For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 14, 2003
Interview of the National Security Advisor by WTVT-TV, Tampa, Florida
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
November 10, 2003
3:00 P.M. EST
Q Thanks for joining us this afternoon.
DR. RICE: Pleasure to be with you.
Q Let's first talk about this Patriot Act, if you will. As you
know, it's coming under fire yet again. Did the administration, in
your opinion here, go too far, infringing on some Americans' rights?
At the same time, is the administration open to modifying this at all?
DR. RICE: The Patriot Act was one of the single most important
steps that this country took to defend itself. Many of the questions
that had been asked, for instance, about the sharing of intelligence
between various intelligence agencies -- the agencies like the CIA and
the FBI, were solved -- problems like that were solved by the Patriot
Act.
We had to be able to know who was in the country and to be able to
deal with the new threat of terrorists living amongst us. And so the
Patriot Act has been extremely important to the fight on terror. This
country remains open. This country remains committed to constitutional
principle. The Patriot Act is completely in line with constitutional
principles and requirements. But it's been an extremely important tool
for us in the fight against terror.
Q So you don't anticipate the administration allowing any
changes at this point?
DR. RICE: The administration and the President and General
Ashcroft believe that the Patriot Act is appropriate as it is. And I
just want to emphasize, completely consistent with and in the context
of our constitutional obligations.
Q Okay, what about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Of
course, you know the kind of attention this has gotten. Americans have
grown increasingly frustrated. Is there any new concrete information
or any intelligence you can share with them that indicates these
weapons of mass destruction, in fact, do exist?
DR. RICE: Well, let me first go back to what we knew at the time
that we went to war. And there was -- nobody who was really serious
about Iraq believed that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass
destruction. The United Nations talked about the missing or
unaccounted for weapons of mass destruction, multiple intelligence
services from around the world. The former administration -- the
Clinton administration went to war in 1998, air strikes against Iraq
because of his weapons of mass destruction. So he had them. He had
used them. He was under 12 years of sanctions because of his weapons
of mass destruction programs.
Now, since we've been there, we've been on a consistent and
coherent course to try and find out the true nature of the extent of
his programs, what became of the weapons of mass destruction that he
had. And we're finding interesting things.
When Dr. David Kay was here before, he talked about the continued
ambitions of Saddam Hussein. He talked about finding undeclared
biological laboratories that were capable of making biological
weapons.
And really in Dr. Kay's list, any one of the things that he found,
including the tremendous deception activities that Saddam Hussein went
through to try and deceive the weapons inspectors, any one of those
things would have had us back before the United Nations, declaring him
-- declaring Saddam Hussein in material breach.
So the American people can be certain that we went to war on solid
information, on information that had been gathered over 12 years, on a
history of use of weapons of mass destruction, and that we are finding
confirmation that this was somebody who hid his activities from the
United Nations and intended to continue those programs.
Q Do you think any of them -- or do you have any evidence that
indicates some of them could have been moved into Syria, perhaps?
DR. RICE: I've seen reports, as everyone has. We don't have any
evidence at this point that that's what happened.
Q Okay, and about Saddam Hussein, do you think the
administration has made it clear to the American public that Saddam had
nothing to do with September 11th?
DR. RICE: I think that the administration has made it clear that
we have no evidence and have never claimed a direct link of Saddam
Hussein and his regime to the events of September 11th, saying that he
planned them or controlled them or something. It is very clear that he
had links to terrorism that were broad and deep, including numerous
contacts with al Qaeda, including an al Qaeda associate, a man named al
Zarqawi, who was operating his network out of Baghdad. The network
that ended up ordering the killing of an American citizen, an American
diplomat in Jordan, Mr. Foley.
So, yes, Saddam Hussein had links to al Qaeda, links to terrorism.
But we have never claimed that he had a direct link to the September
11th events.
Q Dr. Rice, we're about to run out of time, but I want to get
one more quick question in if I can, with regards to MacDill Air Force
Base. Base closures may come up again in 2005, do you have any
indication MacDill could be on a closer list?
DR. RICE: We have no such indication. The President is determined
to have the best possible force structure. And that's what we'll do.
But there is absolutely no indication at this point.
Q And the future of Central Command, for that matter, staying
in Tampa? Any news on that?
DR. RICE: Well, there's no reason to think that there's going to
be a change there.
Q Okay, Dr. Condoleezza Rice joining us from Washington. Dr.
Rice, thanks very much.
DR. RICE: Thank you very much.
END 3:05 P.M. EST
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