[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 111 (Monday, September 11, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9285-S9287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, 5 years ago, our Nation experienced one 
of its darkest days and finest hours. With shocking suddenness, an act 
of unparalleled cruelty transformed the late-summer morning of uncommon 
brilliance into one of unfathomable horror. On that awful morning, 
September 11 was transformed from a mere point on the calendar into an 
eternal monument to the deepest human emotions of loss, of sacrifice, 
and of resolve.
  We pause today to remember those whose lives were taken that terrible 
morning--2,996 innocent men, women, and children, workers doing their 
jobs, travelers embarking on trips. Men and women like Robert and 
Jacqueline Norton of Lubec, ME boarded Flight 11 to celebrate a son's 
wedding in California. In the days just before the trip, the Nortons 
planted new raspberry bushes in their garden and Robert, at age 85, 
helped repair the concrete steps at their church.
  At age 85, Robert Norton was the oldest to perish that day. At age 2, 
Christine Hanson of Groton, MA, was the youngest. She was traveling 
with her parents to that place of childhood dreams, Disneyland. The 
aircraft that was to take the Hanson family on their dream vacation 
instead was driven into the North Tower. There, on the 92nd floor, were 
John and Sylvia Resta of Queens, NY. They worked together and on 
September 11th they died together. Resta was seven months pregnant.
  The Pentagon that morning was filled with men and women who had 
dedicated their lives to serving their country. Among them was 
Commander Robert Schlegel. After his 1981 graduation from Gray-New 
Gloucester High School in Maine, he went to college, married his high-
school sweetheart, Dawn, and followed a tradition set by his father and 
two brothers by joining the United States Navy. His 15-year Naval 
career was one of achievement and courage. Among his many commendations 
were the Meritorious Service Medal, four Navy and Marine Corps 
Commendation Medals, and the Purple Heart. Shortly before September 11, 
he had been promoted to the rank of Commander. His new office, on the 
second floor of the Pentagon, believed to be the point of impact of 
Flight 77.
  Each of these names, and the names of so many more, represent lives 
of accomplishment, contribution, and promise. Each loss leaves a wound 
in the hearts of families and friends that can never be fully healed.
  But September 11 was not just a day of personal tragedy. It was an 
attack on the United States, an attack on freedom, an attack on 
civilization. We must never forget what was lost, and what remains at 
stake.

  We also pause today to remember the heroes whose courage saved 
countless lives then, and who continue to inspire us. Yamel Merino, of 
Yonkers, NY, was described by colleagues as the perfect EMT. She gave 
her life while helping the injured near the World Trade Center when the 
first tower collapsed.
  After an outstanding career with the FBI, John O'Neill became head of 
security for the World Trade Center. He exited the building safely 
after the first of the two hijacked planes hit, but re-entered when he 
saw the extent of the damage and the danger to others. He saved lives, 
but could not save himself.
  After his safe exit from the Pentagon, Staff Sergeant Christopher 
Braman rushed back into the burning building, returning again and again 
to find survivors and to carry them to safety. He stayed on the scene 
for the next 3 days, working past exhaustion, saving lives with the 
search and rescue skills the U.S. Army had taught him.
  In the days and weeks immediately following the attacks, we were 
moved by the selfless courage of the men and women--passengers and 
crew--aboard Flight 93. By wresting control of that aircraft from the 
terrorists, they knowingly gave their lives so that others might live. 
Todd Beamer's Let's Roll! became our Nation's rallying cry.
  Last month, additional recordings of emergency calls made that 
terrible morning were released. One contains a statement that describes 
with eloquent simplicity the spirit of September 11. Amid the 
suffocating smoke, searing flames, and falling debris of the South 
Tower, the last words Fire Captain Patrick Brown spoke from the 35th 
floor to the outside world were these: ``We're still heading up.''
  We may never know where the courage to keep heading up into such 
danger comes from. We must always honor it. We must never forget.
  As we pledge to never forget what was lost and what was given on 
September 11, we must in the same breath pledge to do all that we can 
to prevent future attacks. We can offer no guarantee, but that must be 
our goal.
  The fundamental obligation of Government is to protect its people. 
Since September 11, we have done much to meet that obligation. 
Immediately after the attacks, we passed legislation to close the gap 
between law enforcement and intelligence that the terrorists exploited. 
The reauthorization signed into law earlier this year makes permanent 
many provisions from the original law that are important to protect 
Americans from terrorists. Equally important, it contains significant 
new safeguards that protect the civil liberties we cherish but that the 
terrorists despise.

