On November 26, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell was interviewed by Larry King of CNN. Powell “said the president [Bush] retained ‘all his options’ if Saddam did not accept inspectors. Bush’s linkage–that Saddam should allow UN inspectors into Iraq with the purpose of proving he had no WMD–was a critical point. It tied the president’s reaction to the threat posed by Saddam to the [UN] Security Council’s judgments about Iraq’s compliance with the WMD disarmament provisions.”
– Charles Duelfer, Hide and Seek, Page 195