Unintentional Humor Dept.

"I think some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent,'" White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "Those were not words we used. We used 'grave and gathering threat.'"

Oh, well, in that case....

Footnote: Here are some other things they did say.

- "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." (Donald Rumsfeld, testimony to Congress, September 2002.

- The standoff with Iraq is like the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis. (George Bush, televised address, October 7, 2002; note that this is a characterization, not an exact quote)

- Saddam Hussein "could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists." (George Bush, televised address, October 7, 2002)

- "Another way to look at this is if Saddam Hussein holds a gun to your head even while he denies that he actually owns a gun, how safe should you feel?" (Ari Fleischer, press briefing, October 9, 2002)

- Q.: "Is he (Saddam) an imminent threat to US interests, either in that part of the world or to Americans right here at home?" A.:"Well, of course he is." (White House communications director Dan Bartlett, CNN interview, January 26, 2003)

- Q.: "We 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?" A.: "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." (Then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, May 7, 2003)

- "There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a grave and gathering threat to America and the world." (George Bush, January 28, 2004)

- Bush also called the threat of Saddam's Iraq "urgent," while Vice President Dick Cheney called it "mortal."