// BEGIN editorial data var i = 0; var RiceHearings_Highlights = new Array(); RiceHearings_Highlights.ID = "RiceHearings_Highlights"; RiceHearings_Highlights.ID_WB = 6840270; RiceHearings_Highlights.sPubDate = "1/18/2005 9:24:36 PM GMT"; RiceHearings_Highlights.navsectionID = "3032552" RiceHearings_Highlights.appFmt = 2; RiceHearings_Highlights.itemsPerPage = 1; RiceHearings_Highlights.appWidth = 460; RiceHearings_Highlights.appHeader = "Fact file|Condoleezza Rice’s confirmation hearing"; RiceHearings_Highlights.appDeck = "Highlights of Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday:"; RiceHearings_Highlights.appFooter = "Source: The Associated Press"; RiceHearings_Highlights.appNavStyle = 3; RiceHearings_Highlights.appLayout = 3; RiceHearings_Highlights.copyHeight = 230; RiceHearings_Highlights.copyWidth = 290; RiceHearings_Highlights.copyMargin = 9; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Training of Iraqi troops","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Rice estimated the number of Iraqi security forces at more than 120,000. \"We think that, among those people, there clearly continue to be questions about on-duty time, that is, people who don’t report for duty. And so this is being looked at,\" she said. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who asked her about the Iraqi security forces, said that from his trips there he sensed the number was much lower. \"If you speak to the folks on the ground, they don’t think there’s more than 4,000 actually trained Iraqi forces,\" he said."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Exit strategy for Iraq War","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "\"The task of the Iraqis is to find a way forward from their elections for political reconciliation. And we can, of course, try to help in that and do what we can to support that effort. But that’s largely an Iraqi task,\" Rice said."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Reasons for war","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., pressed her about the administration’s rationale for war and said that in her statements she had contradicted both the president and herself. Rice said, \"Senator, I am more than aware of the stakes that we face in Iraq, and I was more than aware of the stakes of going to war in Iraq. I mourn the dead and honor their service. ... I have to say that I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything. It is not my nature. It is not my character. And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity.\""; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","American troop levels","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Rice said that though the U.S. troops encountered some \"unforeseen circumstances\" regarding the insurgency in Iraq, the plan and troop levels were appropriate. \"I would not presume to try to give the president military advice. But I do believe that he got good military advice and I do believe that the plan and the forces that we went in with were appropriate to the task,\" she said."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Russia","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Rice said the administration was paying close attention \"to the progress or lack thereof of democracy\" in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Bush will meet with Putin on a trip to Europe next month."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Immigration","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Rice said immigration reform would be an important issue for Bush, both for economic and security reasons. \"But if we are not asking our border guards and our border personnel to deal simultaneously with immigration that comes out of economic circumstances and dangerous border infringement that comes out of terrorism, and they have a more regularized way to deal with the former, we think that that will make it easier to deal with some of the terrorism and concerns about bad people coming to do bad things,\" she said."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Israeli-Palestinian issue","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Rice said she expects to be deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but there are no immediate plans to send a special envoy to the Middle East. She said the election of Mahmoud Abbas and Israel’s withdrawal plan from the Gaza Strip offer \"a really good opportunity\" for peace.

\"I don’t think we can afford to miss this opportunity if the parties themselves are willing to really take advantage of the opportunity,\" she said."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Foreign trade","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "\"We now, of course, have to make certain that China is living up to its obligations on the WTO. So we spend a good deal of time, for instance, trying to get the Chinese to react to intellectual property rights issues. Another way that the State Department can help with this very important agenda is to make certain that the markets of others are as open to us as our markets are to them. And that’s an activity that I would expect to be involved in as a part of my diplomacy I’ve been involved in as national security adviser,\" Rice said."; RiceHearings_Highlights[i++] = new Array("","Drug trafficking","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); RiceHearings_Highlights[i-1].body = "Rice said that the United States needs to do more to fight drug trafficking and to support democratic and economic reforms in Central and South America, citing \"grave challenges to some of these regimes.\""; // END editorial data