Best Of The Blogs: What a Tangled Web We Weave...

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention August 26, 2002

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons. "

George W. Bush
Speech to UN General Assembly September 12, 2002

"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world."

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing December 2, 2002

"We know for a fact that there are weapons there."

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing January 9, 2003

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. "

George W. Bush
State of the Union Address January 28, 2003

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."

Colin Powell
Remarks to UN Security Council February 5, 2003

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."

George W. Bush
Radio Address February 8, 2003

"If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct."

Colin Powell
Interview with Radio France International February 28, 2003

"So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? . . . I think our judgment has to be clearly not."

Colin Powell
Remarks to UN Security Council March 7, 2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

George W. Bush
Address to the Nation March 17, 2003

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes."

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing March 21, 2003

"
There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them."

Gen. Tommy Franks
Press Conference March 22, 2003

"I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction."

Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
Washington Post , p. A27March 23, 2003

"One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites."

Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
Press Briefing March 22, 2003

"
We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview March 30, 2003

"Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty. "

Neocon scholar Robert Kagan
Washington Post op-ed April 9, 2003

"
But make no mistake -- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found."

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing April 10, 2003

"We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them."

George W. Bush
NBC Interview April 24, 2003

"There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country."

Donald Rumsfeld
Press Briefing April 25, 2003

"We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so."

George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters May 3, 2003

"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now. "

Colin Powell
Remarks to Reporters May 4, 2003

"We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country."

Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview May 4, 2003

"I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program. "

George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters May 6, 2003

"U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction."

Condoleeza Rice
Reuters Interview May 12, 2003

"
I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden."

Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
Press Briefing May 13, 2003

"Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found."

Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Interview with Reporters May 21, 2003

"Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction."

Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview May 26, 2003

"They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer."

Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations May 27, 2003

"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."

Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview May 28, 2003

"It was a surprise to me then — it remains a surprise to me now — that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there. "

Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview May 30, 2003

"Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there.""

Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency
Press Conference May 30, 2003

© Scoop Media