“President Bush has decided to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power and ordered the CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies to devise a combination of military, diplomatic and covert steps to achieve that goal, senior U.S. officials said Tuesday [February 12, 2002]. No military strike is imminent, but Bush has concluded that Saddam and his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs are such a threat to U.S. security that the Iraqi dictator must be removed, even if U.S. allies do not help, said the officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘This is not an argument about whether to get rid of Saddam Hussein. That debate is over,’ one official said.”
– Warren P. Strobel, “Bush Has Decided to Overthrow Hussein,” Knight-Ridder, Feb. 13, 2002