Cliff Stearns: “I am here to sort of elaborate on David Kay's comments dealing with weapons of mass destruction. He is a chief weapons…”

“I am here to sort of elaborate on David Kay's comments dealing with weapons of mass destruction. He is a chief weapons of mass destruction hunter for the United States and he resigned recently, but he made some very interesting statements regarding Iraq's pursuit of the WMD and the possible deception of Iraqi scientists against Saddam Hussein regarding weapons programs. I think it is important to look at the totality of what David Kay said and not just what some of the political pundits have pulled out of his speech. He said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies did not realize that Iraq scientists had presented "ambitious but fanciful weapons programs to Saddam Hussein," and had them use the money that they were going to use for these things for other purposes. At present, we have not found a huge stockpile of WMD. The search continues. However, we know a few facts. According to a recent New York Times story, Dr. Kay also reported "Iraq attempted to revise its efforts to develop nuclear weapons in 2000 and 2001, but never got as far towards making a bomb as Iran and Libya did." He also said "Baghdad was actively working to produce a biological weapon, using the poison ricin until the American invasion last March." We have all become familiar with this toxin given recent events in the news because of what happened at the Senate office building yesterday.”