[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 82 (Thursday, June 5, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WHERE ARE IRAQI WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?
(Mr. HOLT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, Americans, indeed the whole world, are asking,
why have we not we found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the
vast quantities of anthrax, small pox, serin, mustard gas and other
agents, the nuclear weapons, or the near-nuclear weapons?
Congress has an obligation to the American people and to our men and
women in uniform to conduct a full inquiry. I think the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence is the right forum to do that.
Now, the administration says that Iraq has had 12 years of practice
in hiding; the weapons were there, perhaps, but were destroyed; or
maybe they were there, but they were moved; or maybe they were not
there, but could be constituted on demand. In any case, either there is
something wrong, or the intelligence was too vague and imprecise to
track what has happened to them.
The President says we are going to find weapons of mass destruction.
He may be right. But it seems to me that before the President sent our
troops into battle and committed our Nation to this war, we should have
had a very good idea of just where those weapons of mass destruction
were so that we could secure them and track them.
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