"Don't believe those who say they aren't there just because we haven't found them. Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Butler told the crowd. "Iraq certainly did have weapons of mass destruction. Trust me. I held some in my own hands."
Ex-U.N. inspector says Iraq invasion justified
By MADELAINE VITALE Staff Writer, Atlantic County News
ATLANTIC CITY - "Terrorists cannot be ignored" was the message at the annual convention of the Utility and Transportation Contractors Association on Friday at the Tropicana Casino and Resort.
Ambassador Richard Butler, former chief United Nations weapons inspector for Iraq, told a couple hundred people that as a nation, we must respond to terrorists - or as Butler refers to them, "nonstate actors."
"These people don't represent anyone," Butler said. "They don't speak for a government. They have come to behave like a state. They use force but not in self-defense. We saw that in 9-11. We saw nonstate actors in their modern form."
Terrorists are nothing more than people who commit indiscriminate homicide to promote their point of view, Butler, the keynote speaker, said with a thick Australian accent.
"They don't know the faces of the people they are killing. They don't want to know," he said.
Butler was chief U.N. inspector in the 1990s and is an expert in weapons of mass destruction. He also has been in foreign service for Australia for 30 years.
Butler said the obvious and most defining events of the 21st century thus far are 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq.
He said the United States and its allies had no choice but to invade Iraq and overthrow Sadaam Hussein's government.
Butler likened Saddam to Adolf Hitler and said the evil dictator used the weapons on live people.
"I want to be plain about this," Butler's voice heightened. "The overthrow of Sadaam Hussein was justified whether or not there was reluctance to authorize it. ... No one could say it is wrong to overthrow a homicidal maniac. The Security Council sat on its hands for 10 years."
As for not finding these weapons allegedly in Iraq, Butler said he is sure Saddam had them. He said Saddam was addicted to the deadly weapons, and whether they are still in Iraq but hidden, moved or destroyed, they did exist.
"Don't believe those who say they aren't there just because we haven't found them. Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Butler told the crowd. "Iraq certainly did have weapons of mass destruction. Trust me. I held some in my own hands."
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