• "The president has stated what he has stated. The Central Intelligence Agency has stated publicly, as well as in classified sessions, their conclusions. And their conclusions have tended to be, over a period of time, A, that we do not have evidence that they have nuclear weapons; we do have evidence that they have had a nuclear program that was robust; and that they were very skilled in denial and deception. With respect to chemical weapons, we know they not only have hid them but that they've used them. And with respect to biological weapons, we have clearly - the Central Intelligence Agency has said what it has said, and there's no doubt in my mind that they currently have chemical and biological weapons."
  Jan. 7, 2003 Donald Rumsfeld

Excerpts taken from Donald Rumsfeld's media availability en route to Chile:

• "There's no question but that in a repressive regime like Iraq, there tends to be a small ruling clique that runs the country, and there are people away from that who are part of the administration of the country. It may be the army; it may be the local police forces or border guards, or it may be people who keep the sewers working and the water system working that are technically part of the Iraqi government in one form or another, who in a very real sense may be like many citizens in the country, hostages to this small ruling clique. And certainly we are, have, are and will communicate directly with the Iraqi people and with elements of the Iraqi society the truth, namely the problem is the Saddam Hussein regime. It is the people that are engaged in developing weapons of mass destruction, and let there be no doubt anyone that is involved in the use of weapons of mass destruction will be particularly held accountable in the event that it becomes necessary and the president or the U.N. make a decision to use force in Iraq."

• "Let me state what I think is accurate [concerning WMD on the ground in Iraq]. Weapons of mass destruction can be in various stages of evolution. They can be in the developmental, laboratory stage. They can be in production stage. They can be in the transit stage. They can be in the weaponization stage and they can be in the deployed weaponization stage, artillery shells, unmanned aerial vehicles, SCUDS with chemical weapons, whatever."
  Nov. 18, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

Nov. 14, 2002

Excerpts taken from Donald Rumsfeld's interview with Infinity CBS Radio:

• "Well, we know that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons. And we know he has an active program for the development of nuclear weapons. I suppose what it would prove would be that the inspections process had been successfully defeated by the Iraqis if they find nothing. That's what one would know if that turned out to be the case. There's no question but that the Iraqi regime is clever. They have spent a lot of time hiding things, dispersing things, tunneling underground, taking documentation and moving it to different locations in the past, preventing inspectors from getting access, listening in on what inspectors intend to do. And before the inspectors arrive to do it, seeing that what was there is moved or the effort is frustrated in some way."

• "There is a danger that Saddam Hussein would do things that he's done previously. He has, in the past, used chemical weapons, for example, on his own people. And he's used chemical weapons on his neighbors. And one has to be prepared and concerned that that could occur.
  
  Terrorists have attacked the United States on September 11th, and U.S. interests around the world on other occasions. And I don't doubt for a minute that if he's [Saddam Hussein] able, he would like to try to see that terrorist attacks would occur in the event that force were to be used by the United Nations, or by a coalition of the willing."

• "Well, I would look you in the eye and I would say, go back before September 11th and ask yourself this question, was the attack that took place on September 11th an imminent threat the month before, or two months before, or three months before, or six months before? When did the attack on September 11th become an imminent threat? When was it sufficiently dangerous to our country that had we known about it that we could have stepped up and stopped it and saved 3,000 lives?
  
  Now, transport yourself forward a year, two years, or a week, or a month, and if Saddam Hussein were to take his weapons of mass destruction and transfer them, either use them himself or transfer them to the al Qaeda, and somehow the al Qaeda were to engage in an attack on the United States, or an attack on U.S. forces overseas, with a weapon of mass destruction you're not talking about 300, or 3,000 people potentially being killed, but 30,000, or 100,000 human beings. So the question is, when is it such an immediate threat that you must do something, is a tough question. But if you think about it, it's the nexus, the connection, the relationship between terrorist states and weapons of mass destruction with terrorist networks that has changed our lives, and changed the security environment in the world.
  
  And right now in the Congress the intelligence committees in the House and Senate are working very hard, trying to connect the dots as to who knew what before September 11th, how might it have been stopped. Our task, your task as a mother, and as a citizen, as a voter, and my task, is to try to connect the dots before something happens, not afterwards. People say, well where's the smoking gun? Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction. We have an obligation to try to defend the people of our country and the interests we have, and that is why the president went to the United Nations and sought a resolution, and received unanimous support to try to see if we can't get a peaceful solution to the Iraqi problem."

