Rumsfeld denies making claims Iraq had WMDs - Monday, May 8, 2006 [View All]

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/269394_rumsfeld08.html?source=mypi

'Never said that ... never did,' defense secretary now asserts


WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to rewrite history last week when he denied making prewar claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. snip

His questioner persisted: "You said you knew where they were."

Rumsfeld: "I did not. I said I knew where 'suspect' sites were."

The record shows that in the weeks preceding the war, Rumsfeld flatly claimed to know the whereabouts of Saddam's WMD arsenal.

On March 30, 2003, 11 days into the war, Rumsfeld was asked in an ABC News interview if he was surprised that American forces had not yet found any weapons of mass destruction.

"Not at all," Rumsfeld said, according to an official Pentagon transcript. "The area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."