For Immediate Release
May 7, 2003

Global Message

President Bush appointed Ambassador Bremer as Presidential Envoy to Iraq, an important next step forward in Iraq's long-term transition to democracy and prosperity that completes the senior U.S. management team.

Bremer will oversee Coalition reconstruction efforts and the process by which the Iraqi people build the institutions and governing structures to guide their future.

Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. Our coalition is now engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. The United States and our allies have prevailed, and because of this our nation and the Middle East are more secure, a tyrant has fallen and Iraq is now free.

Difficult work lies ahead in Iraq:

• Bringing order and security to parts that remain dangerous;

• Bringing to justice the leaders of and those who are loyal to the old regime;

• Locating hidden chemical and biological weapons;

• Rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure after 30 years of devastation;

• Standing by the Iraqi people as they establish a government of, by and for the Iraqi people.

Saddam Hussein is no more. The terrorists can no longer find a source of funding or weapons of mass destruction from the Saddam Hussein regime, because that regime is gone forever.