On September 18, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testified before the House Armed Services Committee: “There are a number of terrorist states pursuing weapons of mass destruction–Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, to name but a few. But no terrorist state poses a greater and more immediate threat to the security of our people, and the stability of the world, than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. …Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent–that Saddam is at least 5-7 years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain. Before Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the best intelligence estimates were that Iraq was at least 5-7 years away from having nuclear weapons. The experts were flat wrong. When the U.S. got on the ground, it found the Iraqi’s were probably six months to a year away from having a nuclear weapon–not 5 to 7 years.”
– Donald H. Rumsfeld, Prepared Testimony of U.S. Secretary of Defense before House and Senate Armed Services Committees, U.S. Department of Defense, Sep. 18, 2002