On October 2, 2002, “Senator Carl Levin [D-MI], the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, asked [Deputy CIA Director] John McLaughlin whether Hussein was likely to attack American interests with biological or chemical weapons. McLaughlin said the chances were low, but if the United States attacked Iraq, then the chances would be ‘pretty high.’ In other words, Hussein was a direct threat only if [President] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney acted first.”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 224