• "He [Saddam Hussein] is clearly a survivor, he is a brutal, repressive dictator; he has imposed enormous harm to his people. His determination to have weapons of mass destruction is so great that he's denied his people billions and billions and billions of dollars of revenue they would have if he wanted to give up his weapons and have the sanctions lifted. But, he won't do it. He has an attitude about himself that suggests that he wants to try to destabilize the neighboring countries, and periodically describes them as illegitimate, and attempts to take them over. I guess he is a long-term dictator who has killed an awful lot of people. He's even used chemical weapons on his own people."

• "The terrorist states, one of which is Iraq. Another is Iran, and Libya, and Syria, and Korea and Cuba, and they're all on the terrorist state list, have varying relationships with these so-called terrorist networks, Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda, and six or eight others. In some cases, the relationships are quite well known, and well defined."

• "And in the case of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, the words that have come back as being appropriate for release publicly are something like this: That the relationship -- that our understanding of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda is still developing. That there is no question but that there have been interaction between the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials, and al Qaeda operatives. They have occurred over a span of some eight or ten years to our knowledge. There are currently al Qaeda in Iraq.
  
  It is not possible for me to elaborate as to exactly what the linkage between the people in Iraq who are known Al Qaeda operatives, and the Iraqi Intelligence Service is. I can't comment on that, I can say that if you're living in a dictatorship that's repressive, that is as controlling as the Saddam Hussein regime is, it's hard for one to believe that there would be senior people from the al Qaeda in that country and have the regime not be aware of them."

• "In the event that force has to be used with Iraq, there will be no World War III. The Gulf War in the 1990s lasted five days on the ground. I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that. And, it won't be a World War III. And if I were to characterize the difference between 1990 and today, the United States military is vastly more powerful. And the Iraqi Army and military capability has declined substantially. The difference is, the reason for needing to disarm Iraq, and that is chemical and biological weapons today, and a very robust effort to develop nuclear weapons tomorrow. And, that is the difference between today and then."

• "It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil. It has nothing to do with the religion."

• "And it's certainly not about oil. Oil is fungible, and people who own it want to sell it, and it will be available."
  Nov. 14, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

Excerpts taken from Donald Rumsfeld's comments at a press conference at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce:

• "As we speak, chemist, biologists, nuclear scientists are toiling in weapons labs and underground bunkers around the world, working to give terrorist regimes and terrorist networks weapons of unprecedented power and lethality. Those regimes are working with terrorist networks. If they share weapons of mass destruction terrorist states could of course attack our people without fingerprints."

• "There are a number of terrorist states that are pursuing weapons of mass destruction...no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to our security that that of Iraq.

  Consider the following: Saddam Hussein ordered the use of chemical weapons against his own people, in one case killing some 5,000 innocent civilians. His regime invaded two of his neighbors. He plays host to terrorist networks, assassinates his opponents -- both in Iraq and abroad. His regime has committed genocide and ethnic cleansing in Northern Iraq, ordering the extermination of some tens of thousands of people. They had amassed large clandestine stocks of biological weapons including anthrax and possibly smallpox. They had amassed large clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons including VX and sarin and mustard gas. His regime has an active program to acquire and develop nuclear weapons.

  Earlier this month the President warned that that regime is a grave and gathering danger. He issued a challenge to the international community at the United nations to enforce the numerous, some 16 U.N. resolutions that the Iraqis have repeatedly defied and defy still today."

   

   

• "Iraq, with its weapons of mass destruction, its listing as a terrorist state, its relationship with terrorist networks, is a part of the global war on terror. It's not a departure for the global war on terror. Our goal in that war is to prevent another September 11th or worse, a far more lethal weapon of mass destruction attack before it happens, whether that threat might come from a terrorist network or a terrorist state."

• "We don't believe Iraq does currently have nuclear weapons. There's no question but that they have a very aggressive program. They've had it for some 15 to 20 years. They were much closer than anyone had estimated when the forces got on the ground after the Gulf War some 11, 12 years ago.

  But if you think about it, the last thing we should want is a smoking gun. A gun doesn't smoke until it's been fired and the goal has to be to stop such an attack before it starts."

• "But we should be just as concerned about the fact that they already have biological weapons. For an idea of the devastation that a country could cause, inflict on our country with a biological attack consider the recent Dark Winter exercise that was conducted by Johns Hopkins University.

  It simulated a biological weapon of mass destruction attack in which terrorists released smallpox in three cities around the United States. Within two months the worst case estimates indicated up to one million people could be dead and another two million infected. Even if one cut that estimate in half, it's not a pretty picture."

