U.S. State Department Briefing

July 20, 2004

Briefing conducted by U.S. State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher:

QUESTION:

Can you give any update on the Bobby Fischer situation and what you want to see there? And also, apparently Fischer is claiming that earlier this year, he was told that his passport was being revoked. What prompted, after all these years, the U.S. Government to take that move?  

MR. BOUCHER:

I can't go too far into the legal matters of this. I don't really have anything new on Fischer's situation in Japan, but it would be normal practice, when somebody was under indictment, for us to invalidate the passport and make invalid; I can't remember if we do it for that passport or have to issue a one –  

QUESTION:

Well, I think he --  

MR. BOUCHER:

-- one-time use passport for somebody to return to justice.  

QUESTION:

But I think he was saying -- he was saying he had a valid passport up through March of this year, though. Is that --  

MR. BOUCHER:  

I don't know his particular passport situation. I wouldn't be able to talk about it anyway.