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Rumsfeld Discusses Iraqi Threat
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Rumsfeld said it is no secret a regime change in Iraq has been U.S. policy for some time. The policy started in the Clinton administration, is approved by Congress and is supported by the Bush administration. He said the United States is addressing this in a variety of ways including through diplomatic, economic and military means.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and is seeking to develop nuclear capabilities, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said July 30.

Rumsfeld said the U.S. government has been explaining to people at home and abroad what this capability plus Iraq's ties to organizations like al Qaeda mean to the security of the world.

He said Iraq's efforts at concealing weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them are indicative of the problem worldwide. He said Iraq and other countries are "burrowing underground" to conceal these facilities. They are also building mobile facilities, which make them difficult to find and hit.

Further complicating the situation is dual-use technologies. These are technologies that have a benign civilian use and a military use. Examples are technologies that can make medicines, but also can be used to make biological weapons.

Finding all these facilities is difficult. "Think back to Iraq, and the number of inspectors that were milling about that country for a good, long period and the difficulty they had -- except when prompted by defectors -- to know where things were," Rumsfeld said.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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