"25,000 liters of anthrax
... 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin ... materials to produce
as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent ...
upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical
agents ... several mobile biological weapons labs ...
thousands of Iraqi security personnel ... at work hiding
documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was a surprise to me
then Eit remains a surprise to me now Ethat 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
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
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
