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Bush warns Hamas
28/01/2006 09:06 - (SA)
Washington - US President George W Bush said the United States would cut aid to the Palestinian government unless Hamas abolishes the militant arm of its party and stops calling for the destruction of Israel.
In a wide-ranging interview at the White House on Friday, Bush took a hard-line stance against the Hamas party, which swept Palestinian elections on Wednesday.
"If they don't, we won't deal with them," Bush said in an interview with "CBS Evening News." "The aid packages won't go forward. That's their decision to make, but we won't be providing help to a government that wants to destroy our ally and friend."
Bush declined to predict whether the United States would still have large numbers of troops in Iraq when his successor takes office in 2009 but discussed the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Graib prison.
"We were disgraced," he told CBS anchor Bob Schieffer.
"I know it caused a lot of people that want to like us to question whether they should, and equally important it gave the enemy an incredible propaganda tool - no question," Bush said.
On domestic issues, Bush defended his order permitting the National Security Agency to listen in on phone calls and read e-mails of Americans suspected of communicating with terrorists. Critics claim the program violates civil liberties and say the government is circumventing the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The enemy
"I have looked at this program from all angles, and my dilemma and my problem is I can't explain to you how it works in order to justify your question without telling the enemy what we are doing," he said.
Asked if he thinks there is anything a president cannot do if he considers it necessary in an emergency, Bush said he thought there were "clear red lines" a president cannot cross.
"I don't think a president can ... order torture, for example," Bush said about his presidential powers under the Constitution. "I don't think a president can order the assassination of a leader of another country with which we're not at war."
Bush also said that Senator Hillary Clinton, a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, is "formidable," but he declined to speculate on which Republicans might run for the White House in 2008.
- AP
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