Rumsfeld denies making claims Iraq had WMDs

'Never said that ... never did,' defense secretary now asserts

By ERIC ROSENBERG
P-I WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to rewrite history last week when he denied making prewar claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Rumsfeld's latest effort at backtracking on his prewar statements came Thursday at a contentious public forum in Atlanta when he faced a handful of hecklers and an anti-war questioner in the audience, who charged that he had lied about Saddam having weapons of mass destruction, which was President Bush's chief rationale for invading the country and starting the war.

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Rumsfeld said: "He has them. We know where they are." It is upon this failed belief 2,420 American soldiers have died.