about

it.

It's

up to

him.

SNOW:

And how

would

he

demonstrate that?

CHENEY:

Well,

he

would move aggressively

to

rout

out the

infrastructure

of the

terrorist organizations

in

Palestine.

He

would arrest those

who are

known

to be

perpetrating those acts

and

planning

them

and

providing

and

supporting

them.

He

would

do

everything he could, make a 100 percent good-faith effort to put

an end to

terrorism.

So far he

hasn'tdone that.

SNOW:

You mentioned the Karine A. This is a freighter headed

from

Iran

to

help

out

Palestinians.

How

would

you

characterizethat mission? Was that a terrorist mission?

CHENEY:

Oh, I think so, given the people that were involved.

SNOW:

So

Yasser

Arafat

was involved, in

your

opinion,

in a

terrorist mission?

CHENEY

:

That's

correct.

SNOW:

What would that make him?

CHENEY:

Well, he clearly was a

terrorist,

in the past and was so

identified

by theUnited States government.Now,

in the

early

'90s,

all of

that changed.

We had the

Oslo

Accords.

We had Arafat come to Washington and enter into anagreement,

1993,

on the

South Lawn

of the

White House,

and we

set

up the

process,

got the

process going

of

negotiations.

And

he

renounced terrorism

and he

renounced violence

and

recognized

the

right

of

Israel

to

exist.

CHENEY:

What's happened

now is,

after

the

Camp David accordsblew

up in

2000

at the end of the

Clinton administration,

andthe

intifada began,

so now

we've

had

this

escalation

of

violence

on

both sides,

to the

point

now

where

it's

very hard

to see howwe get

people back together

at the

negotiating table until

we

end the violence. And at the heart of that are

those

suicide

attacks

being launched against Israeli civilians.

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