[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18112-18114]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TERRORISM

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, during the last week that we were not here 
during the Fourth of July recess, there was a lot of misinformation 
floating around about things that may or may not be happening 
concerning the war on terrorism. I would like to make some 
clarifications, if I could.
  I think it is very significant that we understand what is really 
going on, not what some of the media tell us is going on. I have found 
through my experience--and I say this: I come to the floor with 
probably having made more trips to the Iraqi AOR, 14 in total, than any 
other Member, so I have been there quite a few times. I have watched 
the changes as the changes have taken place.
  Let me share with my colleagues, first of all, a little background. 
The United States Code defines terrorism as premeditated, politically 
motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by 
subnational groups or clandestine agents. Their goal is to inflict the 
maximum amount of damage and pain to civilians irrespective of age, 
race, gender, or religion. It will remain a global threat for the 
foreseeable future. It is global. I think a lot of people don't realize 
how global this is but, if we just look at the things that have 
happened recently, including terrorist attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and 
Tanzania. We remember in those places the Embassies being blown up. The 
United States, France, Morocco, Turkey, Spain, Indonesia, Great 
Britain, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Algeria, Yemen, and 
Tunisia are just a partial list of some of the places where there have 
been terrorist attacks.
  The National Counterterrorism Center reported approximately 14,000 
terrorist attacks occurred in various countries during 2006. Over 50 
percent of the attacks occurred in Iraq or Afghanistan. Reported 
incidents decreased for Europe, Eurasia, South Asia, and the Western 
Hemisphere.
  Now, the following terrorist-related attacks occurred within the past 
30 days outside of Iraq and Afghanistan. The mentality that somehow it 
is all happening in Iraq is false. There were some statements made in 
declaring certain areas in Iraq to potentially be the terrorism 
capital, but we will talk about that in a minute.
  A car bomb exploded outside of the Somalian Prime Minister's 
residence killing six people. This is all in the last 30 days. A bomb 
exploded in front of a crowded tea shop in Thailand killing 1 woman and 
wounding 28 others. That was on June 8. An explosion outside the 
Ambassador Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 1 and injured 37. I might 
add that was a mere 3 days from the time I was actually staying in that 
hotel. A bomb exploded outside a clothing shop in Istanbul, Turkey, 
wounding 14 people. A car bomb in a Beirut seaside neighborhood killed 
10 people and wounded 11 others. Suicide bombers drove an SUV into the 
Glasgow airport doors, injuring six people. A suicide bomber drove into 
a convoy of Spanish tourists, killing nine people and wounding five 
others. That is just what has been taking place in the last month.
  In the United States, President Bush organized and energized the 
Federal Government to pass the PATRIOT Act which broke down the walls 
between Federal law enforcement and intelligence communities. It 
created the Department of Homeland Security, merging 22 different 
Government organizations. It created the position of Director of 
National Intelligence to seamlessly integrate operations of 
intelligence agencies.
  We have had this problem for a long time. I recall when I was first 
elected, when I came from the House to the Senate, and my predecessor 
was David Boren, who is now the President of Oklahoma University, and 
the last thing he told me before I was sworn in was one of the biggest 
problems we have is in coordinating our intelligence communities so 
that everybody knows what everybody else is doing. We hadn't really 
done that until 9/11 came along and we started getting serious about 
it. I am sure President Boren will be very glad to know that this is an 
important improvement that has

[[Page 18113]]

