July 10 2004 at 11:24AM

Sticking to their guns, despite Senate report

Omaha, Nebraska - United States Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a lead architect in the American-led war on Iraq, insisted that the war was justified even after a scathing US Senate report on the quality of pre-war intelligence.

Saddam Hussein's refusal to comply with United Nations resolutions demanding weapons inspections, the brutality of his regime, and his history for developing and using chemical weapons more than justified the war, Wolfowitz said in a speech on Friday to Omaha business leaders.

A Senate investigation concluded on Friday that the US intelligence community "mischaracterised" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war through "a series of failures," and its key judgments were either overstated or not backed up by intelligence reporting.
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But President George Bush "took a broader case" than just weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations, Wolfowitz said.

'If you wait until all the dots are connected, it's probably too late'

"If you wait until all the dots are connected, it's probably too late because you've already been attacked," he added.

In his speech Wolfowitz said that Iraqis were optimistic about their future following the recent power handover.

"I think they're starting to believe that we didn't come to get their oil," he said.

With the transfer of authority Iraqis now feel "they're no longer an occupied country," Wolfowitz said. "I believe that makes a tremendous difference." - Sapa-AFP