Posted on 09/13/2001 3:49:47 PM PDT by SFmom
Senator Barbara Boxer
Transcript of Floor Statement on the Terrorist Attack Against the United States
September 12, 2001 I want to thank my dear friend, Senator Biden, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, for this opportunity and for his eloquence and vigilance on this topic. And I am proud to be on his Committee and proud to chair the Subcommittee on Terrorism.
Madame President, today I rise with pain in my heart and great emotion to offer my prayers and my condolences for the people who have been directly hit in this country by an act of war. People of my state of my birth, New York; the people who work at the Pentagon everyday, who have chosen to work to protect our nation; the people of California who were on those planes that were hijacked; and of course, to every other individual who was directly affected from every state. And all of us will have our stories.
I want to first thank the people of California for their outpouring of love and support for the people of this country.
There were vigils and prayer services in every denomination yesterday. There was an outpouring of people giving blood. The Los Angeles County Search and Rescue Team somehow got a plane at four in the morning. They went on that plane and they are now on the ground in Manhattan.
For indeed, we are one country east to west, north to south. I have never seen such unity.
One of our colleagues said we remember where we were when tragedy hit this country. And in my lifetime I remember too many things. Not as many things perhaps as Senators who are older, but I certainly remember where I was when I saw John Kennedy go down and Martin Luther King go down, and the Challenger disaster, and yesterday the image of four commercial American planes going down, crashing into buildings, being used as lethal weapons against our people. It is an image that has shaken us, but it has not shaken our resolve.
Madam President, once I was on a plane that was in some type of mechanical trouble and we had to make an unscheduled landing. And for an hour, we really didn't know if we were going to make it. And in that time, passengers were consoling each other and getting out their fears and flight attendants were reading the crash landing manuals. And I reached for the phone and I called my family and I left a message and I thought: did I tell them when I last saw them how much they mean to me?
And all I could think of yesterday were people on these planes, everyone of whom has a family. Basically as I understand it, knowing that they were going to go down. And in many cases, as I understand it, being told if you want to call your families, you are crashing.
The utter terror. The utter callousness of this. The inhumanity of this. It is unbearable what our people went through on those planes and those innocent people working in the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
This is a very strong statement I am going to make—when we look back in history at what happened in Bosnia where people suffered genocide because of their nationality—and to the Holocaust where people suffered annihilation because of their nationality.
People got killed yesterday because they are Americans. Not because they were bad people. They were good people. They got killed because they were Americans. And it is time for us to say we will fight and stand up for them and their memories. We will take a stand against man's inhumanity to man that occurred right on our own soil.
And we are resolved—we are resolved to honor those who died. We are resolved to make our nation safer, as safe as it can be from these acts. We are resolved to hold those who plan these attacks, who harbor these people absolutely a hundred percent accountable. We will hold them accountable. They must pay because this is the test of a civilized nation. And we lead the civilized nations of the world, and we will not back down.
And I stand proudly with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and with this President. And we will be resolved to do all these things and to do them well and to do them right and to bring justice to the world. Thank you.
The committee voted 14-3 to send the nomination of John Negroponte to the full Senate
Voting against the nomination were Democrats Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Barbara Boxer of California.
They did not question Negroponte's qualifications and said they would not try to block the nomination, particularly with the pressing need for the post to be filled after Tuesday's attacks against the United States.
The previous U.S. ambassador, Richard Holbrooke, stepped down in January.
doubting Thomas Terriergal
" It is time for a formal apology to the misunderstood terrorists and there poorly represented leader Bin Laden, my fellow Americans, if these young men did not have such a bad childhood, they would not have committed these crimes"... I am going to recommend a suspended sentence and counseling for these poor young men..."
Don't forget the reparations...
Don't forget the reparations...
The only way to make the US and the world safe from terrorist is to find these terrorist and kill them and their families in the dead of night. To do so with out pity or remorse. To do so in the most horribly brutal fashion as to strike unreasoning fear in to the hearts of those who would follow their example.
This is the language that these people understand. This is the currency of these people’s minds. These are the methods which will restore our country’s and the worlds safety. Lesser methods such as banning email encryption an phone tapping are temporary stopgap measures which last only as long as it takes the terrorist to find a way around the measure (which is not long).
Only the fear of a strong and ruthless retaliation will stop these people.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea (L) meet with Bernardette Healy, head of the Red Cross in the United States and Rob Bender (R) head of the Red Cross in New York September 13, 2001 at a center for families with missing persons after the World Trade Center collapse. Rescue operations continue at The World Trade Center collapse site after an attack on the structure. REUTERS/Miguel Juárez Lugo REUTERS
Luke 22:36 (KJV) --Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
Got sword? (M1 Garand) 
No mercy, no quarter!
May the jihadists burn in hell for eternity!
Help speed them on their way!
Molon Labe!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.