[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 16, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H6872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IRAQ'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, as Director George Tenet of the CIA comes to 
the Hill today, the debate will go on between whether U.S. intelligence 
agreed with the intelligence of our honored and treasured ally, Great 
Britain, over a particular transaction for enriched uranium in Africa. 
But there is no debate that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program that 
spanned nearly 3 decades.
  Iraqi scientist Khidhir Hamza told U.S. officials after he fled Iraq 
in 1994 that he helped train a cadre of young scientists who would be 
capable of resuming Iraq's atomic weapons program as soon as the U.N. 
cut back inspections. He said the program was personally directed by 
Saddam since its inception 3 decades earlier and was aided and abetted 
by technology transferred from many Western nations.
  And just 2 weeks ago, Mahdi Obeidi led U.S. authorities in Baghdad to 
dig up shrubbery in his backyard to find sophisticated parts and 
documents to support Saddam's nuclear weapons program.
  While we debate agreements between intelligence agencies, let us 
remember that about which there is no debate: Saddam Hussein had a 30-
year nuclear weapons program, and if he went forward unchecked, would 
have used it to blackmail and tyrannize the world.

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