Bill Clinton: “Let me go back and answer that. I can't answer the question about the gas masks, except to tell you that the whole…”

“Let me go back and answer that. I can't answer the question about the gas masks, except to tell you that the whole purpose of using the tear gas was that it had been tested; they were convinced that it wouldn't kill either a child or an adult, but it would force anybody that breathed it to run outside. And one of the things that I've heard--I don't want to get into the details of this because I don't know--but one of the things that they were speculating about today was that the wind was blowing so fast that the windows might have been opened and some of the gas might have escaped, and that may be why it didn't have the desired effect. They also knew, Sarah, that there was an underground compound, a bus buried underground, where the children could be sent. I think they were hoping very much that if the children were not released immediately outside, that the humane thing would be done and that the children would be sent someplace where they could be protected. In terms of the gas masks themselves, I learned yesterday--I did not ask this fact question before--that the gas was supposed to stay active in the compound longer than the gas masks themselves were to work. So that it was thought that even if they all had gas masks, that eventually the gas would force them out in a nonviolent, nonshooting circumstance. Press Secretary Myers. Last question.”