Mike Pence: “as Director George Tenet of the CIA comes to the Hill today, the debate will go on between whether U.S. intelligence…”

“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.”