U.S. Department of State 96/04/18 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. Department of State

96/04/18 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lebanon Remarks to Come From Traveling Party in Russia ........ 1-2

LEBANON
Dennis Ross Travel to Middle East ............................. 1
Effect on Secretary's Meeting with CHINA Foreign Minister...... 2
Effect on Luxembourg Anti-Terror Follow Up Meeting ............ 2

DEPARTMENT
Report that Kaczynski Applied for US Passport ................. 2-3
Einhorn Whereabouts, Travel Plans ............................. 3

NORTH KOREA
Reaction to Proposed Four-Party Talks ......................... 3
Status of Berlin Missile Talks ................................ 3

I know, just to be up front, that there is a lot of interest in Lebanon and, of course, this building has been working very hard on following up on the events of this morning, the very tragic events.

I won't be able to give you anything by way of a U.S. Government reaction at this stage because my understanding is that there will be something out of St. Petersburg very shortly. The party is arriving there from Japan.

So, with that, I am more than happy to answer your questions in the expectation that people may want to get off, get out of here and see what's coming from Russia.

George.

Q You can't say anything about travel plans by people in this building?

MR. DAVIES: I can't. Well, all I can tell you is that Dennis Ross is heading out to the region. He'll be leaving this evening. The Secretary has dispatched him to do some diplomatic work connected with recent events in Lebanon, and I think, for the rest of it, we'll have to wait and see what is said out of St. Petersburg, I think very shortly.

Q Where is he going?

MR. DAVIES: I don't have an itinerary. He's leaving this evening and he'll be going to visit, I'm sure, the usual capitals which include Tel Aviv, Damascus, and we'll see beyond that. I'm just not certain.

Q Glyn, while we are talking about travel plans, the Secretary is supposed to go to The Hague after Moscow, right? Is there any thought to him skipping that stop and going directly to the Middle East?

MR. DAVIES: I don't have anything to announce specifically on that. My understanding is that as of right now, the Secretary would go ahead and do that meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister.

Q What about Luxembourg?

MR. DAVIES: Luxembourg -- I would say stay tuned to see what may or may not happen on Luxembourg.

Q And will the Secretary be going to Moscow?

MR. DAVIES: Again, I think that's one where we'll just have to wait and see what comes from the President's party that's on the road. Some of these issues that you're raising will be addressed, I think, by what we're to hear from the party. If there are follow-up questions that relate more specifically to the Secretary and his schedule, I pledge that I'll do what I can to give you further information and answer those questions before the end of the day.

In fact, as you might imagine, we've already started working on some of these issues.

Q Try other questions?

MR. DAVIES: Sure, please.

Q Could I ask you, there's a report in a San Francisco newspaper that suggests that a man named Theodore Kaczynski applied for a U.S. passport last year.

MR. DAVIES: We've seen that report.

Q Do you have anything on that story? Can you tell us anything about it?

MR. DAVIES: Yes. We've seen the story that indicates that a federal employee in connection perhaps saw somebody -- this individual claims is the individual who has been apprehended in the Unabomber case.

We can't comment just as a general matter on reports that deal with an ongoing investigation. Further, of course, passport applications and what we do -- once an individual applies for a passport, that whole process is covered by the good old Privacy Act, which further makes it difficult to make public comment on it.

That's really about it. I mean, we've seen the report. Obviously, we're looking into it, but I don't have any particular comment at this time. This was drawn to our attention this morning.

Q You will not be able to say whether or not a passport was issued to this person?

MR. DAVIES: Even if we had done all of our follow-up and investigated this and had some solid notion, my understanding that the Privacy Act would enjoin us from saying anything. Then, of course, this is further complicated by the fact that there is an ongoing investigation. So I doubt very much that we'll be saying a lot about this in the future.

Q What about North Korea? Is the U.S. going to have talks with North Korea?

MR. DAVIES: What I know is what I saw actually in press reports this morning about some kind of a preliminary reaction from North Korean authorities, wherein they said that they've got the invitation, if you will, to these four-party talks, and they are going to examine the invitation and make a decision.

What I can tell you is that to date, there's been no formal response from the North Koreans to our proposal.

Q I was referring to the Berlin talks.

MR. DAVIES: Oh, I'm sorry. The missile talks that are to perhaps take place in the near future; I don't have an announcement on the Berlin talks -- whether they will occur. All I can say is that we're very interested in pursuing those talks with the People's Republic of North Korea, and I would hope we'll have something soon. But I don't have anything public for you today.

Q Can you tell us anything about what Mr. Einhorn is going to be doing this weekend and whether he'll be with Secretary Christopher in The Hague?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know, actually, if Mr. Einhorn is due to go out and join the Secretary, but that's something I'm sure we could follow up on and get an answer to you on very quickly.

Q All right.

MR. DAVIES: Will that do it? Thank you.

(The briefing concluded at 2:15 p.m.)

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