Donald Rumsfeld: It Will Take Months to Root Out the Remnants of Saddam Hussein's Overthrown Regime - 2003-06-10

Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, states that even with the deployment of more peacekeepers to the region, it will take months to root out the remnants of Saddam Hussein's overthrown regime. In a speech today in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Mr. Rumsfeld held the Ba'ath Party of Iraq and other loyalists to Saddam responsible for the increase in attacks on coalition forces in the post-war period. The U.S. Secretary of Defense said that the uncertainty surrounding Saddam Hussein's fate has likely contributed to the ongoing violence in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld mentioned that some Iraqis are reluctant to disclose what they really know for fear that Saddam may still be alive and could return to power. Perhaps some members of the Ba'ath Party believe that Saddam might reclaim Iraq. The U.S. Defense Secretary, who is on a four-day visit to Europe, previously stated that he has no doubt that the accuracy of the intelligence gathered by intelligence agencies regarding Iraq's banned weapons before the war will be proven. The U.S. and British governments have been accused of manipulating secret information about Iraq to justify the necessity of attacking the Baghdad regime, but both governments have denied these allegations.