05 December 2002
White House Report, December 5: Iraq, Kenya/Ethiopia
(Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed) (830) WHITE HOUSE ACCUSES IRAQ OF LYING The Bush administration has rejected the statement by Iraq's deputy prime minister that Baghdad has no weapons of mass destruction. "Iraq has lied before and they're lying now about whether they possess weapons of mass destruction," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters at his midday briefing December 5. Fleischer was asked to comment on remarks by Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz to ABC News December 4 in which Tariq Aziz said, "We don't have weapons of mass destruction. We don't have chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry, but we have equipment which was defined as dual use." Fleischer responded that "Tariq Aziz's statement is very much like statements that Iraq made throughout the '90s, denying that they had weapons of mass destruction when, of course, it was found that they indeed had weapons of mass destruction. And so I see little reason to believe Iraq now when they have such a history of lying in the past about this very topic." Fleischer told reporters that "President Bush has said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Tony Blair has said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Donald Rumsfeld has said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. [Former U.N. weapons inspector] Richard Butler has said they do. The United Nations has said they do. The experts have said they do. Iraq says they don't. You can choose who you want to believe." Earlier in the day, reporters asked President Bush -- in a brief question and answer session -- whether the United States was headed toward war? Bush responded: "That's a question you should ask to Saddam Hussein. It's his choice to make." "For the sake of peace, he must disarm. There are inspectors inside the country now, and the inspectors are there not to play a game of hide-and-seek; but they're there to verify whether or not Mr. Saddam Hussein is going to disarm. And we hope he does." Fleischer said, "the burden falls on Saddam Hussein to comply," with U.N. resolutions. "And this is why the president keeps saying this is not a game of hide and seek. If an adversary wants to hide, it's not hard to hide weapons of mass destruction from even the best inspectors, particularly in a country the size of Iraq. So Iraq is under an obligation under international law not to just not hide, but to cooperate. Iraq must cooperate, and this is what the inspectors and the world community will soon see -- if Iraq is indeed doing it or not," Fleischer said. It will be very interesting to see what Saddam Hussein says he has in the document that he presents the United Nations, Fleischer said, and "we'll also see what he says he doesn't have." That document, expected to be presented to the United Nations by Iraq on December 7, a day before the U.N. deadline, is expected to be "relatively voluminous, many, many pages," Fleischer said. "And it's unclear yet what language it will be in. It's possible it will be in Arabic and portions in English. We just don't know. So we'll see what Saddam Hussein produces. "And then we will be very thoughtful. We will be deliberative. We will study it. We will assess what it says. We will assess what it doesn't say." Fleischer said a coalition of the willing "is already assembling" to work with the United States If military action against Iraq is necessary. "Some two to three weeks ago, I think it was rather extensively reported that the State Department contacted some 50 nations around the world to discuss cooperation in the eventuality of a potential conflict with Iraq. And those conversations began at that point; they've been developing since then. And it is always my practice to allow nations to speak for themselves about what level of cooperation they are providing. So I am not going to get into any one nation specific. "I'll just repeat that the president is very satisfied that the international community agrees with him about the threat that Saddam Hussein presents. The international community and many of these nations that we are working most closely with see it the same way the president does. They, too, don't want war. They believe war should be a last resort, and they hope that Saddam Hussein will disarm so it can be averted. But make no mistake that the work of assembling a coalition continues," Fleischer said. BUSH MEETS WITH LEADERS OF KENYA, ETHIOPIA President Bush met for about an hour at the White House December 5 with Kenya's President Daniel Arap Moi and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer reported. The three leaders "discussed cooperation in the war against terrorism; they discussed regional issues involving security in the Horn of Africa; they discussed the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and the United States' commitment and huge amount of aid that we have provided to help fight the scourge of AIDS in Africa; and they also discussed the food crisis that is affecting areas in the region as well," Fleischer said. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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