  We created the Department of Homeland Security to provide a unifying

[[Page S9286]]

core to the vast effort of detecting and preventing terrorist attacks, 
assessing and protecting our vulnerabilities, and improving our 
response to disasters of all types. We have made great investments in 
training and equipping first responders throughout the nation. We have 
strengthened our borders with additional personnel, better coordination 
with State and local authorities, and cutting-edge technology so that 
they remain open to our friends but increasingly closed to our enemies.
  We passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 
2004, which Senator Lieberman and I authored. This legislation, based 
on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, brought about the most 
comprehensive reforms of our intelligence community in more than a half 
century so that the trail of dots terrorists leave behind as they plan, 
train, and organize will never again be left unconnected. This newly 
restructured intelligence community has uncovered terrorist plots, 
cells, and financing operations, and it played an important role in 
thwarting the scheme to blow up transatlantic airliners that was 
exposed in Britain last month.
  Today we are on the brink of passing the GreenLane Maritime Security 
Act. America's seaports are vital to our economy, but at the same time 
they offer a port of entry for those who would do us harm, or for 
devastating weapons. This bipartisan legislation will help build a 
coordinated approach to maritime and port security across all levels of 
government with our overseas trading partners. I urge my colleagues to 
take this major step toward protecting these valuable and vulnerable 
facilities.
  We have taken many such steps. None was easily taken. All were 
accompanied by controversy, conflict, and reasonable differences of 
opinion. Yet, working together, we found a way.
  Each, however, remains a work in progress. DHS has yet to develop the 
cohesion, the common culture, that is needed for its complex 
mission. First responder grants to the States still lack the 
accountability and effective measures of progress needed to prevent the 
waste of taxpayer dollars. Ongoing shortages of detention space and 
personnel still leave our borders at risk, despite the many 
improvements that have been made.

  Other gaps remain. Ten million Americans live and work in proximity 
to plants that produce, use, or store large quantities of hazardous 
chemicals and, indeed, if one talks to the experts, over and over again 
you will hear them identify the security of our ports and our chemical 
facilities as major vulnerabilities. We are about to complete action 
this week on port security legislation. I hope we will turn to chemical 
security legislation as well. There is no question that attacking these 
facilities fits squarely within the terrorist strategy of causing 
maximum harm to our people and to our prosperity.
  Yet 5 years after 9/11, America is left vulnerable by an incomplete 
and inadequate patchwork of laws and voluntary industry standards that 
too many facilities fail to observe. The Homeland Security Committee 
approved our bipartisan Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act more than 
3 months ago by a unanimous vote. For the first time, our legislation 
would ensure that high-risk chemical facilities are covered by Federal 
standards that would not only help to deter terrorist attacks but also 
to mitigate the consequences of an attack.
  Our legislation would give the Department of Homeland Security the 
strongest possible remedy to ensure compliance: the authority to shut 
down any chemical facility that does not adequately address the risks 
of a terrorist attack. Unless this legislation moves forward, these 
highly attractive terrorist communities, large and small, will remain 
without the protection they require.
  The heroes of 9/11 faced grave danger and made great sacrifices in 
order to save others. They performed magnificently despite being 
hampered by obsolete and incompatible communications equipment that 
placed them in needless peril and resulted in needless loss of life. 
That should be a major national priority for our country to solve once 
and for all the issue of first responders being able to communicate 
with one another in the midst of a disaster, whether it is a terrorist 
attack or another hurricane, such as Hurricane Katrina.
  The Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act, which Senator Lieberman and I 
introduced, contains strong provisions to establish a comprehensive 
national emergency communications strategy and provide State grants for 
interoperable communications. It is time to act on this legislation--we 
must never again send our first responders into harm's way with a 
deficiency that has been so thoroughly revealed.
  Perhaps our greatest challenge, however, is to recognize that 
terrorism continually evolves. As the devastating attacks in Madrid, 
Bali, Istanbul, Beslan, London, and Israel prove, terrorists will 
strike wherever opportunity allows and wherever innocent people are the 
most vulnerable. The terrorists' resourcefulness, cunning, and patience 
are exceeded only by their cruelty.
  Indeed, one of the most striking findings of the 9/11 Commission was 
that the September 11 attacks were made possible by a failure of 
imagination. Commercial airliners had long been a target of terrorists. 
The conventional wisdom was that they would be targeted in two ways: to 
hijack for the purpose of taking hostages or to blow up in midair. To 
envision airliners being hijacked to use as missiles would have taken 
some imagination, but it was not unimaginable.
  We all remember one of the striking findings of the 9/11 Commission 
that the September 11 attacks represented a failure of imagination. How 
different things might be today if 5 years prior to September 11, 2001, 
our imagination had been fully engaged.
  Mr. President, 1996 was the year that Ramzi Yousef, while awaiting 
trial for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was convicted of a 
conspiracy to plant bombs on a number of U.S. airliners operating in 
East Asia, and of placing the bomb that exploded on a Philippine 
airliner the previous year.
  Mr. President, 1996 was the year of the truck bomb attack on Khobar 
Towers that specifically targeted U.S. military personnel.
  And 1996 was the year that Osama bin Laden relocated from the Sudan 
to Afghanistan, established a new base of operations under the 
protection of the Taliban, and declared war on the United States.
  The terrorist strategy was evolving 5 years prior to 2001 to direct 
massive attacks on high-profile American targets, but we failed to see 
that these seemingly isolated events were, in fact, tied together.
  In the aftermath of 9/11, we learned that although the terrorists 
targeted high-profile targets in major cities, they did much of their 
planning, training, and transiting in smaller communities--communities 
such as Stone Mountain, GA, Norman, OK, and Portland, ME. It may be 
that they believed these locations shielded their activities from the 
scrutiny they would have been subjected to in their larger, more 
terrorism-savvy target locations.

