Posted on Thu, Feb. 05, 2004

Associated Press

Prewar statements by President Bush and other administration officials on the urgency of stopping Saddam Hussein:

"What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is give in to wishful thinking or to willful blindness." - Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 29, 2002, speaking to veterans of the Korean War in San Antonio, Texas.

--- "The history, the logic, and the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence." - Bush, Sept. 12, 2002, speaking at the United Nations.

--- "He's a threat that we must deal with as quickly as possible." - Bush, Sept. 13, 2002, remarks to press.

--- "We do know that he (Saddam) has been actively and persistently pursuing nuclear weapons for more than 20 years. But we should be just as concerned about the immediate threat from biological weapons." - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Sept. 18, 2002, before House Armed Services Committee.

--- "There are a number of terrorist states pursuing weapons of mass destruction ... but no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq." - Rumsfeld, Sept. 19, 2002, Senate Armed Services Committee.

--- "On its present course, the Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency." - Bush, Oct. 2, 2002, after reaching agreement with House leaders on Iraq resolution.

--- "The danger is already significant and it only grows worse with time. If we know Saddam 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 and develops even more dangerous weapons?" - Bush, Oct. 7, 2002, speech in Cincinnati.

--- "The world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq, whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands." - Bush, Nov. 23, 2002, radio address.

--- "The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world. Let me now turn to those deadly weapons programs and describe why they are real and present dangers to the region and to the world." - Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5, 2003, at United Nations.

--- "The dictator of Iraq and his weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the security of free nations." - Bush, March 16, 2003, news conference after Azores summit with Spanish, British and Portuguese leaders.