The meaning of "imminent".

If David Kay is right in saying that there were no WMDs in Iraq last year, then the Iraqi threat could not have been imminent. Ah, but President Bush never claimed the threat was imminent, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan!

Question: "You have not used the word 'imminent threat.' And the essence of Dr. Kay's comments recently would suggest that there was no way for there to be an imminent threat. Does the President now believe that, in fact, while the threat was gathering, while the threat may have been grave, that, in fact, it was not imminent?"

Answer: "I think we've said all along that it was a grave and gathering threat. And that in a post-September 11th world, you must confront gathering threats before it's too late. I think some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent.' Those were not words--"

Question: "The President himself never used that word?"

Answer: "Those were not words we used."

--White House spokesman Scott McClellan press briefing, January 27, 2004

Mr. McClellan's contention that President Bush never used the word "imminent" is" as silly as splitting hairs about the meaning of the word "is," as President Clinton once did. The reality is that, even if Mr. Bush did not actually use the word "imminent," he and others in the administration certainly described an imminent threat.

"[N]o terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq."

--Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, September 19, 2002

Question: "[I]s he [Saddam] an imminent threat to U.S. interests, either in that part of the world or to Americans fight here at home?"

Answer: "Well, of course he is."

--White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett CNN interview, January 26, 2003

"Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world."

--Secretary of State Colin Powell presentation to the UN Security Council, February 5, 2003

"[W]e cannot live under the threat of blackmail. The terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed."

--President George W. Bush address to the nation, March 17, 2003

Question: "[W]e went to war, didn't we, to find these--because we said that these weapons were a direct and imminent threat to the United States? Isn't that true?"

Answer: "Absolutely. One of the reasons that we went to war was because of their possession of weapons of mass destruction. And nothing has changed on that front at all."

--White House spokesman Ari Fleischer press briefing, May 7, 2003