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 Home > News & Policies > February 2003

For Immediate Release
February 8, 2003

Global Message

Key Points from the President's Remarks on Iraq 2-6-03

  • The Iraqi regime's violations of Security Council resolutions are evident, and they continue to this hour. The regime has never accounted for a vast arsenal of deadly biological and chemical weapons, and is pursuing an elaborate campaign to conceal its weapons materials, and to hide or intimidate key experts and scientists.

  • This deception is directed from the highest levels of the Iraqi regime, including Saddam Hussein, his son, the Vice President, and the very official responsible for cooperating with inspectors.

  • Sources tell us Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons - the very weapons the dictator tells the world he does not have.

  • The same terrorist network operating out of Iraq is responsible for the recent murder of an American diplomat, Laurence Foley. The same network has plotted terrorism against France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Republic of Georgia, and Russia, and was caught producing poisons in London. The danger Saddam Hussein poses reaches across the world.

  • Saddam Hussein was given a final chance; he is throwing that chance away. The Security Council must show whether its words have any meaning. Having made its demands, the Security Council must not back down, when those demands are defied and mocked by a dictator.

  • The United States would welcome and support a new resolution which makes clear that the Security Council stands behind its previous demands. Yet resolutions mean little without resolve. And the United States, along with a growing coalition of nations, is resolved to take whatever action is necessary to defend ourselves and disarm the Iraqi regime.

  • On September 11, 2001, America saw what terrorists could do by turning four airplanes into weapons. We will not wait to see what terrorists or terrorist states could do with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons.

  • Saddam Hussein has made Iraq into a prison, a poison factory, and a torture chamber for patriots and dissidents. He has the motive, means, recklessness and hatred to threaten the American people. Saddam Hussein will be stopped.