CNN.com - Bush: Don't wait for mushroom cloud - Oct. 6, 2002
President Bush outlined his case against the regime of Saddam Hussein and called on the Iraqi leader to disarm in a speech to the American people Monday night. Here is a transcript of his speech:
We agree that the Iraqi dictator must not be permitted to threaten America and the world with horrible poisons, and diseases, and gases, and
atomic weapons.
The inspectors discovered that
Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a workable nuclear weapon, and was pursuing several different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb.
Before being barred from Iraq in 1998, the International Atomic Energy Agency dismantled extensive nuclear weapons-related facilities, including three uranium-enrichment sites.
That same year, information from a high-ranking Iraqi nuclear engineer who had defected, revealed that despite his public promises,
Saddam Hussein had ordered his nuclear program to continue. The evidence indicates that
Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.
Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with
Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahedeen" -- his nuclear holy warriors.
Satellite photographs reveal that
Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past.
Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly-enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball,
it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.
And if we allow that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam Hussein would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression. He would be in a position to dominate the Middle East. He would be in a position to threaten America. And
Saddam Hussein would be in a position to pass nuclear technology to terrorists.
Some citizens wonder: After 11 years of living with this problem, why do we need to confront it now?
There is a reason. We have experienced the horror of September 11. We have seen that those who hate America are willing to crash airplanes into buildings full of innocent people. Our enemies would be no less willing -- in fact they would be eager -- to use a biological, or chemical, or
a nuclear weapon.
Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for
the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.