How the United States should react if Iraq acquired WMD. "The first line of defense...should be a clear and classical statement of deterrence-if they do acquire WMD, their weapons will be unusable because any attempt to use them will bring national obliteration."

--Condoleeza Rice US National Security Advisor January/February 2000 issue of Foreign Affairs 2/1/2000

We are greatly concerned about any possible linkup between terrorists and regimes that have or seek weapons of mass destruction...In the case of Saddam Hussein, we've got a dictator who is clearly pursuing and already possesses some of these weapons.. A regime that hates America and everything we stand for must never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction.

--Dick Cheney Vice President Detroit, Fund-Raiser 6/20/2002

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

--Dick Cheney Vice President Speech to VFW National Convention 8/26/2002

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 9/12/2002

Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons. 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 10/5/2002

The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas.

--George W. Bush Cincinnati, Ohio Speech 10/7/2002

Iraq could decide on any given day to provide biological or chemical weapons to a terrorist group or to individual terrorists,...The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction.

--Dick Cheney Vice President Denver, Address To Air National Guard 12/1/2002

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.

--Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 12/2/2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.

--Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 1/9/2003

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 1/28/2003

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.

--Colin Powell, Secretary of State Remarks to UN Security Council 2/5/2003

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 2/8/2003

In Iraq, a dictator is building and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilized world -- and we will not allow it.

--George W. Bush Speech to the American Enterprise Institute 2/26/2003

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 Secretary of State Interview with Radio France International 2/28/2003

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 Secretary of State Remarks to UN Security Council 3/7/2003

Let's talk about the nuclear proposition for a minute. We know that based on intelligence, that [Saddam] has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

--Dick Cheney Vice President Meet The Press 3/16/2003

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 3/17/2003

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 Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 3/21/2003

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.

--General Tommy Franks Commander in Chief Central Command Press Conference 3/22/2003

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.

--Victoria Clark Pentagon Spokeswoman Press Briefing 3/22/2003

I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction. Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board member

--Washington Post, p. A27 3/23/2003

We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

--Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense ABC Interview 3/30/2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.

--Robert Kagan Neocon scholar Washington Post op-ed 4/9/2003

I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.

--Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 4/10/2003

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 Secretary Press Briefing 4/10/2003

Were not going to find anything until we find people who tell us where the things are. And we have that very high on our priority list, to find the people who know. And when we do, then well learn precisely where things were and what was done.

--Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense Meet the Press 4/13/2003

I have absolute confidence that there are weapons of mass destruction inside this country. Whether we will turn out, at the end of the day, to find them in one of the 2,000 or 3,000 sites we already know about or whether contact with one of these officials who we may come in contact with will tell us, ``Oh, well, there's actually another site,'' and we'll find it there, I'm not sure.

--General Tommy Franks Commander in Chief Central Command Fox New 4/13/2003

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 4/24/2003

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 Secretary of Defense Press Briefing 4/25/2003

We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.

--George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters 5/3/2003

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 Secretary of State Remarks to Reporters 5/4/2003

We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.

--Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense Fox News Interview 5/4/2003

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 5/6/2003

U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.

--Condoleeza Rice US National Security Advisor Reuters Interview 5/12/2003

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 5/13/2003

We said all along that we will never get to the bottom of the Iraqi WMD program simply by going and searching specific sites, that you'd have to be able to get people who know about the programs to talk to you.

--Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary of Defense Interview with Australian Broadcasting 5/13/2003

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 5/21/2003

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 5/26/2003

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.

--Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations 5/27/2003

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 Deputy Secretary of Defense Vanity Fair interview 5/28/2003

But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.

--George W. Bush Interview with TVP Poland 5/30/2003

You remember when [Secretary of State] 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 And we'll find more weapons as time goes on

--George W. Bush Press Briefing 5/30/2003

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 5/30/2003

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 5/30/2003

This wasn't material I was making up, it came from the intelligence community

--Colin Powell Secretary of State --Press Briefing 6/2/2003

We know that some of them, especially the biological weapons, were being destroyed," Hastert said, adding that it would "take a little while to find weapons of mass destruction... and we're going to continue to do it.

--Dennis Hastert House Speaker R-IL --Press Briefing 6/4/2003

We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents. This is the man who spent decades hiding tools of mass murder. He knew the inspectors were looking for them. You know better than me he's got a big country in which to hide them. We're on the look. We'll reveal the truth

--George W. Bush, CAMP SAYLIYA, Qatar 6/5/2003

No one ever said that we knew precisely where all of these agents were, where they were stored

--Condoleeza Rice US National Security Advisor Meet the Press 6/8/2003

What the president has said is because it's been the long-standing view of numerous people, not only in this country, not only in this administration, but around the world, including at the United Nations, who came to those conclusions...And the president is not going to engage in the rewriting of history that others may be trying to engage in.

--Ari Fleischer Press Secretary 6/9/2003

Iraq had a weapons program...Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced with time we'll find out they did have a weapons program.

--George W. Bush Comment to Reporters 6/9/2003

Research by Billmon @ Whiskey Bar

Quotes On Democracy In Iraq. If you have a verifiable quote you would like to add to this list please submit to michaelw@lunaville.org

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