"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
--- Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."
--- President George W. Bush, Sept. 12, 2002

"The Iraqi regime possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons."
--- President George W. Bush, Oct. 7, 2002

"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that would be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using the UAVs for missions targeting the United States."
--- President George W. Bush, Oct. 7, 2002

"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 mujahideen' - 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."
--- President George W. Bush, Oct. 7., 2002

"We know for a fact there are weapons there."
--- White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer, Jan. 9, 2003

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of Sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."
--- President George W. Bush, Jan. 28, 2003

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."
--- Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5, 2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
--- President George W. Bush, March 17, 2003

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly."
--- White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer, March 21, 2003

"I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction."
--- Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board, March 23, 2003

"We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad."
--- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003

"We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so."
--- President George W. Bush, May 3, 2003

"I never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country."
--- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, May 4, 2003

"U.S. officials never expected that we were going to open garages and find weapons of mass destruction."
--- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, May 12, 2003

"They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer."
--- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, May 27, 2003

"We based our decisions on good, sound intelligence, and the — our people are going to find out the truth. And the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."
--- President George W. Bush, July 17, 2003

Bush's story of WMD in Iraq put in an Elizabethan phrase echoes from the past :

"... it is a tale
Told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

"We feel deceived -- by the CIA, which overestimated the threat, and by the White House, which probably stretched the bad estimates to build a case for war. If Bush had found other strategic or humanitarian reasons for the war, "he should have argued the case on that basis"
--- Editorial page, The Dallas Morning

"While intelligence was faulty, the evidence also seems overwhelming that the Bush administration pushed existing evidence well beyond its breaking point, exaggerating threats and claiming specific knowledge of Iraqi WMD where in reality no such knowledge existed."
--- Editorial page, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Was the administration misled, or did it twist what it was told to justify taking down Hussein? A full accounting is due."
--- Editorial page, The Detroit Free Press

"President Bush should acknowledge two harsh truths: that the intelligence was completely wrong and that administration hawks tried to politicize intelligence."
--- The Boston Globe

"Kay's conclusion destroys the remaining credibility of this administration's argument for an immediate, pre-emptive war."
--- The Philadelphia Inquirer