Remarks By The President In Press Availability The Briefing Room

3:40 P.M. Edt

. Q Mr. President, a lot of Americans have been shocked by the Aberdeen trial of the U.S. Army drill sergeant and the allegations that this is part of a much bigger problem that has developed in the U.S. military. I wonder if you'd share with us your thoughts on how serious a problem that this kind of alleged sexual harassment is. Is it a pervasive problem throughout the military?

The President: Well, as you know, there's now an inquiry going on and the instructions that I have given on this are the same instructions I gave on the Gulf War issue, which is to get to the bottom of it, find the facts, tell the truth and take appropriate action. And I think we ought to let that play out.

Q Sir, in light of tomorrow's anniversaries of the Oklahoma City bombing and of the fiery end to the Waco standoff, first of all, are there any credible security threats that Americans ought to be worried about? And secondly, is this a date that Americans ought now view with trepidation? The President: Well, my answer to the first question is that we are mindful of the issues and we have taken the actions that I think are appropriate. I don't think that I should say more than that. I would hope that tomorrow, rather than viewing these actions with trepidation, the American people would be thinking about two things: first, with regard to Oklahoma City, as Hillary and I saw last year when we were there, some of the surviving victims and the families of victims who survived and who did not survive are still hurting and face some continuing difficulties, and I would hope that they would be in our prayers. And I hope that we would, as I said at the time, all take a little time to express appreciation, rather than condemnation, for people who serve the public in the way they did. They were targeted solely because they work for the United States. With regard to Waco, in light of what happened with the Heaven's Gate group out in San Diego, which was an entirely different thing, but came to an equally tragic end, I would hope that the American people would say, we really value the freedom of religion and the freedom of political conviction and we want people to have their own convictions, but we need to all be sensitive and to be aware of what can happen to people if they develop a kind of a cult mentality which can push them off the brink, and we ought to do what we can to try to avoid that. Terry.

Q Mr. President, in the summer of 1994, you met at the White House with James Riady and then just a little bit later you met at Camp David with Webb Hubbell. And about that same time the Lippo Group started paying Mr. Hubbell $100,000. What do you recall about the conversations with those two gentlemen?

The President: I don't have anything to add to what I've already said about both of them. Mr. Riady was there in the White House for five or ten minutes, basically a social call. We had exchanged a few comments, and he said nothing about Mr. Hubbell that I can remember. I don't believe he did.

And when Mr. Hubbell came to Camp David, my recollection is, we played golf and I took a walk with him and asked him point blank if he had done anything wrong. And as he has said now in public, he told me that he hadn't and that he had a billing dispute with his law firm and he expected it to be resolved. And I have really nothing to add to that. There was no correlation between the two.

Q There was no discussion about --

The President: No.

Q -- efforts to, for him, any assistance for Mr. Hubbell?

The President: No, I don't remember anything about that and he didn't -- we didn't talk about the Lippo Group at all.

Q Mr. President, the problems with the Fbi crime lab are only the latest controversy involving the Fbi. What is your current view of the performance of the Fbi and its Director, Mr. Freeh?

The President: Well, let me say about the crime lab, obviously, I'm concerned about the lab, but I think that you have to give the Justice Department, the Attorney General, and Mr. Freeh credit for doing what I think should be -- in any organization, you're always going to have some problems. I, frankly, think -- I was impressed with the fact that they did what I want the Pentagon to do on the sexual harassment issue -- I mean, the matter was looked into, the facts were laid honestly before the public. And now I think it's important that all appropriate corrective action be taken.

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End 4:00 P.M. Edt