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victim soul For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary October 7, 2002 President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat Remarks by the President on Iraq Cin cinnati Museum Center - Cincinnati Union Terminal Cincinnati, Ohio 8:02 PM EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you for that very gracious and warm C incinnati welcome. Tonight I want to take a few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace, and America's determination to lead the world in confronting that threat . It arises directly from the Iraqi regime's ow n actions -- its history of aggression, and its drive toward an arsenal of terror. Eleven years ago, as a condition for ending the Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi regime was required to destroy its weapons of mass destru ction, to cease all development of such weapons, and to stop all support for terrorist groups. The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obliga tions. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism, and practices terror against its own people. The entire world has witnes sed Iraq's eleven-year history of defiance, deception and bad faith. We also must never forget the most vivid events of recent history. On Sep tember the 11th, 2001, America felt its vulnerability -- even to threats that gather on the other side of the earth. We resolved then, and we ar e resolved today, to confront every threat, from any source, that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America. Members of the Congress of both political parties, and members of the Uni ted Nations Security Council, agree that Saddam Hussein is a threat to p eace and must disarm. We agree that the Iraqi dictator must not be permi tted to threaten America and the world with horrible poisons and disease s and gases and atomic weapons. Since we all agree on this goal, the iss ues is : how can we best achieve it? Many Americans have raised legitimate questions: about the nature of the threat; about the l ink between Iraq developing weapons of terror, and the wider war on terr or. These are all issues we've discussed broadly and fully within my adm inistration. And tonight, I want to share those discussions with you. First, some ask why Iraq is different from other countries or regimes tha t also have terrible weapons. While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most seriou s dangers of our age in one place. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction ar e controlled by a murderous tyrant who has already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. This same tyrant has tried to dominate the Middle East, has invaded and brutally occupied a small neighbor, has st ruck other nations without warning, and holds an unrelenting hostility t oward the United States. By its past and present actions, by its technological capabilities, by th e merciless nature of its regime, Iraq is unique. As a former chief weap ons inspector of the UN has said, "The fundamental problem with Iraq r emains the nature of the regime, itself. Saddam Hussein is a homicidal d ictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction." Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger i s already significant, and it only grows worse with time. If we know Sad dam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger a nd develops even more dangerous weapons? In 1995, after several years of deceit by the Iraqi regime, the head of I raq's military industries defected. It was then that the regime was forc ed to admit that it had produced more than 30,000 liters of anthrax and other deadly biological agents. The inspectors, however, concluded that Iraq had likely produced two to four times that amount. This is a massiv e stockpile of biological weapons that has never been accounted for, and capable of killing millions. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents , including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein a lso has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical at tacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages in his own country. These actions killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times t he number of people who died in the attacks of September the 11th. And surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities t hat it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons. Every chemic al and biological weapon that Iraq has or makes is a direct violation of the truce that ended the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Yet, Saddam Hussein has chosen to build and keep these weapons despite international sanctio ns, UN demands, and isolation from the civilized world. Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of mile s -- far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nation s -- in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work. We've also discovered through intelligence that I raq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that coul d be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for mis sions targeting the United States. And, of course, sophisticated deliver y systems aren't required for a chemical or biological attack; all that might be required are a small container and one terrorist or Iraqi intel ligence operative to deliver it. And that is the source of our urgent concern about Saddam Hussein's links to international terrorist groups. Over the years, Iraq has provided sa fe haven to terrorists such as Abu Nidal, whose terror organization carr ied out more than 90 terrorist attacks in 20 countries that killed or in jured nearly 900 people, including 12 Americans. Iraq has also provided safe haven to Abu Abbas, who was responsible for seizing the Achille Lau ro and killing an American passenger. And we know that Iraq is continuin g to finance terror and gives assistance to groups that use terrorism to undermine Middle East peace. We know that Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy -- the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have ha d high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who f led Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda lea der who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has bee n associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've le arned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after September the 11th, Saddam Huss ein's regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America. Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical we apon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terror ists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints. Some have argued that confronting the threat from Iraq could detract from the war against terror. confronting the threat posed b y Iraq is crucial to winning the war on terror. When I spoke to Congress more than a year ago, I said that those who harbor terrorists are as gu ilty as the terrorists themselves. Saddam Hussein is harboring terrorist s and the instruments of terror, the instruments of mass death and destr uction. The risk is simply too great that he w ill use them, or provide them to a terror network. Terror cells and outlaw regimes building weapons of mass destruction are different faces of the same evil. And the United States military is capable of confronting both. Many people have asked how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclea r weapon. Before th e Gulf War, the best intelligence indicated that Iraq was eight to ten y ears away from developing a nuclear weapon. After the war, international inspectors learned that the regime has been much closer -- the regime i n Iraq would likely have possessed a nuclear weapon no later than 1993. The inspectors discovered that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons ...
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