Say What, Too?

October 28, 2004

On Terrorists Then:

"We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th. What the Vice President said was, is that he has been involved with al Qaeda."
- President Bush, September 17, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"The war on terror, you can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror. And so it's a comparison that is -- I can't make because I can't distinguish between the two, because they're both equally as bad, and equally as evil, and equally as destructive."
- President Bush, September 25, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"And there are al Qaeda terrorists inside Iraq."
- President Bush, September 26, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"And it [Iraq] has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al Qaeda."
- President Bush, March 17, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

[Iraq is] “the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”
- Vice President Dick Cheney, September 14, 2003
http://msnbc.msn.com/

”Saddam's regime also had long established ties with al Qaeda.”
- Vice President Dick Cheney, July 1, 2004
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

A Non Sequitur Comment Back Then:

Reporter: One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?
President George W. Bush: I can't make that claim.
Prime Minister Tony Blair: That answers your question.
January 31, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

On Terrorists Now:

"Nothing has come to our notice that would indicate links [between Iraq and al Qaeda]"
- Michael Chandler, U.N Terrorism Committee, June 27, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

"We could find no provable connection between Saddam and al Qaeda,"
- (Anonymous) Senior White House Official, March 3, 2004
http://www.miami.com/

"At various times Al Qaeda people came through Baghdad and in some cases resided there. But we simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all."
- David Kay, former head of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group, June 16, 2004
http://www.boston.com/

“I have not seen smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection [between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda]”
- Collin Powel, Secretary of State, January 8, 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

"To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two,"
- Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, October 4, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/

On WMD’s Then:

"He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors."
- Colin Powell February 24 2001
http://www.state.gov/

“But what is interesting is that with the regime that has been in place for the past ten years, I think a pretty good job has been done of keeping him from breaking out and suddenly showing up one day and saying ‘look what I got.’”
- Colin Powell February 24 2001
http://www.state.gov/

“The sanctions, as they are called, have succeeded over the last 10 years, not in deterring him from moving in that direction, but from actually being able to move in that direction.”
- Colin Powell, May 15, 2001
http://www.thememoryhole.org/

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
- Vice President Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"The tubes are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs."
- Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, September 8, 2002
http://archives.cnn.com/

“Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.”
- President Bush, September 12, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"We know they have weapons of mass destruction … There isn't any debate about it." "[It is] beyond anyone's imagination" that U.N. inspectors would fail to find such weapons if they were given the opportunity.”
- Donald Rumsfeld, September 2002
http://votemarcy.com/

"The Iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons. And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order were given."
- President Bush, September 26, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."
- Colin Powell Remarks to U.N. Security Council, February 5, 2003
http://www.cnn.com/

"Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets. "
- Colin Powell Remarks to U.N. Security Council, February 5, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"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, February 6, 2003.
http://www.cnn.com/

“Does Saddam now have weapons of mass destruction? Sure he does. We know he has chemical weapons. We know he has biological weapons. ... How far he’s gone on the nuclear-weapons side I don’t think we really know. My guess is it’s further than we think. It’s always further than we think, because we limit ourselves, as we think about this, to what we’re able to prove and demonstrate. ... And, unless you believe that we have uncovered everything, you have to assume there is more than we’re able to report.”
- Richard Perle, Defense Policy Board Chair, speaking to a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing, March, 2003.
http://www.newyorker.com/

“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.”
- President Bush, March 17, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

“In the case of Iraq, the Security Council did act, in the early 1990s. Under Resolutions 678 and 687 -- both still in effect -- the United States and our allies are authorized to use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.”
- President Bush, March 17, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

“On November 8th, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, finding Iraq in material breach of its obligations, and vowing serious consequences if Iraq did not fully and immediately disarm. Today, no nation can possibly claim that Iraq has disarmed.”
- President Bush, March 17, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

"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, March 21, 2003
http://archives.cnn.com/

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
- Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003.
http://www.defenselink.mil/

“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 is about. And we have high confidence it will be found.”
- Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary, April 10, 2003
http://archives.cnn.com/

"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, May 4, 2003.
http://archives.cnn.com/

"You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."
- President George W. Bush, May 31, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

On WMD's now:

[Iraq’s nuclear weapons program has been reduced to] "less than zero,"
- Sabah Abdul Noor, Iraqi Nuclear Bomb Scientest, January 2004
http://www.boston.com/

"I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong [concerning WMD's in Iraq]."
- Prime Minister Tony Blair, September 29, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/

"I knew that there was a dispute [concerning aluminum tubes she had stated unequivocally were for use in purifying uranium]. I actually didn't really know the nature of the dispute."
- Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, October 3, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

"We found nothing. There are no large stockpiles of weapons. There hasn't actually been a find of a single weapon, a single weapons agent, nothing like the programs that the administration believe existed."
- Joseph Cirincione, author of a report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/

"We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile [biological weapons] production effort."
- David Kay, former head of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group, October, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/

[Hussein's ability to produce nuclear weapons had] "progressively decayed" since 1991. Inspectors found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
- Charles A. Duelfer, Chief U.S. Weapons Inspector, October 7, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

"We were almost all wrong [on Iraq]"
- Charles A. Duelfer, Chief U.S. Weapons Inspector, October 7, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

"The former regime had no formal written strategy or plan for the revival of WMD after sanctions. Neither was there an identifiable group of WMD policy makers or planners separate from Saddam"
- Report on Iraq WMD's, Charles A. Duelfer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

And finally... On Mistakes

That's really what you're -- when they ask about the mistakes, that's what they're talking about. They're trying to say, "Did you make a mistake going into Iraq?" And the answer is, "Absolutely not." It was the right decision.

The Duelfer report confirmed that decision today, because what Saddam Hussein was doing was trying to get rid of sanctions so he could reconstitute a weapons program. And the biggest threat facing America is terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.

...

Now, you asked what mistakes. I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV.

- President Bush during the Second Presidential Debate, October 8, 2004
http://www.debates.org/

October/November 2004 Column Listing