[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 41 (Monday, October 11, 2004)]
[Pages 2275-2276]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Wausau, Wisconsin

October 7, 2004

Report on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction

    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

[[Page 2276]]

threats in the world, the intelligence on which the President and 
Members of Congress base their decisions 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. 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.''