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Saddam Poses Threat to Neighbors, West
Monday, September 9, 2002
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

"What do those pieces of information mean? What might we have done before the attack? The task today is to connect those dots before a weapon of mass destruction is used against the West."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Iraq already possesses weapons of mass destruction and is seeking more, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on "Good Morning America" Sept. 9.

Broadcasting from the rebuilt Pentagon, show co-host Charles Gibson pressed Rumsfeld on the "evidence" of Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

"(Saddam Hussein) certainly has chemical and biological weapons," Rumsfeld said. "He's used chemical weapons against his own people and against his neighbors."

Iraq used chemical weapons during its near-decade-long war with Iran in the 1980s. Saddam Hussein also used chemical agents against dissident populations within Iraq. He threatened to use such weapons against the coalition opposing his invasion of Kuwait in 1990, but he did not use them.

Rumsfeld said that with the absence of U.N. inspectors inside the country, information about Iraq's nuclear program "is not knowable." But Iraq's hunger for these weapons is knowable, he said.

Prior to the Persian Gulf War, the best estimates for Iraq developing a nuclear weapon was between two to six years, Rumsfeld said. "When the Gulf War ended, we were able to look where he was and it turned out he was within six to 12 months of having a nuclear weapon," he said. "You know (the Iraqis) are getting closer every day, every week, every month and therefore, time is not on your side."
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

Dan