Orrin Hatch: “I appreciate that. I listened carefully to much of what the distinguished Senator from West Virginia said, and he raised…”

“I appreciate that. I listened carefully to much of what the distinguished Senator from West Virginia said, and he raised a number of very important issues, no question about it. I have great assurance as a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence in our President as we are considering one of those issues. It just points out how difficult it is to be President of the United States, especially during times of strife and difficulty; how difficult it is to make these decisions; how difficult it is to determine what imminence really is. Hugo Grotius, the father of international law, basically said imminency is a very hard thing to define. I think the Senator raised a lot of interesting points, but I also believe the President and his advisers have gone over every one of those points. I wish to mention one problem, and that is, some people try to blame Israel for our positions--not the distinguished Senator from West Virginia. But some have tried to raise that point and blame Israel. The fact is Israel is important here, but so are all the Arab states. Keep in mind, this man, Saddam Hussein, has weapons of mass destruction. He came within a few weeks of having a nuclear device. We all know that. It was a matter of time. They had the ability. They had the capacity. They had the scientists.…”