[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 23, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 CONCERN AFTER IRAN ``WARHEAD'' REPORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest problems 
facing the Middle East and the entire world is the nuclear development 
program that Iran is involved in right now.
  The International Atomic Energy Agency in just the last few days has 
said that Iran is probably developing a nuclear warhead that they could 
use at some point in the future as their nuclear development program 
continues to expand. They have 3,000 or 4,000 centrifuges over there 
refining weapons-grade nuclear material right now.
  The reason this is important is because it not only affects the 
United States and our capability to provide energy for this country 
that will be very important for our economy down the road, but our 
biggest ally and friend in the entire Middle East is Israel, and Israel 
right now does not yet have the capability to hit a major underground 
nuclear development site that may be developing a nuclear warhead that 
could destroy Tel-Aviv, could destroy much of Israel and kill millions 
of Israelis who are friends of ours and great allies.
  It is extremely important that this administration do everything they 
can to support the Government of Israel in order to make sure that they 
have the capability and the ability to stop Iran's nuclear development 
program when it starts to imperil and jeopardize the entire Middle 
East.
  Our energy sources that come from there, maybe 35 percent of our 
entire energy is dependent on the Middle East. If we have a 
conflagration over there, it is really going to hurt us, but it will 
hurt our great ally Israel even more. That is why we need to tell Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that we support him, and we are going to 
give him the material and the equipment necessary to deal with Iran 
should they continue down this path, and that means the bunker busting 
bombs that will be able to go down 50, 75, 100 feet underground or 
maybe 150 feet into a mountainside to knock out a nuclear development 
program if it imperils the existence of Israel or threatens the entire 
Middle East.
  I can't stress how important this is. The leader of Iran, Mr. 
Ahmadinejad, has said numerous times that he wants to see Israel wiped 
off the face of the Earth. They are developing a nuclear weapons 
program, and now the IAEA is saying that they are developing a nuclear 
warhead that will be able to strike should they be able to use their 
missile program. So we have to pay real attention to what is going on 
over there and give Israel the ability to do what is necessary, and we 
should support them in every way possible. If we don't do that, we are 
going to rue the day that they finish that nuclear development program 
in Iran.
  Bibi Netanyahu is going to be here before too long speaking here in 
the United States. I hope that the President will reach out to him and 
say, We are going to give you all the tools necessary to be able to 
stop the nuclear risk that Iran poses over there if we have to do it. 
The United States and President Obama should work with Mr. Netanyahu to 
make sure that we get that job done. We certainly don't need a 
terrorist state like Iran developing a nuclear weapons program with a 
delivery system that could deliver a nuclear warhead.

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