ARAB-US RELATIONS - Apr 13 - Bush Defends Iraq Policy.

Speaking at a White House press conference attended by senior members of his administration (for the first time since he made the case for war against Saddam Hussein), Pres. Bush sticks to the June 30 timetable for restoring Iraqi sovereignty, insisting that "America's word once given can be relied upon, even in the toughest times. The consequence of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable". (In an effort to reassure an American public alarmed by the rising death toll and the grisly images being relayed back from Iraq, Bush promises that if more US forces are needed he would send them). Bush says America is "changing the world and the world [would] be a better place because of that. Saddam Hussein was a threat because he used WMD against his own people...He was a threat to the US...He was a danger". When questioned about his initial claim that Iraq had WMD, he says: "They can still be there... we'll find out the truth about them at some point in time...Of course I'm concerned we have not found weapons yet. But I do know Saddam is out of power...He was a threat to the US...He was a danger". He challenges Muqtada Al Sadr (the radical Shiite theologian, great grandson of Mohammed Al Sadr, who led the first revolt against the British in 1920, who has launched a direct and bloody revolt against the US-led coalition in recent weeks), saying: "Al Sadr must answer the charges against him (for the April 2003 murder of moderate theologian Abdel Karim Al Khoui) and disband his illegal militia. We're changing the world and the world will be a better place because of that".