Meet the Press: Kofi Annan

MR. RUSSERT: Are you surprised that we have not found weapons of mass destruction?

[5-10 second delay]

SEC'Y-GEN. ANNAN: Before the war, the U.N. inspectors, whom I spoke to quite often, particularly Mr. Blix and Elbaradei, the atomic agency, felt that with all their effort they hadn't come across any systems of weapons of mass destruction and that they needed a bit more time to check if there were, indeed, weapons of mass destruction. There were others who felt that the weapons were there, and they could be--one could get to them and dismantle them. But, of course, we haven't found them, and let me put it this way, I had always said we were waiting for the U.N. inspectors to give us indication whether they were there or not. And until they came to the Security Council with specific indications that there were weapons and they had worked there for many years, of course. The last time around they had only gone in for three and a half months before they were shut down. And at that point, I did not know whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, but without the certification from them, I couldn't assume that there were weapons of mass destruction.

MR. RUSSERT: But you did say in November of 2002, "Iraq keeps saying they don't have weapons of mass destruction, which nobody believes. ...If you have no weapons of mass destruction, why you have kept the inspectors out for four years?"

SEC'Y-GEN. ANNAN: Yeah, I did say that, that they should really open the door. Then the inspectors went in, and when Blix and Elbaradei and the team started working and reporting back what they had found or not found, it was clear that was an American situation and not clear, and in fact, they felt that if they had a few months or a bit more time they may have been able to make more definitive assessment. And in fact, Blix himself said something interesting, that "I have no evidence and the lack of evidence does not mean that they don't have it or they do have it, and we need to pursue our efforts."