[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15113-15114]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, lately there has been a stir, a desperate 
grasp for press attention, to form an inquiry into the Bush 
administration's knowledge of weapons of mass destruction.
  Mr. Speaker, for 7 years following the Gulf War, Saddam claimed that 
he did not possess weapons of mass destruction, and for all 7 years, he 
was lying. Iraqis told inspectors they had no mustard agent and then 
they expressed profound shock when quantities of mustard gas were 
found. Iraq told inspectors they never had weaponized VX nerve agent 
and then feigned surprise when inspectors found weaponized VX nerve 
agent. We learned that Saddam Hussein had constructed elaborate 
concealment mechanisms. The Iraqi regime spent a decade working to 
ensure that prohibited weapons production was kept quiet. When the 
inspectors were kicked out of Iraq in 1998, the regime had failed to 
account for vast quantities of its weapons of mass destruction 
stockpiles.
  So here is a question for the dissenters: Why would a regime without

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weapons of mass destruction manufacture the mobile laboratories that 
our troops and the U.N. inspectors found to make such weapons? And why 
would the numerous defectors, many with recent, first-hand knowledge of 
Iraq's WMD programs, have detailed elaborate production and concealment 
efforts? Were they all lying?
  Mr. Speaker, Iraq is the size of California and the dirt is deep. 
There are many places for these weapons to have been hidden. I urge the 
press and the American people to be patient and let our troops do their 
jobs. There are still soldiers at risk fighting off violence. We know 
that these weapons existed and we know that the Iraqi government has 
never accounted for their destruction. That is what we do know.

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