http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.htmlOctober 7, 2002
President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat
Remarks by the President on Iraq
Cincinnati Museum Center - Cincinnati Union Terminal
Cincinnati, Ohio
We know that
Iraq and the
al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy -- the United States of America. We know that
Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled
Afghanistan went to
Iraq. These include one very senior
al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in
Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that
Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after
September the 11th, Saddam Hussein's regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.htmlJanuary 28, 2003
President Delivers "State of the Union"
The U.S. Capitol
With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons,
Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region. And this Congress and the America people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that
Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.
Before
September the 11th, many in the world believed that
Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those
19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by
Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring
a day of horror like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day never comes. (Applause.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/iraq/20030501-15.htmlMay 1, 2003
President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended
Remarks by the President from the USS Abraham Lincoln
At Sea Off the Coast of San Diego, California
The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that
September the 11th would be the "beginning of the end of America." By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed. (Applause.)
<snip>
The liberation of
Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an
ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more. (Applause.)
In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the
victims of September the 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the
terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And
war is what they got. (Applause.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030907-1.htmlSeptember 7, 2003
President Addresses the Nation
Address of the President to the Nation
The Cabinet Room
<snip>For a generation leading up to
September the 11th, 2001, terrorists and their radical allies attacked innocent people in the Middle East and beyond, without facing a sustained and serious response. The terrorists became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak. And they grew bolder, believing that history was on their side. Since America put out the fires of
September the 11th, and mourned our dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power.
This work continues. In
Iraq, we are helping the long suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly -- yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security.
The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance
in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror, and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.
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