  Today there is no question that the tactics of terrorists have 
evolved. As the recent arrests in Canada and Miami, the attacks on the 
London subway of a year ago, and the thwarted airliner plot in Britain 
have made clear, terrorist masterminds no longer have to rely on 
operatives imported from abroad to infiltrate target nations and carry 
out attacks. The emerging threat is from home-grown terrorists. They 
are far harder to detect, and increased border security will not 
protect us from them.
  Whether the target we seek to protect is a cargo port, a chemical 
plant, a public water supply, the electric grid, or the information 
technology networks critical to our economy, it does not take a stretch 
of imagination to see that an attack can come from within just as 
easily, perhaps more easily, than from overseas.
  From John Walker Lindh, we already know the most extreme ideology can 
take root even among those who enjoy the most privileged circumstances 
our society can offer. As the details of the British airliner plot 
emerge, it becomes evident that home-grown terrorists, working in 
conjunction with masterminds overseas, can be every bit as 
sophisticated as the imported terrorists who attacked us on 9/11.
  What is particularly alarming is the evidence that this infection is 
being spread within our State and Federal

[[Page S9287]]

prisons, and this is an area that the Homeland Security Committee will 
hold a hearing on next week.
  Richard Reid--the infamous shoe-bomber--and Jose Padilla both were 
indoctrinated into Islamic extremism while in prison. Less well known, 
but equally lethal, is Kevin James, a self-styled Imam who, while a 
California State prison inmate, founded an organization based upon his 
radical interpretation of Islam. James recruited among his fellow 
inmates, allegedly instructing them that it was their duty to kill his 
perceived enemies of Islam--in particular U.S. military personnel and 
supporters of Israel. Upon their release, his followers reportedly 
conducted surveillance on military installations, the Israeli 
Consulate, and synagogues. It is alleged that they sought firearms with 
silencers and also explosives and that they financed their operations 
through a string of armed robberies in the Los Angeles area. These 
operatives have been arrested and they face trial next month.
  The new face of terrorism--born and raised in America, in Great 
Britain--has been exposed. This new face of terrorism will challenge 
us, perhaps as much or even more as Osama bin Laden has challenged us. 
But this is the reality that we must confront. We must not allow our 
imagination to fail us again.
  Five years ago, in what seemed like a moment, September 11 was 
transformed from a day like any other day into one that for as long as 
our Nation stands will stand alone. The loss that we relive this day 
reminds us of the value of all that we must protect. The heroism 
reminds us of the unconquerable spirit of the American people. Our 
accomplishments remind us that we can meet any challenge with decisive 
action and a sense of unity. As long as we keep the meaning of this day 
of remembrance in our hearts, I am confident that we can meet any 
challenge that lies ahead.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Alexander). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

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