The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
President
Bush stated:
“Today, the
gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger facing
America
and the
world, is outlawed regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical
and
biological
weapons. These regimes could use such weapons for blackmail,
terror,
and mass
murder. They could also give or sell those weapons to terrorist
allies, who
would use
them without the least hesitation.
“This
threat is new; America’s duty is familiar …
“America is
making a broad and determined effort to confront these dangers
…
“Different
threats require different strategies …
“Our nation
and the world must learn the lessons of the Korean peninsula
and
not allow
an even greater threat to rise up in Iraq. A brutal dictator with a
history
of reckless
aggression, with ties to terrorism, with great potential wealth,
will not
be permitted
to dominate a vital region and threaten the United
States.
“Twelve
years ago, Saddam Hussein … agreed to disarm … For the next 12
years,
he
systematically violated that agreement. He pursued chemical,
biological and
nuclear
weapons … Nothing to date has restrained him from his pursuit of
these
weapons –
not economic sanctions, not isolation from the civilized world, not
even
cruise
missiles strikes on his military facilities.
“… the
United Nations Security Council gave Saddam Hussein his final
chance to
disarm. He
has shown instead utter contempt … The … UN inspectors … were
not
sent to
conduct a scavenger hunt for hidden materials … The job of the
inspectors
is to
verify that Iraq’s regime is disarming. It is up to Iraq to show
exactly where it is
hiding his
banned weapons, lay those weapons out for the world to see, and
destroy
them as
directed. Nothing like this has happened.
“The United
Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological
weapons
sufficient
to produce over 25,000 litres of anthrax – enough doses to kill
several
million
people. He hasn’t accounted for that material. He has given no
evidence that
he has
destroyed it.
“The United
Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had material sufficient
to
produce
more than 38,000 litres of botulinum toxin …
“Our
intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the
materials to produce
as much as
500 tonnes of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent …
“US
intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000
munitions
capable of
delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of
them –
despite
Iraq’s recent declaration denying their existence …
“From three
Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several
mobile
biological
weapons labs …
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