Rocky Mountain News: Interview With Vice President Cheney

[The October 2002 Joint Intelligence Report] was the best information we had and I think the jury is still out in terms of how extensive a program Saddam Hussein had. We know he had had an extensive one in the past. We know he had produced, used chemical weapons. We know he had a robust nuclear program. We found that when we got in there after the '91 war. And the reporting that we had prior to the war this time around was all consistent with that -- basically said that he had a chemical, biological and nuclear program, and estimated that if he could acquire fissile material, he could have a nuclear weapon within a year or two. Based on that there wasn't any way the administration could ignore those findings of the intelligence community in terms of thinking about the threat that Saddam Hussein represented.

With respect to the other question, the general relationship [between Iraq and Al Qaida], I would refer you...There are several places you can go. One place you ought to go look is an article that Stephen Hayes did in the Weekly Standard here a few weeks ago, that goes through and lays out in some detail, based on an assessment that was done by the Department of Defense and forwarded to the Senate Intelligence Committee some weeks ago. That's your best source of information.