Wars and WMD's quotes found down the memory hole

A Special thank You to What Really Happened and Lunaville for doing some of the sourcing and compliing of quotes on this list

The president [Clinton] must remember that the military is a special instrument. It is lethal, and it is meant to be. It is not a civilian police force. It is not a political referee. And it is most certainly not designed to build a civilian society.
-Condoleeza Rice, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2000.

[Saddam] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction.
-- Colin Powell Cairo press conference, Feb. 24, 2001

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.-Dick Cheney Speech to VFW National Convention August 26, 2002

"We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought, maybe six months from a crude nuclear device.
"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud "

(see July 2003 Quote)

-Conndalezza Rice CNN's Late Edition September8, 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 September 12, 2002

"We've discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical weapons across broad areas."
-George W. Bush Cincinnati Museum Center on Oct. 7, 2002


"We estimate that once Iraq acquires fissile material -- whether from a foreign source or by securing the materials to build an indigenous fissile material capability -- it could fabricate a nuclear weapon within one year. It has rebuilt its civilian chemical infrastructure and renewed production of chemical warfare agents, probably including mustard, sarin, and VX. It actively maintains all key aspects of its offensive BW [biological weapons] program."
-John Bolton, Undersecretary of State Speech to the Hudson Institute 11/1/2002

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.-Ari Fleischer, Press Briefing December 2, 2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
-Ari Fleischer, Press Briefing January 9, 2002

I am absolutely convinced, based on the information that’s been given to me, that the weapon of mass destruction which can kill more people than an atomic bomb -- that is, biological weapons -- is in the hands of the leadership of Iraq.
Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader MSNBC Interview 1/10/2003

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 January 28, 2003

"There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction. If biological weapons seem too terrible to contemplate, chemical weapons are equally chilling"
Colin Powell, Secretary of State Addresses the U.N. 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 Bush Radio Address February 8, 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 Remarks to UN Security Council March 8, 2003

"Getting rid of Saddam Hussein's regime is our best inoculation. Destroying once and for all his weapons of disease and death is a vaccination for the world."
-Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader Washington Post op-ed 3/16/2003

Getting rid of Saddam Hussein's regime is our best inoculation. Destroying once and for all his weapons of disease and death is a vaccination for the world.
Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader Washington Post op-ed 3/16/2003

"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 Bush Address to the Nation March 18, 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 Fleisher Press Briefing March 21, 2003

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.
-Gen. Tommy Franks Address to the Nation March 22, 2003

I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.
-Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board , Press Briefing, March 23, 2003

"One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites. "
-Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark, Press Briefing March 22, 2003

"We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad, and to the east, west, south and north somewhat."
-Donald Rumsfeld, ABC Interview, March 30, 2003

"We simply cannot live in fear of a ruthless dictator, aggressor and terrorist such as Saddam Hussein, who possesses the world’s most deadly weapons."
Bill Frist, Speech to American Israel Political Action Committee 3/31/2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty
-Robert Kagan Washington Post op-ed April 9, 2003

"We still need to find and secure Iraq's weapons of mass destruction facilities and secure Iraq's borders so we can prevent the flow of weapons of mass destruction materials and senior regime officials out of the country."
-Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense Press Conference 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 Briefing April 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 News 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 Bush NBC Interview April 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 Press Briefing April 25, 2003

We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.
-George Bush Remarks to Reporters May 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 May 6, 2003

U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.
- Condoleeza Rice, Reuters Interview , May 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, May 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 Sec 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, NBC Today Show interview May 21, 2003

It's going to take time to find them, but we know he had them. And whether he destroyed them, moved them or hid them, we're going to find out the truth. One thing is for certain: Saddam Hussein no longer threatens America with weapons of mass destruction.
George W. Bush, President Speech at a weapons factory in Ohio 5/25/2003

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, NBC Today Show interview Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff May 26, 2003

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer
Donald Rumsfeld Remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations May 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 Vanity Fair interview May 28, 2003

You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons, And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."

-George Bush- Interview with TVP Poland

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, May 30, 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, President CAMP SAYLIYA, Qatar 6/5/2003

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 Response to Question From Press 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, President Comment to Reporters 6/9/2003

"It doesn't appear there are any more targets at this time," said Lt. Keith Harrington whose team has been cut by more than 30 percent. "We're hanging around with no missions in the foreseeable future."
Keith Harrington, Lt. Colonel Iraq 6/9/2003

British scientist and biological weapons expert, who has examined the trailers in Iraq, told The Observer last week: "They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were -- facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons."
Unnamed British Weapons Inspector The Observer 6/15/2003

You may be reading too much. I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons.
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense DoD News Briefing 6/24/2003

Remember this?

