What a Tangled Web We Weave . . .
. . . when first we practice
to deceive!
Simply stated, there
is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention
August 26, 2002
Right now, Iraq is
expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.
George W. Bush
Speech to UN General Assembly
September 12, 2002
If he declares he
has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
December 2, 2002
We know for a fact
that there are weapons there.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
January 9, 2003
Our intelligence
officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
George W. Bush
State of the Union Address
January 28, 2003
We know that Saddam
Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.
Colin Powell
Remarks to UN Security Council
February 5, 2003
We have sources that
tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator
tells us he does not have.
George W. Bush
Radio Address
February 8, 2003
If Iraq had disarmed
itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution)
1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing
this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct.
Colin Powell
Interview with Radio France International
February 28, 2003
So has the strategic
decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? . . . I think our judgment
has to be clearly not.
Colin Powell
Remarks to UN Security Council
March 7, 2003
Intelligence gathered
by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal
weapons ever devised.
George W. Bush
Address to the Nation
March 17, 2003
Well, there is no
question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly
. . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.
Ari Fleisher
Press Briefing
March 21, 2003
There is no doubt
that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons
will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.
Gen. Tommy Franks
Press Conference
March 22, 2003
I have no doubt we're
going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.
Defense
Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
Washington Post, p. A27
March 23, 2003
One of our top objectives
is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.
Pentagon
Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
Press Briefing
March 22, 2003
We know where they
are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview
March 30, 2003
Obviously the administration
intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.
Neocon
scholar Robert Kagan
Washington Post op-ed
April 9, 2003
But make no mistake
-- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about
and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
April 10, 2003
We are learning more
as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed
some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.
George W. Bush
NBC Interview
April 24, 2003
There are people
who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that
country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Press Briefing
April 25, 2003
We'll find them.
It'll be a matter of time to do so.
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 3, 2003
I'm absolutely sure
that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now.
Colin Powell
Remarks to Reporters
May 4, 2003
We never believed
that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview
May 4, 2003
I'm not surprised
if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 6, 2003
U.S. officials never
expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.
Condoleeza Rice
Reuters Interview
May 12, 2003
I just don't know
whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether
they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
Press Briefing
May 13, 2003
Before the war, there's
no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found.
I still expect them to be found.
Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Interview with Reporters
May 21, 2003
Given time, given
the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.
Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview
May 26, 2003
They may have had
time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations
May 27, 2003
For bureaucratic
reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one
reason everyone could agree on.
Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview
May 28, 2003
It was a surprise to me
then it remains a surprise to me now that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites.
Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border
and Baghdad, but they're simply not there.
Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview
May 30, 2003
Do I think we're going
to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there."
Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency
Press Conference
May 30, 2003
