Political Quotes

“Well, Mr. President, all I can say is that what we envision is a limited system to deal with the accidental or unintentional firing. I am not prepared, nor any of us are really prepared, to give you precise numbers, whether it could interdict the entire load of a Typhoon. It depends on when interdiction takes place, whether there is warhead separation. There are a lot of factors that deal with it. I want to also put in the Record, I respect your arguments about the suitcase. Fortunately, I think technology is not quite at the point where that is the highest risk now, but we have in place a number of systems to deter and, indeed, interdict the suitcase. It is just my concern we have nothing--nothing--in place to interdict the stray two or three missiles that could be accidentally fired or a terrorist firing against our Nation. That is the direction in which this Senator wants to move as expeditiously as possible. And we have O'Neill, who was the prior head--he just resigned--of the BMD office, who said $800 million is the figure. I happen to agree with him. You happen to disagree. Therein, I think, we framed the argument.”