[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 187 (Monday, October 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S7337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JOSH BAKER

  Mr. OSSOFF. Madam President, I rise to commend Josh Baker, a British 
national, on behalf of the U.S. Senate, for his vital and lifesaving 
contributions to the allied evacuation of Afghanistan.
  Mr. Baker, of course, is internationally acclaimed for his courageous 
and award-winning work documenting armed conflict and war crimes 
worldwide. His sacrifices in the production of vital, world-class 
journalism included the sacrifice of his own body, when his spine was 
fractured by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated by a 
suicide bomber in Iraq while Baker was on assignment for PBS.
  Mr. Baker's achievements include the production of landmark reports 
exposing ISIS war crimes against Yazidi women and girls, investigations 
of international terrorism, and vital reporting on refugee crises. His 
work has documented for the historical record and for the education of 
the global public the brutality and indignity imposed on innocent human 
beings by armed conflict.
  When, on August 15, 2021, the Afghan capital of Kabul fell to Taliban 
forces, hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals and Afghan allies 
were trapped in harm's way. Mr. Baker sprung into action. In August and 
September of this year, Mr. Baker remotely coordinated and supported 
multiple lifesaving extractions of vulnerable civilians from 
Afghanistan.
  He applied his deep experience of complex operations in hostile 
environments and the trust built over years of communication with 
journalists, sources, and contributors in the military, intelligence, 
and political domains, in civil society and at humanitarian agencies, 
to remotely coordinate and support multiple lifesaving extractions of 
vulnerable civilians from Afghanistan.
  Mr. Baker's contributions to these historic evacuation efforts 
included the coordination of a lifesaving mission to rescue Afghan 
orphans and the coordination of logistics necessary for the safe 
evacuation of hundreds of Afghan women and girls.
  And so let the U.S. Senate commend Josh Baker for his vital and 
lifesaving contributions to the allied evacuation of Afghanistan.

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