WASHINGTON -- White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Tuesday Saddam Hussein is a 'clear and present danger to the world' and that 'he must be stopped.'
He denounced the Iraqi leader when asked to comment on Saddam's interview with the Cable News Network in which Saddam said Scud missiles fired into Israel and Saudi Arabia could have been equipped with nuclear, chemical and biological warheads.
Fitzwater told reporters the United States has 'always assumed that is the case' in terms of chemical warheads, but that 'we don't believe he has a nuclear weapon right now.'
He said that the administration believes Iraq is close to developing a crude nuclear device within a year.
The threat to use weapons of mass destruction, Fitzwater added, 'is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention.'
'From our standpoint the only real truth from what he spoke is that he must be stopped,' said Fitzwater.
In the interview, granted Monday night in Baghdad to CNN's Peter Arnett, Saddam said he had not used unconventional weapons yet because such tactics were unnecessary and that his forces had 'maintained our balance using conventional weapons.'
'All the air superiority you see now that has come upon us has failed,' the Iraqi president was quoted as saying. 'We pray that we shall not be forced in taking a force measure.'
Asked if his forces would use chemical weapons in a land war, Arnett quoted Saddam as saying only, 'Iraq will use weapons that equate the weapons used against us.'
As for using such weapons, Fitzwater said:
'We certainly don't doubt for a minute his willingness to do it, which is one of the very reasons why we are in this conflict because it soon became clear to the world that this is a man who if he had nuclear weapons would use them and he clearly is trying to get them and he makes no bones about it.'
'He gives an interview that is shown all over the world in which he says 'I want nuclear weapons and I want to use them.'
'I think that is a very clear and present danger to the world that we're trying to deal with,' he added.
The presidential spokesman said that the United States has been in contact with third parties who are in touch with Tehran to discuss the flight of some 80 to 90 Iraqi planes to Iran.
'There's no way to know with absolute confidence,' said Fitzwater, as to the intent of the Iraqi pilots who fled their country. 'We've been assured they will be held until after the war. We have no reason to think otherwise.
