[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 19, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REMARKS ON THE DEATH OF SHAMIL BASAYEV

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                           HON. VITO FOSSELLA

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 19, 2006

  Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, on July 10, 2006, one of the world's 
greatest terrorists, Shamil Basayev was killed during a special 
operation by Russian Security Services. Basayev represented the radical 
aspect of the Chechen rebel movement. The movement began as a secular 
fight for independence and has become overrun by Islamic extremists. 
Russia claims that Basayev's efforts have now been supported by 
international terror networks like al-Qaeda.
  For more than 10 years, Basayev, designated as a terrorist by both 
the United States and the United Nations, was the mastermind behind the 
most horrific attacks on the Russian people. His reign of terror 
includes the seizure of a hospital in Budyonnovsk in southern Russia in 
1995 that killed approximately 100. He attacked a theater in Moscow in 
2002 where dozens of hostages died. And most tragically and horrific in 
its cowardice, he abducted a school in Beslan in 2004, where 331 people 
died, more than half of them schoolchildren.
  Basayev was set to strike again, but the Russian government stopped 
him in his tracks. Russian security officials engaged in a special 
operation that used information gained from tracking weapons and 
explosive shipments from abroad. They linked this information to plans 
for a terrorist attack in southern Russia intended to coincide with a 
meeting of the Group of 8 leaders.
  Before his death, in his last known statement in public, Basayev was 
said to express ``great thankfulness'' for the insurgents in Iraq who 
killed 5 Russian diplomats.
  Terrorism is an affront to civilized people the world over. We in New 
York and the United States know the bloody price of terrorism. This 
represents a small victory in the global war on terrorism. Civilized 
society cannot rest until terrorism is stamped out once and for all.

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