The Standing Rules of the Senate are drafted to encourage vigorous public debate on our nation’s most important issues. Indeed, the U.S. Senate is often referred to as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” The Rules allow any Senator to seek recognition from the Chair at any time and, absent a temporary agreement to the contrary, to speak without interruption so long as he or she wishes. Debating important questions before the Senate is one way a Senator can highlight an issue, advocate for a change in policy, or voice his or her opinion on pending legislation.
Senate debate occurs in public, and is televised on CSPAN and transcribed in the Congressional Record. For your convenience, I post transcripts of my Senate floor speeches on this site for your review. I hope you find them informative and useful. My web site also makes available information on my voting record and legislation that I have sponsored in the Senate.
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Sessions Remembers September 11
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) made the following comments today in the United States Senate remembering the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
It is important that we commemorate today, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This nation and the world should remember that the first battle of the War Against Terror started in the skies over this country.
It started, not by the military, but by an average group of American citizens, who by fate, found themselves on flight 93 that had just taken off from Newark, New Jersey, headed to San Francisco, California. They, as a group, figured out that their plane had been taken over by terrorists. These terrorists planned to use that plane and the passengers in it as a weapon of mass destruction against the Capitol of the United States.
They did an extraordinary thing. This group of average citizens made a battle plan and executed that plan against America’s enemies. Mr. President, this exceptional group of Americans knew that they were risking and sacrificing their lives to stop an attack on America. We know now this attack was in fact headed for the White House or this very building we are in today, the United States Capitol.
The passengers of flight 93 faced their enemies without hesitation and brought that plane to the ground in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That action, Mr. President, was the opening battle in the War Against Terror.
Today people are gathering in New York City at Ground Zero where the World Trade Center towers once stood so proudly. People will gather here in the Nation's Capital. This morning President Bush observed a moment of silence on the White House lawn and joined those who are gathering at the Pentagon, at the site where flight 77 crashed, to dedicate a memorial to those who died in that building, a building that symbolizes America’s military and the greatest fighting force in the world.
This remembrance is not just taking place in New York and our Nation's capital. This remembrance is taking place across our nation. We are not alone in mourning. Two thousand seven hundred and fifty people and citizens from more than 90 nations died in the terrorist attacks. Our allies and friends mourn with us.
These attacks carried out on September 11 changed the way we view our world. Many Americans, for the first time, felt vulnerable. While it was not the first terrorist attack on America, it was the largest on our soil since Pearl Harbor. It's critically important to note that this attack was not an isolated incident, but a carefully planned operation that was part of Al Qaeda’s war on America. Bin Laden had already declared war on America publicly. It was, at its foundation, an attack based on its belief that America was corrupt, decadent, and lacked the courage or the will to vigorously defend its very existence.
They were wrong.
I’ll make a note of the attacks that led up to that day. The attacks that led up to that event were in 1983, the attack on the marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 American servicemen.
In 1985, the cruise ship Achilles Laura was hijacked by terrorists, and a 70-year-old American was killed.
Also, in 1985, an American flight was hijacked at Athens and a navy diver who tried to rescue fellow passengers was murdered.
In 1993, Al Qaeda operatives attacked the World Trade Center and bombed it, killing six people and injuring 1,042.
In June of 1996, 19 American service members and one Saudi were killed with 372 others wounded in the attack in Saudi Arabia.
In 1998, U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, killing 223 and wounding thousands.
And on October 12, 2000, while a war ship of the United States of America, the U.S.S. Cole was harbored in the Yemeni port for a routine fuel stop, a small craft approached and detonated their payload, putting a 40 by 60 foot gash in the ship's port side, killing 17 American sailors.
All of this occurred before the hijacking of those four planes on September 11, 2001. And since that day, while there have been attacks on England and Spain and around the world, there has been no further successful attack on the United States.
Even though we are in an election campaign, it's important for us not to forget that the failure of Al Qaeda to launch another attack on us is not due to the terrorist organizations relinquishing their objective, renouncing their goals of killing Americans, and disrupting our lives and economy. But it is a testament to the vigilance of our law enforcement, military officials, and President Bush's bold decisions to stop sitting back, to stop being on the defensive, and to treat these attacks for what they were: part of a war against the United States.
President Bush firmly declared that we should go after these terrorists and any who harbor them and utilize deadly force where necessary. This strategy has worked. No successful attacks have occurred since that time on our homeland, and I don't think any of us would have felt that was likely the case on September 11, 2001, even though I think all of us as a nation agreed it was time to move on the offensive.
