[casi] Dick Cheney on what Sadddam had to do

[Peter Handley <peterjhandley@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>]

This is a message from Phil Braithwaite (tel: 0121 443 2122) - can anyone pass
it on to John Pilger?

Do you think this is significant - can you use it?

On US TV on the Sunday before the war (16.3.03) Dick Cheney was asked what
Saddam Hussein had to do. Cheney replied that even if Saddam got rid of all his
weapons of mass destruction immediately the US would still want him out. This
was reported on the BBC World Service at 4:10 am on the 17th - and their
comment was "Regime change is now top of the agenda and the UN has become
irrelevant". I have this recorded on audio tape

The Cheney quote did not appear in daytime media (radio TV or press) then or
since to my knowledge - even though it deserves to be repeated twice a day.

Transcript of the full NBC interview is on

http://www.msnbc.com/news/886068.asp

relevant section:

       MR. RUSSERT: What could Saddam Hussein do to stop war?
       VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, the difficulty here is it?s?he?s clearly
rejected, up till now, all efforts, time after time after time. And we have had
12 years and some 17 resolutions now. Each step along the way he had the
opportunity to do what he was called upon to do by the U.N. Security Council.
Each time he has rejected it. I?m not sure now, no matter what he said, that
anyone would believe him. We have, Tim, been down this effort now for six
months at the U.N. with the enactment of 1441. We asked for a declaration of
all of his WMD come clean. He refused to do that. He?s, again, continued to do
everything he could to thwart the inspectors.
       I?m hard-put to specify what it is he could do with credibility at this
stage that would alter the outcome.
       He?s always had the option of coming clean, of complying with the
resolution, of giving up all of his weapons of mass destruction, of making his
scientists available without fear of retribution, turning over the anthrax, and
the VX nerve agent, and the sarin, and of the other capabilities he has
developed, and he has consistently refused. And if he were to sit here today
and say, ?OK, now I?ll do it,? I?m not sure anybody would think that had
credibility.
       MR. RUSSERT: If he did come forward and say, you know, ?The British laid
out six benchmarks. I have decided to turn a new leaf. Here?s the VX, here?s
the mustard gas, here?s the anthrax, here?s all the records. I will go on
television, denounce weapons of mass destruction, you can take any scientists
you want out of Iraq, all I ask is that I can stay here in power.?
       VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I think we are at the point where?it?s hard for
me to conceive of him doing that. And pure speculation that he might do such a
thing. And, of course, the problem we have is what we have seen in the past is
that even on those occasions after the ?91 Gulf War when we did strip him of
certain capabilities, when the inspectors were able to go in through the work
of defectors, for example, and destroy significant capabilities that he had
acquired, and that as soon as they were gone, he was right back in business
again.
       And I think that would be the fear here, that even if he were tomorrow
to give everything up, if he stays in power, we have to assume that as soon as
the world is looking the other way and preoccupied with other issues, he will
be back again rebuilding his BW and CW capabilities, and once again
reconstituting his nuclear program. He has pursued nuclear weapons for over 20
years. Done absolutely everything he could to try to acquire that capability
and if he were to cough up whatever he has in that regard now, even if it was
complete and total, we have to assume tomorrow he would be right back in
business again.
       MR. RUSSERT: So bottom line, he would have to disarm completely and
leave the country?
       VICE PRES. CHENEY: I think that would be the only acceptable outcome I
can think of at this point, but obviously, we can continue to try to work
through the United Nations and work diplomacy to try to arrive at an acceptable
outcome. To date, we haven?t been successful.






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