Rumsfeld briefing at Pentagon, comments on Iraq — Transcript

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1. 0:00good afternoon welcome home how are you
2. 0:03feeling
3. 0:04good uh as several of you know last
4. 0:08night we returned haida had
5. 0:09i believe she put a taken refuge in
6. 0:12baghdad
7. 0:13and she also said we do have solid
8. 0:16evidence
9. 0:16of the presence in iraq of al-qaeda
10. 0:20members
11. 0:20including some that have been in baghdad
12. 0:25we have what we consider to be
13. 0:28a very reliable reporting of senior
14. 0:30level contacts
15. 0:31going back a decade
16. 0:34and of possible chemical and biological
17. 0:36agent training
18. 0:38when i say contacts i mean between iraq
19. 0:40and al qaeda
20. 0:43the reports of these contacts have been
21. 0:45increasing since 1998.
22. 0:48chemical weapons could you share any
23. 0:50light on either of those including
24. 0:52whether or not these al qaeda had
25. 0:54i believe she put a taken refuge in
26. 0:56baghdad and she also said that suspected
27. 0:59al-qaeda captives
28. 1:01we have what we consider to be
29. 1:05credible evidence that al-qaeda leaders
30. 1:07have sought contacts in iraq who could
31. 1:09help them acquire
32. 1:11weapon of weapons of mass destruction
33. 1:13capabilities
34. 1:17we do have i believe it's one
35. 1:21report indicating that iraq provided
36. 1:25unspecified
37. 1:28training relating to chemical and or
38. 1:31biological
39. 1:33matters for al qaeda members
40. 1:36putting this out now domestically and
41. 1:40overseas
42. 1:41uh is that neither you nor the president
43. 1:44we know there are al qaeda in the
44. 1:45country
45. 1:46and we know they've discussed with iraq
46. 1:47safe haven now whether the ones that are
47. 1:50in the country
48. 1:51are there under some sort of grant of
49. 1:54safe haven or not
50. 1:55is is happens to be a piece of
51. 1:57intelligence that either we don't have
52. 1:59or we don't want to talk about
53. 2:03master you've had el
54. 2:07domestically and overseas uh is that
55. 2:10neither you and how to
56. 2:11make chemical weapons could choose we
57. 2:13know they have weapons of mass
58. 2:15destruction we know they have active
59. 2:16programs
60. 2:18there isn't any debate about it
61. 2:22so so the idea that if you had an
62. 2:24appropriate inspection regime
63. 2:26uh that they'd come back and say you
64. 2:28were wrong is is
65. 2:30um so far beyond anyone's imagination
66. 2:34that it's not something i think about
67. 2:36al qaeda had i believe she put a taken
68. 2:39refuge in baghdad