[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12245]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO ESSAY WINNER, MR. SEAN DOHERTY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HENRY J. HYDE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 21, 2006

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, every year in my district, I ask students in 
grades 8th and 12th to participate in an essay contest. This year's 
contest focused on the issue of protecting our nation from terrorism.
  I am pleased that so many students chose to enter this essay contest. 
Unfortunately, however, there can only be one winner in each group: 8th 
grade and 12th grade. This year's 8th grade winner was Sean Doherty 
from Elmhurst, Illinois. He attends St. Charles Borromeo School in 
Bensenville, Illinois. The 12th grade winner was Katie Horton from 
Addison Trail High School. She lives in Addison, Illinois.
  This is Mr. Sean Doherty's essay, entitled: ``How does the Homeland 
Security Agency protect us from Terrorism?'' is as follows:

       The Homeland Security Agency (HSA) is a government agency 
     responsible for tracking down those responsible for terrorism 
     against the United States of America. It is part of The 
     Department of Homeland Security. It works closely with the 
     FBI, CIA, and other agencies to track down terrorists and 
     those who are planning an act of terrorism, before they can 
     commit such an act.
       Those responsible for the vast majority of terrorism 
     against the United States are Muslim terrorists who operate 
     in cells around the world. They seek to destroy us because of 
     our basic freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of the 
     press, and freedom of religion. They will stop at nothing to 
     destroy us; death is no border to them. To them, death is 
     when they will be rewarded. This can be seen by the frequent 
     homicide bomber attacks that occur.
       The HSA uses wiretaps, satellite imaging, email monitoring, 
     and various other methods to track down terrorists. The 
     terrorists use every tool at their disposal to evade capture 
     and kill innocent Americans, so the NSA should and must use 
     every tool at their disposal to stop terrorists before they 
     can attack.
       At airports, the HSA uses metal detectors, bomb sniffing 
     dogs, cameras, and physical searches of bags and passengers 
     to make sure our airlines are safe. One machine, the Chemical 
     Trace Examination (CTex) machine can even detect explosives 
     by their density. At ports, containers are scanned with x-
     rays and gieser counters to make sure nothing that can be 
     used for a terrorist attack is transported into the country. 
     Also, some containers are even searched physically.
       The PATRIOT Act is a piece of legislation that was passed 
     after September 11, 2001. It is designed to help the HSA 
     track down terrorists. It makes small changes to already 
     existing laws so that the process of hunting down a terrorist 
     cell is streamlined. For example, the PATRIOT Act allows the 
     HSA to wiretap or monitor a suspected terrorist without a 
     court warrant. If a court warrant were required, the 
     terrorist could be tipped off and destroy evidence or flee 
     the country.
       In order to reduce terrorism, we need to stay in Iraq and 
     Afghanistan. If we stay there, we can start to spread more 
     moderate feelings about western culture throughout the 
     region. The people of those countries already show their 
     gratitude to the United States for bringing democracy to 
     their countries, now imagine if the whole Middle East was 
     democratic and freedom of speech and religion were 
     commonplace throughout. The world would be a better, safer 
     place.
       Another additional precaution we need to take is to secure 
     our borders. We need more border patrol agents and more 
     Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and sensors on the northern and 
     southern borders. If we do these things, the risk of 
     terrorism both at home and abroad will be significantly 
     lowered.

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