10 September 2006
Iraqi Freedom Vital to Defeating Terrorism, Rice Declares
Cheney, Rice cite progress in War on Terror in television interviews
Washington -- Saddam Hussein represented a nexus between terrorism and violence that would have made progress toward a better future for the Middle East and the world difficult to imagine if he had remained in power, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a series of television news interviews on September 10, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
From the perspective of the past five years, Rice said, the United States and its allies have made major progress in the War on Terror. She cited the capture or killing of many central al-Qaida figures such as Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who plotted and executed the September 11 attacks; the liberation of more than 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the gains in intelligence-gathering and cooperation with nations around the world.
Along with making the United States itself more secure, Rice said on Fox News Sunday, "I think that the record will show that the last five years have been years of reorganizing our international alliances for this long war and reorienting our strategic policy toward one that simply will not accept the conditions in the Middle East and in other places that have allowed extremism to flourish at the expense of moderation."
Appearing in an hour-long interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Vice President Cheney said that, despite an evolving threat from terrorist groups only loosely affiliated with a central al-Qaida organization, the United States and its allies have taken enormous strides in the terrorism fight.
As examples, Cheney cited the terrorist surveillance program, which he said had identified "key communications involving our adversaries," as well as efforts to track and shut down terrorist financing. He also cited the detainee program, "which has allowed us to collect some extraordinarily valuable intelligence from the terrorists we capture."
"It's all been done in a manner that's consistent with the president's authorities, with the Constitution, and with our treaty obligations," Cheney added. (See related article.)
Cheney said the hunt for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden continues to be active and aggressive, and he praised the courage of President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan as a valuable ally in the fight against terrorism. "The fact is, we've captured and killed more al-Qaida in Pakistan than anyplace else in the world in the last five years," he said.
Although the Taliban continue to operate in parts of Afghanistan, Rice said on Fox News Sunday, it does not pose any kind of "strategic threat" to the Karzai government. The Taliban might have believed that it could take advantage of the changeover from U.S. to NATO troops in southern Afghanistan. "And they're learning a very brutal lesson as they encounter NATO forces that are destroying them in very large numbers," she said. (See related article.)
IRAQ
In all her interviews, Rice stressed that critics underestimate the threat that Saddam Hussein represented while in power. Saddam Hussein was responsible for more than a million casualties in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, invaded Kuwait and triggered the Gulf War in 1991, defied U.N. sanctions and the Oil for Food embargo, attacked U.S. planes enforcing no-fly zones, was responsible for as many as 300,000 deaths of his own citizens and remained a state sponsor of terrorism, she said.
Although no weapons of mass destruction were found after Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003, subsequent international reports found that he retained the capability and intention of reconstituting his chemical and biological weapons once U.N sanctions were lifted, according to Rice.
"The idea that somehow this was a peaceful relationship with Saddam Hussein, and if we had just let him be, the world would have been fine, I find is not a very sustainable argument," she said on CBS's Face the Nation.
On CNN's Late Edition, Rice described Iraq under Saddam Hussein as a nexus of threats from "in a post-September 11 world ... in the middle of the world's most volatile region. The world is better off without him," she said.
Vice President Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press that the U.S. objective in Iraq is to see the establishment of a nation with a viable, representative government elected under its own constitution that is no longer a threat to its neighbors or the United States, nor a safe haven for terrorists, including al-Qaida cells. "Those are all things that need to happen, but I think we're well on the way to doing it," he said, "and we're better off there because of what we've done to date."
Rice noted on CNN's Late Edition that Iraqis continue to work toward a government of national unity where differences are worked out through political institutions, not violence. Iraqi leaders have had success in building a national army that is respected across Iraq, she said, but less success with sectarian divisions within the police force. (See related article.)
"Violent people can always engage in kidnappings or killings or suicide bombings," she said. "What's harder to show is the commitment of most Iraqis to finding a political bargain that will allow them to exist as one country. That's what they want. That's what they're working toward. And we are expressing confidence in them as they seek that future."
IRAN
With regard to Iran, Rice said on CNN's Late Edition that the United States is working to build a coalition of states, "all of whom know that Iranian nuclear activities are unexplained and troubling." Since Iran has not accepted the incentives packages that would have permitted civil nuclear cooperation, she continued, "I'm quite certain ... that the world will respond as the Security Council resolution demands."
Asked about the nature of possible sanctions, Rice dismissed speculation about Iran's oil exports and suggested that the focus might be more toward reducing or cutting off Iran's access to the international financial system.
On Meet the Press, Cheney said that there is little dispute in the international community that Iran is pursuing the capability for production of nuclear weapons. "We have said repeatedly that they should not have a nuclear bomb. And we have also made it abundantly clear that we want to solve the problem diplomatically."
For more information on U.S. policy, see September 11 Attacks, Response to Terrorism and Detainee Issues.
Transcripts of Secretary Rice's interviews on Fox News Sunday, CBS's Face the Nation and CNN's Late Edition can be found on the State Department Web site.
The transcript of Vice President Cheney's interview on NBC's Meet the Press is available on the White House Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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