For Immediate Release
October 15, 2003

Global Message

From a report by the Coalition Provisional Authority

Iraq is the central front in the war on terror and remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and terrorists from foreign countries are making a desperate stand there. Coalition forces are confronting them on the streets of Baghdad so we will not have to meet them one day on the streets of Brooklyn.

Coalition forces have conducted hundreds of raids and thousands of patrols, seizing caches of enemy weapons and massive amounts of ammunition that can no longer be used against our troops or innocent civilians.

To date, 43 of the 55 most wanted former Iraqi leaders are dead or in custody, as well as thousands of other Baath Party loyalists and terrorists.

The Coalition has made sure that Saddam Hussein will never again use weapons of mass destruction. To reveal the full extent of the weapons program, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is interviewing Iraqi citizens, examining physical evidence, and analyzing records of the old regime.

ISG's recent progress report states: "We have discovered dozens of WMD related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002."

President Bush requested $87 billion in emergency funds to fight the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vast majority of those funds ($66 billion) will give our troops the resources necessary to succeed in the war on terror and protect them from terrorist attacks.