• "We are not opposed to inspections as part of a comprehensive solution, but even the most intrusive inspections have difficulty getting at Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Many of his capabilities are mobile. They have been widely disbursed into dozens and dozens and dozens of different locations. Vast underground networks and facilities and sophisticated denial and deception techniques have been employed. In addition they have been placed in close proximity to hospitals, schools, mosques and churches."

• "Saddam Hussein's regime is not interested in disarming. They've demonstrated that over some 20 years. They have given up tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues under the sanctions program so that they could in fact keep those weapons of mass destruction programs going. If they wanted to disarm, they would have been billions and billions of dollars wealthier and their people vastly better off."

• "Saddam Hussein has also made his intentions clear. He's used these weapons against his own people. He's used them against his own neighbors. He's demonstrated an intention to take the territory of his neighbors. He plays host to terrorist networks. He has repeatedly praised the September 11th attacks. He is giving $20,000 or $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers who are killed in their terrorist attacks."

• "Before I left for Poland I gathered some thoughts with a couple of people who work with me -- Paul Wolfowitz and others. We said why don't we get this into the intelligence community, let them scrub over the next week or so, see if they can find out what portion of it can be made public. They did, they came back, we ended up with five or six sentences that were bullet-proof. We could say them, they're factual, they're exactly accurate. They demonstrate that there are in fact al Qaeda in Iraq. But they're not photographs, they are not beyond reasonable doubt, they in some cases are assessments from a limited number of sources. They're in some cases hard information that were we to release it would reveal a method of gathering it. And it seems to me that if our quest is for proof positive we probably will be left somewhat unfulfilled."
  Sep. 27, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld
  
  

Excerpts taken from Donald Rumsfeld's comments at a press conference following his meeting with NATO Ministers in Poland:

[In response to the question from Norah O'Donnell with NBC: Are there linkages between al Qaeda and Iraq? And where are they?]

• "The deputy director of Central Intelligence briefed on that subject. I have no desire to go beyond saying the answer is yes."
  Sep. 25, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

09/24/02

Excerpts taken from Donald Rumsfeld's comments at a news conference following his meeting with NATO Ministers in Poland:

[Question: Did he [John McLaughlin, deputy director of central intelligence] say anything about whether there is a connection between Iraq and al Qaida?]

• "Oh, certainly, there is."

[Question: And could you tell us what that connection is?
question: I mean, if Blair has already mentioned some of these...]

• "Sure, read his report."

[Question: But can you...]

• "I could, but I'm not going to. It's unhelpful to us to get into a lot of detail because it just changes our capabilities of doing things."

[Question: Do you believe that Iraq is helping al Qaida with weapons of mass destruction?]

• "I've said all I want to say on the subject."
  

  Sep. 25, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

Excerpt taken from Donald Rumsfeld's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee:

• "I am here to discuss Iraq, as requested by the committee and by the president, and to try to address a number of the questions that have come up during this national debate and public dialogue that's been taking place.

  As we meet, chemists and biologists and nuclear scientists are toiling in weapons' labs in underground bunkers, working to give the world's most dangerous dictators weapons of unprecedented power and lethality. The threat posed by some of those regimes is real, it's dangerous and it's growing with each passing day."

• "Moreover, since September 11th we have seen a new means of delivering these weapons, terrorist networks. To the extent that they might transfer WMD to terrorist groups they could conceal their responsibility for attacks on our people."

• "He plays host to terrorist networks."

• "He's amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons, including Anthrax, botulism, toxins and possibly Smallpox."

• "He's amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, Sarin and mustard gas."

• "His regime has an active program to acquire nuclear weapons."

• "Iraq is part of the global war on terror. Stopping terrorist regimes from acquiring weapons of mass destruction is a key objective of that war, and we can fight the various elements of the global war on terror simultaneously, as General Myers will indicate in his remarks."

• "We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, they're pursuing nuclear weapons, that they've proven willingness to use those weapons, and that they have a proven aspiration to seize territory of their neighbors and to threaten their neighbors, and that they cooperate with terrorist networks and that they have a proven record of declared hostility and venomous rhetoric against the United States. Those threats should be clear to all."

• "Well, if one were to compare the scraps of information that the government had before September 11th to the volumes of information the government has today about Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, his use of those weapons, his record of aggression and his consistent hostility towards the United States, and then factor in our country's demonstrated vulnerability after September 11th, the case that the president made in the United Nations, it seems to me, should be clear.

