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555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100
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Raleigh Office:
310 New Bern Avenue
Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Toll Free: 866.420.6083
Fax: 919.856.4053
Salisbury Office:
225 North Main Street
Suite 304
Salisbury, NC 28144
Ph: 704.633.5011
Toll Free: 866.420.6084
Fax: 704.633.2937
Western Office:
401 North Main Street
Suite 200
Hendersonville, NC 28792
Ph: 828.698.3747
Fax: 828.698.1267
Eastern Office:
306 South Evans Street
Greenville, NC 27835
Ph: 252.329.1093
Fax: 252.329.1097
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Floor Statements
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INTELLIGENCE SERVICES TRIBUTE
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March 13th, 2003 - Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to the excellent work of our intelligence services in capturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. This is a major triumph on the war on terror and our officers from the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and their counterparts in the Pakistani intelligence services are to be highly commended.
And let there be no doubt – capturing Mohammed is a big deal. He has a long and bloody history. He has been implicated in the 1993 bombing of the Twin Towers. He played a major role in plans to hijack airliners in Asia and crash them into the sea. He may well have been a leader in the attack on the USS Cole, an attack that killed 17 United States sailors and wounded 39 others. He has been implicated in the attacks on the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed hundreds and wounded thousands. And he planned the attacks of September 11.
And it is not just attacks against Americans. He is now wanted by our friends, the Australians, for questioning in connection with the recent bombings in Bali that killed hundreds of their citizens. There has even been a warrant issued by our reluctant allies in France for his role in a bombing of a synagogue that killed a French citizen. And those are the horrible acts of his past that we know about. By capturing Mohammed, what devastating plots have our intelligence services prevented?
Hopefully, as they start to learn more from Mohammed, they will also be able to thwart future attacks. Another possibility is that those who would engage in such acts will realize their secrets may now be compromised and hopefully they will abandon their plans. Not only did we get Mohammed, their operations planner, we also got al-Hawsawi, their chief financier.
By taking him out of the al-Qaeda operations, we have damaged their ability to move money into terrorists’ hands. This should hamper their ability to launch any currently planned operations.
I want to thank our intelligence services for the work they do. Yes, there have been mistakes in the past and there will be human failures in the future. But when we learn of their victories, they should be thanked. And that thanks comes with the knowledge that there must be many more instances where we’ve been protected and there was no public acclaim for these servants of the public.
Frankly, without the publicity surrounding this case, we might never have known all the agencies that contributed to the captures. But the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI do not watch after us alone. We should be thankful for the hard work of the men and women of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office.
They and others are working around the clock to defend us in the war on terror. And it is not just our intelligence agencies that should be thanked. It was our friends in Pakistan who discovered Mohammed, who arrested him, and who turned him over to the United States. President Musharraf has continued his strong support for the war on terror and we must continue to work with allies like Pakistan to eradicate terrorism.
Yes, this was a great win in the war on terror but it was not a victory. We may never actually realize when we have achieved victory, for the men and women who make our intelligence system work will have to continue their vigilance.
Quiet and all-too-often unheralded vigilance.
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| Elizabeth Dole |
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