Reuters - U.S. Officials Defend Iraq War on Anniversary, by Tabassum Zakaria

One year later, U.S. officials steadfastly defended the decision to go to war against Iraq, saying on Sunday that Saddam Hussein had posed an "urgent" threat more dangerous than North Korea, even though weapons of mass destruction have not yet been found.

"I do believe it was the right thing to do and I'm glad it's done," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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"I believe to this day that it was an urgent threat," White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. "This could not go on and we are safer as a result because today Iraq is no longer going to be a state of weapons of mass destruction concern."

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Since the war, the administration has shifted its emphasis to human rights abuses by Saddam's regime and away from the elusive unconventional weapons that have not surfaced.

"No more mass graves are being filled," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.

"And we have taken this country that has been so brutally oppressed by a dictatorial leader and put it on a path to democracy," he said.

Powell made a public case for taking action against Iraq at the United Nations last February with a presentation that included pieces of intelligence suggesting Baghdad had banned weapons.

He said he had used the best intelligence available at that time.

"And so we may not find the stockpiles. They may not exist any longer. But let's not suggest that somehow we knew this," Powell said on ABC's "This Week."

Administration officials now say regardless of whether banned weapons are found, Iraq had posed a threat because it had the intent to produce such weapons.