Americans seeking to know what President Bush said in his phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month went to the obvious place: the Kremlin.
"The presidents exchanged ideas on the situations in the crisis areas of the world: Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, etc.," the Russian government said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency. "They expressed serious concerns about the lack of progress in the settlement of regional problems and the escalation of the situation in these areas."
_____White House Notebook_____
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'Full Confidence'? Uh-Oh. (The Washington Post, Dec 14, 2004)
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An Israeli Hawk Accepts the President's Invitation (The Washington Post, Nov 23, 2004)
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Halliburton, the Second-Term Curse? (The Washington Post, Nov 9, 2004)
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Old Whines in Barely New Bottles (The Washington Post, Oct 26, 2004)
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Bush's Domestic Policy Gap (The Washington Post, Oct 12, 2004)
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More White House Notebook
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And what did the White House have to say about this conversation between the world leaders? Not a thing. "White House officials would reveal no details of the conversation," the Associated Press reported.
It may come as a surprise to some that the Kremlin, symbol of secrecy and repression, has become more transparent than the White House, symbol of freedom and democracy. But such experience has become routine -- so routine, in fact, that Agence France-Presse White House correspondent Olivier Knox has proposed a slogan for the Bush team: "When we have something to announce, another country will announce it."
Word of Bush's Friday meeting at the White House with British Prime Minister Tony Blair came not from the administration but from British officials. Guatemala was two weeks ahead of the White House in announcing a visit by President Oscar Berger, which is scheduled for next week.
Nor is it merely foreign governments that "scoop" the White House on what once were routine announcements. Bush's trip to Pittsburgh yesterday was divulged not by the White House but by columnist Robert D. Novak, on April 11. And Bush's trip to Des Moines on April 15 was first announced on April 9 by the Des Moines Register, which cited "Republican congressional sources."
Reporters covering the Bush administration discovered early on that the best source on the president's activities was often someplace other than the White House. On Jan. 31, 2001, Bush and Putin had their first telephone conversation. A White House spokeswoman would say only that it was a 15-minute "friendly get-acquainted session," and that the two leaders supported the idea of meeting and "engaging one another in an ongoing dialogue."
Those wishing to have a more substantive account of the conversation had to turn to the Kremlin news service's statement on Interfax. The two discussed the arrest in the United States of Pavel Borodin, a former chief property manager for the Kremlin who was jailed in New York on a Swiss money-laundering warrant. Putin's request for his humane treatment was "met by Bush with understanding," the Russian government said.
Like the Kremlin, the Palestinian Authority has also outdone the White House in glasnost. "Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas announced on Wednesday that he will travel to Washington for his first official visit to the White House," the Jerusalem Post reported on July 17, 2003, adding that Abbas said the meeting with Bush would be July 25. "The White House would not confirm the report." The two men met at the White House on July 25.
The Japanese, too, have proved more transparent than the White House. On March 2, 2001, Japanese newspapers reported that Bush had decided to nominate former senator Howard Baker as ambassador to Japan. Asked to confirm, then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "I do not confirm or deny or speculate about personnel announcements." Three weeks later, the White House announced what the Japanese already knew: It would be Ambassador Baker.
The Japanese were more than a month ahead of the White House in announcing Bush's trip to that country last year. On Sept. 9, Kyodo News, citing Japanese government sources, said Bush would visit Japan on Oct. 17 and 18. The White House waited until Oct. 8 to confirm that Bush would visit Japan on those very days.
Similarly, the Irish government announced in February of this year that Bush would visit Ireland for a European Union summit in the spring -- a month before Bush let the word out. And the South Korean presidential office had a three-day jump on the White House last December in announcing a mission to the country by Bush's special envoy for Iraqi reconstruction, James A. Baker III.
On the home front, Bush's whereabouts are as likely to be announced by local officials as by the White House; this has happened in Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri and elsewhere -- all without White House confirmation.
Sometimes, of course, there are legitimate reasons, such as security, for the White House's secrecy. Other times, such a reason is elusive. In April 2002, for example, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the Apopka Little League team of 11- and 12-year-olds would visit the White House on May 5 to watch a T-ball game. The source: the team manager and parents.
"The White House would not confirm the invitation," the paper reported.
