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Cheney: War waged for U.S. lives

WASHINGTON - President Bush went to war against Iraq because Saddam Hussein was contributing to a terrorist conspiracy against the United States that someday could claim "tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of lives in a single day of war," Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday.

In a sweeping defense of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, Cheney said pre-emptive action was warranted because of the United States' vulnerability to the "ultimate nightmare" - an attack bringing "devastation to our country on a scale we have never experienced."

The vice president provided no details for how such an attack might occur. But in an address to the the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, he referred repeatedly to evidence that Iraq was working on biological weapons capability.

"If Saddam Hussein were in power today," Cheney said, "there would still be active terror camps in Iraq, the regime would still be allowing terrorist leaders into the country, and this ally of terrorists would still have a hidden biological weapons program capable of producing deadly agents on short notice."

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday he was surprised by the effectiveness of Saddam Hussein's loyalists to sustain the Iraq conflict long after the end of major combat operations.

"I suppose on reflection the thing that probably surprised me the most is the ability that the so-called Fedayeen Saddam people had to terrorize and frighten the rest of the Iraqi people and cause them to not come over to the other side," Rumsfeld said.

BLAIR, QUEEN MOURN BRITAIN'S DEAD: Prime Minister Tony Blair, widely criticized at home for taking Britain to war in Iraq, joined Queen Elizabeth II, religious leaders and others Friday at St. Paul's Cathedral for a solemn remembrance of the 50 British service personnel and one civilian killed in Iraq.