_____________________________________

We believe [Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

- Dick Cheney, NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003 _________________________________________

I'm not sure that's the major reason we went to warBill Frist, Senate Majority Leader
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told NBC, Today Show. 6/26/2003

Remember?:

__________________________

"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

___________________________________________

Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat
Joseph C. Wilson IV, Ambassador New York Times Editorial 7/6/2003

John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, said that whether Saddam's regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction "isn't really the issue." "The issue I think has been the capability that Iraq sought to have ... WMD programs," Bolton said
John Bolton, Undersecretary of State Interview with The Associated Press 9/4/2003

DIANE SAWYER: But stated as a hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons still — PRESIDENT BUSH: So what's the difference?
George W. Bush, President Diane Sawyer Interviews President Bush. 12/16/2003

Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations.
George W. Bush, President State of the Union Address - 2004 1/20/2004

I think some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent.’ Those were not words we used. We used 'grave and gathering' threat.

- White House spokesman Scott McClellan, White House Press Briefing , Jan 28,2004

But that's Not exactly true:

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This is about an imminent threat.
- White House spokesman Scott McClellan, press briefing, Feb. 10, 2003

After being asked whether Hussein was an “imminent” threat: Well, of course he is
- White House spokesman Dan Bartlett, CNN interview, Jan. 26, 2003

After being asked whether the U.S. went to war because officials said Hussein’s alleged weapons were a direct, imminent threat to the U.S.: Absolutely.
- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, May 7, 2003

___________________________________________________________

will know precisely what happened to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction."
-Condolezza Rice PBS transcript. July 30,2003

"It was a case that said he is trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next year"
-Condolezza Rice PBS transcript. July 30,2003

Except all these people: ____________________________________________
" But the intelligence assessment was that he was reconstituting his nuclear programs; that, left unchecked, he would have a nuclear weapon by the end of the year; that if he got foreign assistance, it would be very much quicker
--Condolezza Rice Fox News Sunday Oct 10, 2003

"Senator, that was just a question of pointing out to people that there was an uncertainty. No one was saying that he would have to have a weapon within a year for it to be worth it to go to war."

"We estimate that once Iraq acquires fissile material -- whether from a foreign source or by securing the materials to build an indigenous fissile material capability -- it could fabricate a nuclear weapon within one year."
John Bolton, Undersecretary of State Speech to the Hudson Institute 11/1/2002

"If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy or steal an amount of highly-enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year."
--George W. Bush Cincinnati Museum Center on Oct. 7, 2002,
__________________________________________________

The 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. inspections destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capability and, for the most part, Saddam Hussein did not try to rebuild it, according to an extensive report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq that contradicts nearly every prewar assertion made by top administration officials about Iraq.
Duelfer Report October 7, 2004

."You can only search so many places for WMD,the actual physical search is over for all intents and purposes" Anonymous Defense Official Jan 12, 2005


"We've talked to so many people that someone would have said something. We received nothing that contradicts the picture we've put forward. It's possible there is a supply someplace, but what is much more likely is that [as time goes by] we will find a greater substantiation of the picture that we've already put forward."
Unamed Intelligence Official Jan 12, 2005

(Duelfer) is continuing to wrap things up at this point on an addendum to the report which will be issued some time next month," "That's not going to fundamentally alter the findings of his earlier report.
Scott McClellan, White House Spokesman, press Briefing Jan 12, 2005

"The President's focus is on is looking at the recommendations from the independent commission on weapons of mass -- on intelligence relating to weapons of mass destruction that he appointed . . . ,"
Scott McClellan, White House press secretary press Briefing 1/12/05

"We've talked to so many people that someone would have said something. We received nothing that contradicts the picture we've put forward. It's possible there is a supply someplace, but what is much more likely is that [as time goes by] we will find a greater substantiation of the picture that we've already put forward."
Unamed Intelligence Official Jan 12, 2005

"Barbara Walters: This was our main reason for going in. So now when we read, 'Okay, the search is over,' what do you feel?
"President Bush: Well, like you, I felt like we'd find weapons of mass destruction. Or like many, many here in the United States, many around the world, the United Nations thought he had weapons of mass destruction, and so therefore, one, we need to find out what went wrong in the intelligence gathering. Saddam was dangerous. And . . . the world was safer without him in power.
"Walters: But was it worth it if there were no weapons of mass destruction? Now that we know that that was wrong? Was it worth it?
"Bush: Oh, absolutely."

President George W. Bush
ABCNews Interview 1/13/05