  If wartime passes and the attack we're concerned about were to come to pass, I would not want to have ignored all the warning signs and then be required to explain why our country failed to protect our fellow citizens from that threat. We do know that Saddam Hussein has been actively pursuing nuclear weapons for more than 20 years. But we should be just as concerned about the immediate threat from biological weapons. Iraq has these weapons. They're much simpler to deliver than nuclear weapons and even more readily transferred to terrorist networks, who could allow Iraq to deliver them without Iraq's fingerprints on the attack."

• "Iraq's record of the past decade shows that they want weapons of mass destruction and that they are determined to develop them."

• "Today we must decide whether the risks of acting are greater that the risk of not acting. And Saddam Hussein has made his intentions clear. He has used weapons of mass destruction against his own people and his neighbors. He has stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and he is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons. If he demonstrates the capability to deliver them to our shores, the world would be changed."

• "We already know that Saddam Hussein is willing to use weapons of mass destruction because he used chemicals on his own people. He's used them on the Iranians."
  Sep. 19, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

Sep. 18, 2002

Excerpt taken from Donald Rumsfeld's testimony before the House Armed Services Committee:

• "As we meet, state sponsors of terror across the world are working to develop and acquire weapons of mass destruction. As we speak, chemists, biologists, and nuclear scientists are toiling in weapons labs and underground bunkers, working to give the world's most dangerous dictators weapons of unprecedented power and lethality.

  The threat posed by those regimes is real. It is dangerous. And it is growing with each passing day. We cannot wish it away."

• "Further, because of the nature of these threats, we are in an age of little or no warning, when threats can emerge suddenly - at any place or time - to surprise us. Terrorist states have enormous appetite for these powerful weapons - and active programs to develop them. They are finding ways to gain access to these capabilities. This is not a possibility - it is a certainty. In word and deed, they have demonstrated a willingness to use those capabilities."

• "Moreover, after September 11th, they have discovered a new means of delivering these weapons - terrorist networks. To the extent that they might transfer WMD to terrorist groups, they could conceal their responsibility for attacks. And if they believe they can conceal their responsibility for an attack, then they would likely not be deterred."

• "We are on notice. Let there be no doubt: an attack will be attempted. The only question is when and by what technique. It could be months, a year, or several years. But it will happen. It is in our future."

• "There are a number of terrorist states pursuing weapons of mass destruction - Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, to name but a few. But no terrorist state poses a greater and more immediate threat to the security of our people, and stability of the world, than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."

• "No living dictator has shown the murderous combination of intent and capability -- of aggression against his neighbors; oppression of his own people; genocide; support of terrorism; pursuit of weapons of mass destruction; and the most threatening hostility to its neighbors and to the United States, that Saddam Hussein and his regime."

• "He has ordered the use of chemical weapons - Sarin, Tabun, VX, and mustard agents - against his own people, in one case killing 5,000 innocent civilians in a single day."

• "His [Saddam Hussein] regime plays host to terrorist networks, and has directly ordered acts of terror on foreign soil."

• "Iraq is a part of the Global War on Terror - stopping terrorist regimes from acquiring weapons of mass destruction is a key objective of that war."

• "The goal must be to stop Saddam Hussein before he fires a weapon of mass destruction against our people."

• "We do know that the Iraqi has chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction and is pursuing nuclear weapons; that they have a proven willingness to use the weapons at their disposal; that they have proven aspirations to seize the territory of, and threaten, their neighbors; proven support for and cooperation with terrorist networks; and proven record of declared hostility and venomous rhetoric against the United States. Those threats should be clear to all."

• "We do not know today precisely how close he is to having a deliverable nuclear weapon. What we do know is that he has a sizable appetite for them, that he has been actively pursuing them for more than 20 years, and that we allow him to get them at our peril."

• "But those who raise questions about the nuclear threat need to focus on the immediate threat from biological weapons. From 1991 to 1995, Iraq repeatedly insisted it did not have biological weapons. Then, in 1995, Saddam's son-in-law defected and told the inspectors some details of Iraq's biological weapons program. Only then did Iraq admit it had produced tens of thousands of liters of anthrax and other biological weapons. But even them, they did not come clean. UN inspectors believe Iraq had in fact produced two to four-times the amount of biological agents it had declared. Those biological agents were never found. Iraq also refused to account for some three tons of materials that could be used to produce biological weapons."

• "Iraq has these weapons. They are much simpler to deliver than nuclear weapon, and even more readily transferred to terrorist networks, who could allow Iraq to deliver them without fingerprints."

• "The point is this: Iraq possesses biological weapons, and chemical weapons, and is expanding and improving their capabilities to produce them. That should be of every bit as much concern as Iraq's potential nuclear capability."

