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NEVER SAID IMMINENT THREAT

On January 27, 2004, White House spokesman Scot McClellan claimed that the administration never said Iraq was an imminent threat. "the media have chose to use the word imminent" to describe the Iraqi threat.



"No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (09.19.02)


"This man poses a much graver threat than anybody could have possibly imagined." President Bush (09.26.02)


"The Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency. . . . It has developed weapons of mass death" President Bush (10.02.02)


"There's a grave threat in Iraq. There just is." President Bush (10.02.03)


"There are many dangers in the world; the threat from Iraq stands alone because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place. President Bush (10.07.02)


"The Iraqi regime is a serious and growing threat to peace." President Bush (10.16.02)


"There is a real threat, in my judgment, a real and dangerous threat to America in the form of Saddam Hussein." President Bush (10.28.02)


"I see a significant threat to the security of the United States in Iraq." President Bush (11.01.02)


"Today the world is...uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq." President Bush (11.01.02)


"The world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands." President Bush (11.23.02)


In January 2003, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett, when asked “is Saddam an imminent threat to U.S. interests”; he replied “Well, of course he is.”

In February 2003, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said “[t]his is about [an] imminent threat.”


In May 2003, Ari Fleisher was asked “Didn’t we go to war because we said WMD’s were a direct and imminent threat to the U.S?” He responded, “Absolutely.”

Sources: Daily Mis-Lead 01.28.04, CAP Daily Progress Report 01.29.04