[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        DEATH OF OSAMA BIN LADEN

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, late on Sunday evening, the world was told 
of news we had been waiting to hear for almost 10 years. Osama bin 
Laden was a murderer who devoted his life to the destruction of 
freedom, democracy, and our way of life. His death is an important 
milestone in the fight against global extremist violence and a relief 
to the millions of Americans and others around the world who have felt 
his murderous destruction.
  I, first and foremost, wish to thank the military and the 
intelligence professionals who carried out this daring mission, which 
was executed flawlessly and will go down in our history books as to how 
we should do our work.
  I wish to take a moment to compliment all of our military and 
intelligence people who were involved in this effort. I take great 
pride in representing the State of Maryland and our intelligence 
agencies that are located at Fort Meade. They do incredible work for 
our national security and for our Nation. They do a lot of work that 
keeps us safe, but they can never issue a press release because of the 
nature of their work. Many times I believe their work goes basically 
unappreciated by the vast majority of Americans. But I wish to take a 
moment to congratulate all the men and women in our intelligence 
agencies and in our military who have devoted their lives to keeping us 
safe. This mission demonstrates the type of work they do in order to 
make this a safer nation.
  This successful interagency operation illustrates intelligence 
sharing at its best and the commitment of the men and women of our 
Armed Forces as well as our political leadership. As you know, after 
the attack on our country on September 11, we had commissions do work, 
we had a lot of congressional investigations, and there was one theme 
that came out very clearly in regard to the way we collected 
intelligence information to keep this Nation safe; that is, there was 
too much stovepiping and not enough sharing of information. Information 
that could have been shared, that could have been used in a way to keep 
us safe was not. This effort demonstrates the advantages of sharing 
information. Our intelligence agencies acted upon information that was 
made available through various sources and using that to be able to 
conduct this mission.
  Truly, bin Laden was brought to justice as a result of President 
Obama's deliberative planning, coordination, and communication, his 
leadership, partnership, and dogged persistence. Because of that, we 
were able to accomplish this mission.
  I wish to congratulate President Obama. He had to make a tough call. 
The intelligence information was not conclusive. Much of it was 
circumstantial. Yet he evaluated the best information we had to 
determine that bin Laden was at this location. He then had to make 
another tough choice, as to what type of mission to use--whether to use 
a sophisticated bomb in order to destroy the property, which would have 
caused the loss of some innocent life, or whether to use a higher risk 
mission of sending our SEALs into Pakistan. The President made the 
right call. He made the right decision, and I congratulate him on his 
leadership.
  All Americans were affected by bin Laden's evil actions. We all 
remember that fateful day in September of 2001. I was on the other side 
of the Capitol as a Congressman in my office in the Rayburn Building. I 
remember receiving information that we thought there was a plane that 
could be heading to our own building. The Capitol Police ushered us out 
of the building so we could try to get out of harm's way. We all began 
to understand our Nation was under attack and the world was changing.
  While we are still living in that changed world, this event reminds 
us again the strength of America is freedom and that its persistence 
can prevail. As a lifelong proponent of human rights, I know we do not 
rejoice in killing, but this death rids the world of a man who was 
committed to intolerance, destruction, hatred, and the desecration of 
human dignity. Bringing bin Laden to justice helps heal the wounds of 
those who lost their loved ones and to a nation who lived through 9/11.
  We must remain vigilant as the fight against al-Qaida and other 
extremists goes on. While al-Qaida is increasingly marginalized--
particularly as we see so many in the Arab world exercise their desires 
for change--the threat posed by terrorist organizations will remain 
with us. We must remain on our highest guard, working with our allies 
around the world, in order to fight these extremists.
  Once again, I wish to congratulate the tremendous efforts of our 
President, our military, and our intelligence community, especially as 
their hard work continues, and may this event bring some sense of peace 
to the families affected by bin Laden's evil, as well as to all in the 
world who love freedom and peace.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time spent in quorum 
calls be equally charged against the majority and the minority.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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