Rice defends Bush over Iraq
2004-10-22 20:20
Pittsburgh - White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq and blamed that country for promoting terrorism.
"While Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the actual attacks on America, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a part of the Middle East that was festering and unstable ... was part of the circumstances that created the problem on September 11," Rice told the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh.
She said she did not know if there are more terrorists in Iraq today than before the war, but said the US invasion is not why they were there.
Allegiance to Osama bin Laden
She talked about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and is believed to be behind several beheadings in Iraq.
"Al-Zarqawi was in Iraq well before the war and he knows the territory, so to speak," Rice said. "And of course, when we decided to challenge the terrorists, finally they come out, they come out to fight."
The United States is offering $25m for information leading to al-Zarqawi's death or capture.
In the latest attack by insurgents in Iraq on Thursday, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying female employees of Iraqi Airways to the Baghdad airport, killing one and wounding 14, an airline official said. All the victims were Iraqi women.
- SAPA