[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[October 7, 2004]
[Pages 2386-2387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Report on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction
October 7, 2004

    Chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer has now issued a comprehensive report that confirms the 
earlier conclusion of David Kay that Iraq did not 
have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there.
    The Duelfer report also raises 
important new information about Saddam Hussein's defiance of the world and his intent and capability to 
develop weapons. The Duelfer report showed that Saddam was 
systematically gaming the system, using the U.N. Oil for Food Programme 
to try to influence countries and companies in an effort to undermine 
sanctions. He was doing so with the intent of restarting his weapons 
program, once the world looked away.
    Based on all the information we have today, I believe we were right 
to take action, and America is safer today with Saddam Hussein in prison. He retained the knowledge, the materials, 
the means, and the intent to produce weapons of mass destruction, and he 
could have passed that knowledge on to our terrorist enemies. Saddam 
Hussein was a unique threat, a sworn enemy of our country, a state 
sponsor of terror, operating in the world's most volatile region. In a 
world after September the 11th, he was a threat we had to confront, and 
America and the world are safer for our actions.
    The Duelfer report makes clear that 
much of the accumulated body of 12 years of our intelligence and that of 
our allies was wrong, and we must find out why and correct the flaws. 
The Silberman-Robb Commission is now at work to do just that, and its 
work is important and essential. At a time of many threats in the world, 
the intelligence on which the President and Members of Congress base 
their decisions

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must be better, and it will be. I look forward to the intelligence 
reform commission's recommendations, and we will act on them to improve 
our intelligence, especially our intelligence about weapons of mass 
destruction.
    Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 1:24 p.m. on the South Grounds at the White 
House prior to his departure for Wausau, WI. In his remarks, he referred 
to Charles Duelfer, Special Advisor to the Director of Central 
Intelligence; David Kay, former CIA Special Advisor for Strategy 
Regarding Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs; and former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. He also referred to the Commission on 
the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of 
Mass Destruction, chaired by former Senator Chuck Robb and Judge 
Laurence Silberman. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a 
Spanish language transcript of these remarks. The report of September 30 
was entitled ``Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on 
Iraq's WMD.''