been made. We directed the National Security Agency to monitor 
terrorist communications and established a program to detain and 
question key terrorist leaders and operatives. I know there is a lot of 
talk about what is torture and what is not torture. But we do know that 
HUMINT, human intelligence, is very, very important. It is something we 
have to consider, the lives of those who would be lost versus the lives 
of criminals who are being interrogated.
  We placed state-of-the-art equipment in major cities in the United 
States to detect nuclear and radiological weapons and biological 
agents. We placed advanced screening and equipment and Homeland 
Security personnel at foreign ports to prescreen cargo headed for the 
United States.
  I think it is very interesting that a lot of people are talking about 
how much this has cost.
  Everything I have read costs something. The question is, How many 
lives has it saved? That is something very difficult to ascertain. 
Fighting the terrorists is a coalition of more than 90 nations. It is 
not just the United States, it is the United States and 90 other 
nations--a coalition of nations that has sought to synchronize 
diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, economic, financial, and 
military power to attack terrorism globally. I believe it is working. 
As the President has recently said, to strike our country, the 
terrorists only have to be right once. To protect our country, we have 
to be right 100 percent of the time. As we learned on 9/11, and many 
times in other countries, it only takes one time for them to be 
successful. We know that some of the results are significant.
  We captured an al-Qaida operative named Ali Saleh al-Marri in the 
United States, who we believe was targeting water reservoirs, the New 
York Stock Exchange, and the U.S. military academies in December 2001. 
This was the first post-9/11 plot that was thwarted. Al-Marri offered 
himself as a martyr to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. 
He was his No. 1 man. He sent him to the United States after he 
received training in poisons at an al-Qaida camp.
  It is kind of interesting that people say there is no connection 
between Iraq and al-Qaida when, in fact, we know now and can release 
information on several training camps that were there. Very likely, he 
could have been trained in that particular camp.
  The British authorities broke up a plot to blow up passenger 
airplanes flying to America, which could have rivaled 9/11. We know 
that happened. The plot was foiled in August of 2006. They planned to 
blow up as many as 12 U.S.-bound passenger jets. They planned to use 
liquid explosives hidden in carry-on luggage. U.S.-British authorities 
had a group under surveillance for many months, and many of the 
suspects were British citizens of Pakistani origin. They thwarted that. 
That didn't happen. That could have happened and, very likely, would 
have except for all these efforts of the United States and other 
countries.
  We broke up two other post-9/11 aviation plots--one targeting the 
Library Tower in Los Angeles and the other targeting the east coast. An 
al-Qaida leader in Southeast Asia, known as Hambali, recruited Jemaah 
Islamiyah operatives of Asian origin. The plot was derailed early in 
2002 with international cooperation. Library Tower is the tallest 
building west of the Mississippi, 1,018 feet tall. It is among the 25 
tallest buildings in the world. That didn't happen. That was planned. 
It could have happened. It was stopped by this combined effort.
  Four men were indicted in an alleged plot to attack John F. Kennedy 
International Airport by blowing up a jet fuel supply. They planned to 
hit the fuel farms and a 40-mile aviation fuel supply pipeline, and 
they specifically targeted the symbolism of JFK, sought to invoke 
emotional reaction saying, ``It is like killing the man twice.'' That 
is their statement. Suspects were tied to extremist groups in South 
America and the Caribbean, specifically Guyana and Trinidad. One 
suspect was a former airport cargo worker. They sought massive 
disruption of the U.S. economy by cutting off this major artery of 
travel that connects the United States to the rest of the world--over a 
thousand flights a day, half of which are international, 45 million 
passengers and 1.5 million tons of cargo a year.
  They disrupted a plot by a group of al-Qaida-inspired extremists to 
kill American soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey, which was the result 
of a 16-month investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI. 
Suspects had taken an incriminating video to the store to be 
transferred to DVD. The video showed calls for jihad and radical and 
violent ranting in Arabic, including images of the men firing assault 
weapons.
  Terrorists attempted to detonate two car bombs using cell phones in 
London's West End. That happened over the last recess we had. It 
heightened public awareness and quick police action prevented 
detonations of two Mercedes car bombs. This was a concerted effort. We 
and the Brits were in on that. All others on this team worked very well 
and very effectively.
  Now, in Iraq, we have had success that is critical to our long-term 
fight against terrorism. Osama bin Laden calls the struggle in Iraq a 
``war of destiny.'' Al-Qaida sees victory in Iraq as a religious 
strategic imperative, a base from which to launch new attacks around 
the globe.
  While I am troubled the war has cost us, I believe it is absolutely 
necessary for us to be able to have this success. I can recall a year 
ago standing at this podium in the Senate quoting al-Qaida, saying 
Ramadi--that province in Iraq was going to become the terrorist capital 
of Iraq. When I was in Ramadi a matter of days ago, we found that there 
are new groups of people cooperating now that never cooperated before. 
I think some of the people in this body who were talking about 
surrender resolutions and all that--it got their attention. Maybe that 
performed a useful function because all of a sudden the people woke up. 
I learned something there too. All these political leaders we hear 
about, such as Prime Minister Maliki and Defense Minister Jasim and Dr. 
Rubiya, and some of the rest--I thought they were the ones who were the 
leaders. I think it is the clerics in the mosques. All of a sudden, 
they became concerned and, up until that time, we had been monitoring 
all of the procedures and the performances they have had on a weekly 
basis in the mosques. Eighty-five percent of them have been, up until 
December of this last year, anti-American messages. As of April, there 
haven't been any anti-American messages. That shows that the clerics 
have gotten involved in this thing. In Tulsa, OK, we have neighborhood 
watch programs, where people get neighbors to watch and see what is 
going on. This is happening throughout Iraq, where they are spraying 
orange spray paint around IEDs that haven't been detonated so our 
troops could disarm them. Those things have happened. I think the joint 
security stations have been very successful in Baghdad. Instead of our 
troops going out and coming back into the green zone at night, they 
stay and get to know and develop close, intimate relationships with the 
Iraqi security forces and their families. That has had a tremendously 
positive effect.
  The future will be difficult in the fight against terrorism. It is 
not a sprint, it is a marathon. We have to remain vigilant, determined, 
and strong. I want our troops to come home as badly as anybody. When 
you think about the consequences of losing this thing, all it would 
take for these people who are crying out about their feelings and 
saying let's get out of Iraq, all it would take is one successful 
terrorist attack similar to those that have been stopped through this 
joint effort. We would have to pay dearly.
  I hope people will sit back and realize we have access to information 
the general public doesn't have. Sure, the polls show the majority of 
people would like to have our troops come back. I would, too, but when 
you ask the questions and give them the alternatives, they would rather 
win this war than resign from it.

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