President Comments on Weapons Inspector's Report
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample
American Force Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2003 - Saddam Hussein deceived the international community, violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, and was a danger to the world, President George W. Bush said today, summarizing chief weapons inspector Dr. David Kay's progress report to Congress on his team's investigation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.
The president was in Milwaukee to present a speech on the nation's economy. He said Kay's report, delivered to Congress Oct. 2, reveals "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."
Bush said Kay's report shows Iraq had a secret network of biological laboratories, a live strain of a deadly agent called botulinum and an advanced program for prohibited long-range missiles.
Quoting directly from Kay's report, the president said Iraq's program for weapons of mass destruction "spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars, and it was elaborately shielded by security deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Kay's team also has found "systematic destruction of evidence of the illegal activity," Bush said.
Kay told reporters here Oct. 2 he believes his team is six to nine months away from knowing most of what it will know about Saddam's weapons programs. In the meantime, Bush said, more work needs to be done to bring peace and freedom to Iraq.
"A peaceful Iraq and a free Iraq is part of our campaign to rid the world of terror," Bush said. "And that's why the thugs in Iraq still resist us -- because they can't stand the thought of free societies.
"Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"There will be a free and peaceful Iraq. Taking place in Iraq is the evolution of a society which will be democratic in nature, a society in which the people are better off."
