THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                   October 24, 2000


                             PRESS BRIEFING
                                   BY
                              JAKE SIEWERT

                    The James S. Brady Briefing Room


12:27 P.M. EDT


     Q    Excuse me if this has come up earlier in the briefing, but
what about the security alert in the Persian Gulf?  What can you tell us
about that?

     MR. SIEWERT:  I think the Department of Defense is in the best
position to answer those questions.  We obviously maintain a large force
in that region, and it remains a high threat environment.  If we learn
of specific threats against our forces, we take appropriate steps.  For
security reasons we don't discuss those in any great detail, publicly.

     Q    Can you tell us which countries are affected?  Because there
are some conflicts with different reports.

     MR. SIEWERT:  I think the Pentagon is briefing at 1:30 p.m., and
they're probably in a better position to fill out the exact details of
what they've ordered.

     Q    Has the President expressed any concern about reports that the
Navy might have reduced security in Yemen and areas like that over the
past few years, prior to the Cole?

     MR. SIEWERT:  Well, we have a review underway that the Pentagon
ordered, and we'll take a look at a comprehensive review when we get it.
But he's being updated from time to time on what happened there and the
status of the investigation.  But I think in terms of an overall
assessment, we'll look to the review that the Pentagon ordered.

     MR. CROWLEY:  But the genesis of your question goes to a specific
set of security measures for one ship visit, it's not related to an
overall pattern of ship visits to Aden?

     Q    The Middle East was obviously the number one topic, or you
said it was the number one topic at the principals' meeting.  Was the
heightened state of security also part of the agenda?

     MR. SIEWERT:  I honestly don't know the answer to that because they
went straight from that meeting into see the President, and that meeting
was ongoing when I came out here.

     Q    There were some reports yesterday that there were discussions
of preemptive strikes against Osama bin Laden, also in connection with
this Persian Gulf issue.  Are those reports founded on anything other
than --

     MR. SIEWERT:  I don't know where those reports came from and who
put them together.  It wasn't based on anything we've said here.


                           END 12:55 P.M. EDT