That's the best way to defend our great country. So since September 11, 2001, 19 attacks have been thwarted in various stages of preparation.
In December 2001, Richard Reid attempted to blow up an airplane headed to Miami from Paris using explosives in his shoe.
In May of 2002, José Padilla was charged with conspiring with terrorist troops.
In September of 2002, the Lackawanna six from Buffalo, New York, were arrested and charged with conspiring with terrorist groups.
In May 2003, Lyman Faris, a naturalized U.S. Citizen from Kashmir, living in Columbus, Ohio, was arrested for plotting the collapse of the Brooklyn Bridge.
In June 2003, Virginia Jihad -- a Virginia Jihad network involving 11 men from Alexandria were arrested for conspiring to support terrorists.
In August of 2004, members of a terrorist cell were arrested for plotting to attack financial institutions in the United States and other sites in England.
In August of 2004, two men were arrested plotting to bomb a subway station near Madison Square Garden in New York.
In August of 2004, two leaders of an Albany, New York, mosque were charged with plotting to purchase a shoulder-fired grenade launcher to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat in New York.
In June of 2005, a California father/son terrorist team was charged with supporting terrorism.
In August 2005, four men in Los Angeles were accused of conspiring to attack National Guard facilities in Los Angeles and other targets in the area.
In December of 2005, Michael Reynolds was arrested by the F.B.I. and charged with being involved in a plot to blow up a natural gas refinery.
In February of 2006, three men from Toledo, Ohio, arrested and charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization.
In April of 2006, Atlanta natives were accused of conspiring with terrorist organizations to attack targets in Washington.
In June of 2006, seven men were arrested in Miami and Atlanta and charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as well as F.B.I. offices in other buildings.
In July of 2006 ten people were arrested after the F.B.I. discovered a plot to attack underground transit tunnels in New York.
In August of 2006, British authorities stopped a plot to load ten commercial airliners with liquid explosives and attack sites in New York, Washington and California. 15 men were charged.
In March 2007, a senior operative for Osama Bin Laden, already in custody, confesses to have planned the September 11 attacks and said he also planned attacks in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and other sites.
In May of 2007, six men were arrested for trying to attack soldiers at Ft. Dix, New Jersey.
It's quite clear that it is imperative that this nation continue to be vigilant and to keep these terrorist groups off-balance to keep our homeland and our allies secure.
Mr. President, I believe that as the years go by, history will view the efforts of the United States government favorably in keeping its citizens safe after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
President Bush made a bold decision. He took decisive action and reorganized We are not still where we should have been. We’re still not, but we are dramatically improved. The F.B.I. moved dramatically from a mere investigation after an attack to changing its mode of operations to prevent further attacks.
Unprecedented cooperation with and assistance from state and local law enforcement has raised our defensive capabilities and our intelligence-gathering networks.
It is a tremendous thing, the improved relations we have with state and local law enforcement, and there are many, many more of those officers than there are federal officers.
For seven years we may thank the Lord -- and the hard work of so many -- this nation But we must also not forget that our going on the offensive, destroying the bases of operation of the radical Islamic network, of attacking the military infrastructure, and attacking their organizations, of capturing and killing thousands of their leaders and operatives, has made us safer and has put these terrorists on the defensive. And these efforts have gained worldwide support.
The terrorists are losing support throughout the world. Al Qaeda made Iraq the central front, but made a bad decision to challenge the United States military, that magnificent and courageous group. Recent reports have declared that Al Qaeda in Iraq has been decimated. There may still be some left, but the power of that network that existed two or three years ago has been decimated today, most experts say.
So let's remember what we've done right. Also we must keep these efforts up because it may well take decades before we will be victorious in this effort. If we remain firm, if this nation continues to be smart, determined, and dedicated, and courageous, We’ll be successful.
the intelligence community which has dramatically improved our terrorist-concerned groups.
has remained free from terrorist attack. Will it continue? We may all pray that it will, but we know that we remain at risk. We know that for the decades to come there will be some in this world who are willing to even give their lives to attack free nations around the world. So we must remain vigilant. We must not forget what we have done wrong in the past - how we refuse to recognize the reality of the threat, as the 9/11 commission so clearly recorded.
if we have the maturity, if we have the determination, to remember those heroic people that started this war defending this very Capitol building, who gave their lives in Pennsylvania for us, we will honor their memory and honor the memory of those in New York City and honor the memory of those people in the Pentagon and on the ship, the U.S.S. Cole. We will honor those by being firm, being faithful.
Mr. President, I thank the chair and would yield the floor.
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