Byron Dorgan: “I think there are far more questions than answers on the issues he raised. I think the issues of national security…”

“I think there are far more questions than answers on the issues he raised. I think the issues of national security dealing with China are serious. The alleged spying, as I understand it, occurred in the mid-1980s; the transfer of missile technology and agreements for that transfer occurred at the beginning of the 1980s. The Senator raises very important security questions and we need answers to those questions. I am sure in the coming days we will learn more about many of these issues as we discuss them with the appropriate people who have been a part of this matter for, now, a decade or a decade and a half. But I came to the floor and have waited here to speak about the national missile defense proposal. That is what is on the floor at the moment, national missile defense. Mr. President, 24 years ago our country built an antiballistic missile system in my home State. It is the only ABM, or antiballistic missile, system anywhere in the free world. That ABM--or what we would now call national missile defense-- system, that ABM program, cost over $20 billion in today's dollars.”