• "Iraq's ties to terrorist networks are long-standing. It is no coincidence that Abu Nidal was in Baghdad, when he died under mysterious circumstances. Iraq has also reportedly provided safe haven to Abdul Rahman Yasin, on of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, who was a key participant in the first World Trade Center bombing [1993]. We know that al-Qaeda is operating in Iraq today, and that little happens in Iraq without the knowledge of the Saddam Hussein regime. We also know that there have been a number of contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda over the years. We know Saddam has ordered acts of terror himself, including the attempted assassination of a former U.S. president.

  He has incentives to make common cause with terrorists. He shares many common objectives with groups like al-Qaeda, including an antipathy for the Saudi royal family and a desire to drive the U.S. out of the Persian Gulf region. Moreover, if he decided it was in his interests to conceal his responsibility for an attack on the U.S., providing WMD to terrorists would be an effective way of doing so."

• "First, we do not know where all of Iraq's WMD facilities are. We do know where a fraction of them are. Second, of the facilities we do know, not all are vulnerable to attack from the air. Some are underground. Some are mobile. Others are purposely located near population centers - schools, mosques, hospitals, etc. -- where an air strike could kill large numbers of innocent people."

• "Many of his [Saddam Hussein] WMD capabilities are mobile and can be hidden to evade inspectors. He has vast underground networks and facilities to hide WMD, and sophisticated denial and deception techniques."

• "Saddam's neighbors are deathly afraid of him - and understandably so. He has invaded his neighbors, used weapons of mass destruction against them, and launched ballistic missiles at them. He aspires to dominate the region. The nations of the region would be greatly relieved to have him gone, and that if Saddam Hussein is removed from power, the reaction of the region will be not outrage, but great relief. And the reaction of the Iraqi people will most certainly be jubilation."

• "If, in 1998, Saddam Hussein posed the grave threat that President Clinton correctly described, then he most certainly poses a greater danger today, after four years without inspectors on the ground to challenge his WMD procurement and development efforts."

• "Our objective is gaining Iraq's compliance. Our objective is an Iraq that does not menace its neighbors, does not oppress its people or threaten the United States."

• "Today, we must decide whether the risks of acting are greater than the risks of not acting. Saddam Hussein has made his intentions clear. He has used weapons of mass destruction against his own people and his neighbors. He has demonstrated an intention to take the territory of his neighbors. He has launched ballistic missiles against U.S. allies and others in the region. He plays host to terrorist networks. He pays rewards to the families of suicide bombers in Israel-like those who killed five Americans at the Hebrew University earlier this year. He is hostile to the United States, because we denied him the ability he has sought to impose his will on his neighbors. He has said, in no uncertain terms, that he would use weapons of mass destruction against the United States. He has, at this moment, stockpiles chemical and biological weapons, and is pursuing nuclear weapons. If he demonstrates the capability to deliver them to our shores, the world would be changed. Our people would be at great risk."
  Sep. 18, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

Excerpt taken from Donald Rumsfeld's interview with Rush Limbaugh:

• "I think Iraq is what it is. It's a dictatorship that we're working to develop and has some types of weapons of mass destruction. It's a threat to its neighbors and is properly on the terrorist list and is so active that it is giving $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers."
  May 16, 2002 Donald Rumsfeld

Sep. 11, 2001

Excerpt taken from Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon briefing on terrorist attacks:

• "We don't discuss intelligence matters."

• "I don't know that there's a day that's gone by since I've been in this job that there haven't been threats somewhere in the world to some facility somewhere. It's a -- it's one of the complexities of the intelligence business that you have to sort through those kinds of things. But we don't get into the specifics."
  Sep. 11, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld

Excerpt taken from Donald Rumsfeld's testimony to the House Armed Services Committee:

• "So I think that it -->There are real threats out there. And if you think back to Pearl Harbor, nobody ran around saying, "Oh my goodness, the Japanese are going to bomb Pearl Harbor." It didn't seem probable. And I don't deny for a second that it's possible for someone to look at the threats from countries like Iran and North Korea and Iraq, if they had the freedom to do it, and say, 'Ah, not to worry.'

  The reality is those weapons are enormously powerful, they are spreading through the world, and we would make an enormous mistake to not be attentive to the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the ability to deliver them. And I would add one thing. A ballistic missile can be put into a boat, a ship, on a transport erector launcher, peel off the top, erect it and fire it. And it has been done by one of the countries that have those capabilities today. They do not have to be ICBM range; they can be shorter and just as deadly."
  May 28, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld