Blix, Kay Agree Saddam Was a Threat, Had Weapons

BLIX, KAY AGREE: SADDAM WAS A THREAT, HAD WEAPONS

WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the following statement Wednesday regarding recent press reports about former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.

"Recent press reports about Hans Blix's book and recent comments about the case for liberating Iraq fail to take into account what Blix himself said in his report to the United Nations.

"Less than a month before coalition military operations began in March 2003, Blix warned the U.N. of as yet unaccounted for biological weapons and the extended-range missiles capable of distributing WMD beyond its borders. And he protested Iraq's failure to account for weapons of mass destruction. His message has changed. The facts have not.

"Democrats and Republicans, President Clinton and President Bush, and, yes, Hans Blix, believed that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of WMD. It is particularly dispiriting, however, to now hear politicians use the issue of WMD to attack the administration, and belittle the liberation of the Iraqi people.

"Even former chief U.S. arms inspector David Kay, at a recent Armed Services hearing said that the specter of Iraq's proliferation of WMD was a risk 'we barely avoided.' Yet I'm concerned that the politics of the moment are overshadowing some important facts. Short memories don't erase the facts, political platitudes don't excuse Hussein's brutality, menacing ambition or threat to the region and the world."