'No comment, no comment, no comment,' no matter how many times you ask

Some days, for political, diplomatic or security reasons, a White House press secretary can comment not one bit on the topic of the day.

Today was such a day, when President Bush's spokeswoman, Dana Perino, came up against questions about reports that U.S. commandos conducted raids in Syria that left at least eight people dead.

Here's how the questioning went -- and the non-answer answers from the White House briefing room podium:

Question: What is the likelihood of more raids into Syria like the one we saw this weekend?

Perino:  The United States government has not commented on reports about that and I'm not able to here, either.

Q: So we've talked about Pakistan, the raids into Pakistan, whether by ground or by air. And there's been some acknowledgment by U.S. officials that those are happening. We're now seeing this sort of thing spread to other countries. Can you not -- you can't shed any light on why, when, where, how, whether we're going to...

Perino: I can't comment on it at all, no.

Q: Have you heard anything about whether the target was successful, that it hit the target?

Perino: I'm not going to comment in any way on this; I'm not able to comment on that.

Q: You're not even able to say that there has been some decision taken by the administration that 'If you guys can't clean up your act, we will clean it up for you'?

Perino: I'm not going to comment on the reports about this, no, I'm not. Anybody else?

Q: Can you comment on Syria's protest?

Perino: I'm not going to comment on it at all. This could be a really short briefing.

Q: Has anybody from the White House spoken to anybody from Syria?

Perino: I don't know. I don't know.

Q: Let me ask you this one: You have another government making claims. At some point, you either have to confirm or deny the claims they're making, no?

Perino: Jim, all I can tell you is that I am not able to comment on reports about this reported incident, and I'm not going to do so. You can come up here and try to beat it out of me, but I will not be commenting on this in any way, shape or form today.  Or tomorrow.

Q: What about another agency, nobody -- if it comes, it's going to come from here, and so it's not going to -- nothing is going to come out of this?

Perino: I don't believe anybody is commenting on this at all.

Q: Dana, why can't you comment? Is it a reason for national security, or is it political?  I mean, why --

Perino: To give you an answer to that would be commenting in some way on it, and I'm not going to do it.

Q: But, I mean, Dana, you can't give us anything? I mean, this is a major issue --

Perino: Nothing.

Q: This is a major issue --

Perino: I understand the reports are serious, but it's not something I'm going to comment on in any way.

And with that, the questioning moved elsewhere.

— James Gerstenzang

Photo: Mourners in the Syrian village where U.S. commandos reportedly staged a raid. Credit: Hussein Malla / Associated Press

Umm, Russia, about those missing Humvees...

Maybe the Russians can help President Bush cut into the federal deficit?

When they moved into Georgia earlier this month, Russian soldiers confiscated five U.S. Humvees that were being shipped to the Georgian military as part of an American training program. They were apparently taken at a port awaiting shipment inland.

Most of the U.S. military trainers in Georgia were Marines, and Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, was asked at a Pentagon news conference Wednesday what he intended to do about the Russian capture.

"I think we're going to send the Russians a bill and tell them, you know, 'Either pay up or give us back our vehicles, guys,'" Conway said.

Total value? About $540,000.

-- Peter Spiegel

Photo of Humvee in Baghdad: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Cheney's office denies making imperial demands of disabled vets group

The vice president's office is denying reports that its draconian security demands prompted the Disabled American Veterans organization to uninvite Vice President Dick Cheney to the group's convention next month in Vegas.

According to the New York Daily News, the vice president's office told planners that the Honorable Dick Cheney requires audiences to sit in place for two hours before his arrival, and they may not leave until after his speech is over. With bathrooms located outside the hall, and with many of its 1.4 million members facing daily health challenges, the organization decided to sack the veep.

"It was a huge imposition on our delegates," DAV official David Autry told the newspaper. To make an 8:30 a.m. speech, he added, the vets would have to get up "at oh-dark-30 and try to get breakfast and showered and get their prosthetics on." Then, with bathrooms located outside the hall, they would have to sit for two hours waiting.

Cheney's office says this is all a big misunderstanding, calling the two-hour rule "a recommendation, not a requirement."

And, said his press secretary, it was the vets group, not the vice president, that asked for an 8:30 a.m. speech time.

"The New York Daily News story reads that our office requested that disabled veterans stay in their seats for two hours and not have access to restrooms," said Cheney press secretary Megan Mitchell. "This is simply not true.

In an e-mail to C2C (Countdown to Crawford), she added:

"My understanding is a staff member recommended that audience participants arrive two hours prior to the start of the event to ensure that everyone had ample time to make it through security. We did not request that the event begin at 8:30 in the morning. That was the time proposed by DAV in their letter dated June 5, 2008."

Mitchell also said that she was puzzled by the group's allegations, since security arrangements are not finalized until a few weeks before the event and "we would never want any disabled vet to be put out on our account, that just wouldn't happen."

But Autry, in a subsequent phone conversation with C2C, wasn't buying the vice presidential explanation.

"I appreciate that they're trying to put their spin on it but when [Cheney] spoke to our convention in 2004, that's the the way it went down and we were concerned that was going to happen again."

Autry said the group routinely invites the president and vice president, though George W. Bush has never attended. Disputing Mitchell's assurance that the security arrangements were not yet worked out, he added, "Somebody’s got to face up to fact regardless of what Cheney’s office says, that’s what happened last time and this is what we understood was going to happen this time."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Vice President Dick Cheney addressing U.S. troops at Asad Air Base in Iraq on Dec. 18, 2005. Credit: Lawrence Jackson / Associated Press.