Full text of White House press briefing

The following is the full text of a press briefing conducted this afternoon by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow (shown) at the Colony Hotel in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Most of today's briefing dealt with terrorist activity in the United Kingdom, where the terror threat was elevated today to the highest level of "critical," indicating that an attack is expected imminently.

************************* 1:05 P.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: In response of the news of the day, the President was briefed before and after - before, during and after the bike ride on ongoing developments in London, and continues to be briefed during the day, regardless of where he may be.

Phil Lago of the NSC [National Security Council] has been communicating when necessary through the military aide.

So the President is fully briefed up.

He's also aware of the developments in Glasgow. What I told you yesterday continues to be the case.

There is no indication of any specific or credible threat to the United States, no change in the overall security level.

However, at airports there are some alertness-raising measures that the TSA [Transportation Security Administration] has invoked.

You're likely to see those and the increased presence of some TSA agents outside terminals.

There will some inconvenience to passengers in terms of longer wait times - that's already being reported on some of the networks.

Local police also have the option of invoking whatever measures they may deem necessary or appropriate.

Again, the most you're going to see right now is some inconvenience, some increased inconvenience for airline passengers, more likely at large airports than small.

There is - we have nothing to give you on Glasgow.

As you can tell, British authorities are still trying to sort through that.

We remain in communication.

Nor is there anything significant to add to what we had yesterday on the situation in London.

But again, for domestic purposes, it's important to know that we remain committed to being vigilant throughout the country, including at airports, and as I said, you'll be seeing some, in various places and locations, some increased presence of police or TSA employees, out at the curbside and so on.

Q Is that a result of London yesterday?

MR. SNOW: I think it's really a result of just trying to make sure that we're - when you're taking a look at developments around the world, that you're taking every necessary precaution.

Q When did they start, though?

MR. SNOW: The TSA, I think that's going out today. It's gone out this morning.

Q Oh, so before Glasgow?

MR. SNOW: No, I think it's probably - I don't know for sure.

Q Does TSA actually have some sort of threat level they raise?

MR. SNOW: No, actually, that's a good question - the airports have been under an orange level since August.

That is not going to change. They're not going to change the threat level at airports.

But there has been heightened security at airports since August.

Q And the broader threat level obviously is not -

MR. SNOW: The broader threat level is not changing. The airport threat level is not changing, nor is the national broader threat level changing. Those are remaining the same.

Q You had a Cabinet-level meeting yesterday based on London -

MR. SNOW: It was an informational briefing.

Q Is there any consideration, following Scotland, for that kind of conference call or face-to-face meeting?

MR. SNOW: No - I know that there are meetings going on right now at the Department of Homeland Security, TSA, obviously they've been in touch.

But, no. Again, what you had yesterday were - it was a meeting that also had some people at remote sites joined by SVTS, just getting a detailed download of what they know, what we don't know, what we're hearing from the Brits, and so on.

Q Tony, without compromising any information, obviously, can you broadly speak about how the President is able to stay in contact on these high-level things, even while he's on a bike ride? You said he was briefed during the bike ride -

MR. SNOW: If there's any information, the NSC can pass it through the military aide to tell the President.

Q And that's just done by a cell phone or something -

MR. SNOW: It's relayed to the military aide, again, by folks.

Q Is there a secure video conference in Kennebunkport that he could use?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Yes.

Q Do we know he was actually briefed, or are you just explaining to us that process if -

MR. SNOW: I'm explaining the process. I'm not entirely sure that there was a phone call. I think there may have been one passing on of information during the bike ride.

Q Any reaction to the Glasgow incident?

MR. SNOW: Any reaction? No, because at this point, again, the reaction is what you would expect, which is let's find out what's going on, let's find out, A, if there's anything we can do to help, and B, if there's anything we need to do, period.

Obviously our intelligence agencies, both domestic and international, have been working very hard just to stay on top of things.

That is their daily chore, and really has been a point of emphasis since September 11th, and continues to be.

Q Tony, you had this yesterday, but now that Glasgow has happened, is there an increasing suspicion that this timing had to do with Gordon Brown coming in?

MR. SNOW: It's really impossible to say at this point also. I would warn against trying to draw over-broad conclusions.

We're still trying to figure out also, as are the Brits, who may be responsible.

It is not clear that they're related incidents, and it's not clear what the provenance of the various incidents may be.

Q A phone call to Mr. Brown?

MR. SNOW: No, but there, again, there have been high-level contacts - there have been cabinet-level contacts between the British government and the U.S. government.

Q What prompted the statement by the President on visa waivers today?

MR. SNOW: It's just - it's reenforcing once again the importance of the visa waiver program. We've been trying to push that for some time.

It's very important I think for a lot of our allies and it's something we clearly have heard, especially from Eastern European allies and the Koreans.

The President believes that they've got an important point, wants Congress to act on it.

Q And it was prompted for today - was a nation getting upset, tired of waiting?

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