WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Monday he is "absolutely convinced" that the United States will find proof that Iraq had an illegal weapons program, but he stopped short of saying that actual biological or chemical agents will be uncovered.
Bush's comments were among the most forceful he has made on the subject since the postwar search for banned weapons began to emerge as a troubling political issue for the White House.
But his remarks were also carefully calibrated, in contrast to categorical statements he and other senior administration officials made before the war asserting Iraq had illegal weapons.
"Iraq had a weapons program," Bush said Monday in a brief exchange with reporters at the White House. "Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced, with time, we'll find out that they did have a weapons program."
The emphasis on the word "program" marks a subtle shift by the president, whose administration made Iraq's alleged stocks of banned weapons the centerpiece of its case for going to war against Saddam Hussein.
The White House could point to recovered documents, seized equipment and accounts from captured Hussein regime officials to make the case for the existence of an illegal weapons program. Despite two months of searching by U.S.-led forces, no illegal biological or chemical materials have been found.
Regime leaders had acknowledged that biological and chemical weapons were developed in the 1980s and early 1990s, but they claimed that Iraq shut down those programs and had no banned weapons when U.S.-led military forces attacked in March. Iraqi scientists currently in custody say the same, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
Bush on Monday rejected suggestions that the failure to find banned weapons would undermine U.S. credibility.
"The credibility of this country is based upon our strong desire to make the world more peaceful," he said, "and the world is now more peaceful after our decision" to overthrow Hussein.
Without prompting, the president also renewed assertions of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda -- another underpinning for the war.
Bush referred to Abu Musab Zarqawi, an Al Qaeda operative from Jordan who has been linked to the assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in that country last year. U.S. intelligence officials have said Zarqawi operated in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, although there has been no definitive evidence that Hussein's government collaborated with Al Qaeda.
