Richard Butler Quotes (57 Quotes)

I regret that I had to report the facts yesterday, which is that (unfettered access) had not been given, and we can't adequately do our jobs under these circumstances.

In light of this experience, that is, the absence of full cooperation by Iraq, it must regrettably be recorded again that the commission is not able to conduct the substantive disarmament work mandated to it by the Security Council and, thus, to give the council the assurances it requires with respect to Iraq's prohibited weapons programs.

Butler knows very well that Iraq cannot rebuild its arsenal of mass destruction weapons because the means to make these weapons have been destroyed.

He is now misleading the world's public, and I find that sad, wrong and frankly, a touch dangerous,

the right to secure full and free access at any time to material and other items, which, in its judgment, may be necessary for its monitoring and verification activities.

Aziz demanded that I tell the Security Council that Iraq is clear now.

what weapons do they have and where are they now.

There's a new administration in control now. It should put its muscle behind that and make clear to the Russians that it's wrong -- this is the post Cold War period. Russia shouldn't be patronizing a rogue like Saddam Hussein.

But, as I understand it, the core (of the inspection team) would still be the technicians and professionals from UNSCOM whose job it is to identify anything relevant to weapons of mass destruction. If that's the way this thing comes out by way of a solution, fine, because the core is still our technical work and our task of disarmament.

The proposal for national missile defense, as articulated now, is the wrong answer to the right question. The right question is what do we do about rogue states like Saddam's Iraq.

If (Iraqi officials) cooperate with this, if they break the habit of a lifetime and tell us the whole truth, then we will be able to verify that and deal with those results within about six months.

As long as it exists it points to the possible existence of clandestine Scuds. Maybe they didn't destroy the fuel because they've got some plan to (deploy) Scuds.

We did not make the progress I have hoped for.

No member of the council, including the United States, has purported to give me instructions. They all recognize that their job is policy, my job is operation.

I don't think there's any doubt at all -- the man is thoroughly back in business making weapons of mass destruction.

I think we are set for now to have a good clear and specific focus this weekend on what needs to be done in the months ahead.

Biology is a black hole. Biological agents are an area where they have never told us the truth.

This is nothing, ... We have planted seeds. Most of north Idaho now is filled with the people who escaped multiculturalism or diversity or whatever you want to call it.

I earnestly believe that those documents exist and they're in the possession of the government of Iraq, and they can choose to give them to us.

I think I can feel a new spirit and good cooperation from the Iraqi side.

The Iraqis have had three years to do such things, three years without inspections, and throughout that period, they have claimed that they have no weapons of mass destruction. If that is the truth, why not have inspectors come back and look and see and prove to the world that you don't have any of those weapons

The inspectors will need to be able to go below the ground, ... At the end of my time, we were starting to use ground-penetrating radar. They're going to need that, they're going to need to be able to literally look underground.

They've got to tell us the whole truth about their weapons -- they've got to let us into the sites that we need to inspect to verify those facts and then destroy the weapons involved. That's the way out of this one.

I think there is a good basis for conversation between the two sides aimed at ironing out those difficulties and seeing that we don't get into crisis again.

clear evidence that Iraq had taken advance actions at certain of the locations planned for inspection in order to defeat the purposes of inspection.

The game is only just afoot. And there is yet more to come and there have been some hints of both good cooperation but also some inconsistencies that demonstrate, I think, that the road ahead is somewhat bumpy.

I have seen no evidence of Iraq providing weapons of mass destruction to non-Iraqi terrorist groups.

Iraq's conduct ensured that no progress was able to be made in either the fields of disarmament or accounting for Iraq's prohibited weapons program.

This is a good opportunity for us to measure where we are during the early stage of the season.

A promise was made by the Iraqi side to provide us with further information that we have requested.

And what's different We'll have some diplomatic observers with us to make sure that both sides -- not just UNSCOM, but Iraq, too -- behave in an appropriate manner in these special sites,

I am deeply concerned about the whole process. I have a message to convey from the Security Council to the Iraqis. I hope that they will commit themselves to the past cooperation with U.N. inspection teams.

Quite frankly it would be utterly foolish not to think not to assume, absent us, that they are doing it again,

Like the Security Council, I take at face value their promise to offer full cooperation.

What there is now is evidence that Saddam has reinvigorated his nuclear weapons program.

The chemical and biological (weapons), there is no ambiguity. They are able to produce those weapons.

I could have been in a position to report to the (U.N.) Security Council the end or very near end of the missile and chemical weapons files.

He mentioned in particular his wish for me to hear their report on chemical and biological weapons. That seemed to me to be a positive development and I took it in good spirit.

the experts as a whole said the whole picture is that Iraq put chemical weapons in these warheads.

In a more ideal world Saddam should be on trial in The Hague next to Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity.

And Iraqi representatives have said that they consider themselves to be threatened by other ethnic groups, primarily the Persians and the Jewish people, ... And they said this is why they had acquired biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

a big black hole.

They've turned the lights off and it's pretty hard to take pictures when you've got no lights, ... In other places, they've simply obstructed the cameras, put bags over the lenses. It looks a little bit like, 'the cat's away, the video mice will play.'

What we've got to be certain about above all is whether it came from a country supporting these terrorists as a matter of policy, such as Iraq, which we know has made this stuff, ... And there's a credible report not fully verified that they may indeed have given anthrax to exactly the group that did the World Trade Center.

Given the last 22 months, given today's circumstances of crumbling sanctions, given the fact that he is back in the arms business, Mister Chairman, it follows as the night follows the day for me to say what I am saying These sanctions are not working.

Talk about their shortfall in the last few days on documents leading automatically to some kind of enforcement is a bit exaggerated. We need the whole picture,

If there was no prospect of this, the government of Iraq had no intention of continuing to work with the (U.N. Special) Commission.

He was very respected among us. I don't know why he did what he did, but I cannot condemn what he did -- nor do I condone it.

(Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister) Tariq Aziz said to me on the telephone today he will be in a position to give me a fuller report on the biological area tonight,

It is with great sadness that I take this decision, ... I have always acted with the best interests of the state at heart and, consistent with that, I felt bound to make this decision.