A resolution honoring the members of the military and intelligence community who carried out the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, and for other purposes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, at 10 o'clock Sunday night, I was at the terminal at the Detroit airport, and there I had gone through the usual airport security drill--shoes off, liquids in plastic bags, and all the other inconveniences designed to keep us safe. It was at that same airport on Christmas of 2009 that a would-be terrorist sought to bomb an airliner. So I was surrounded by reminders, large and small, of how the threat of terrorism has affected our lives when Defense Secretary Gates called me with the momentous news that our forces had succeeded in raiding a compound in Pakistan and killing Osama bin Laden.

A few hours later, my wife Barbara and I joined a different scene-- thousands of cheering young people waving American flags and singing patriotic songs in the early morning darkness outside the White House-- part of an outpouring of relief and emotion across the Nation. What had happened is Osama bin Laden could not avoid the long memory and the long arm of justice, and he could not hope to triumph against the indomitable spirit of the American people.

The news President Obama delivered to the Nation on Sunday evening gives us many reasons to reflect. We should first turn to those who still carry the grief and loss of that September morning about 10 years ago--to those who had lost loved ones in the fight against terror and the years since and to those who carry wounds of body, mind or spirit from that war. The death of Osama bin Laden cannot bring back the lives lost through his monstrous acts, but it can, I hope, bring some measure of relief from those lost.

We first turn, with thanks and admiration, to the men and women of our Armed Forces and the intelligence community. For them and their families, the last decade has been one of long separations, uncertainty, and danger. Yet time and time again they have answered their Nation's call with courage, with competence, and with skill. Once again, they have earned our utmost gratitude.

We should also commend the President for his courage and for his care in ordering a military mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. There was no direct evidence that bin Laden was in the compound that the CIA had determined housed two al-Qaida couriers. Instead, the evidence was circumstantial, and there were differing views within the intelligence community as to the likelihood that bin Laden or perhaps some other high-value target was there. Moreover, the mission required the military helicopters to enter into Pakistani airspace, to land in Pakistan's sovereign territory, and for Navy SEALs to use lethal force on a compound in a city that was home to two Pakistani armed regiments. The President courageously rejected the alternative options of launching a bombing mission or waiting until there was more evidence of bin Laden's presence. He rejected both of those alternatives.

With his bold decision and with the heroism and skill of our military and intelligence professionals, our Nation

struck a tremendous blow not just against a single depraved individual but against the hateful ideology he espoused. Let there be no mistake, al-Qaida is weaker today. Its leader is dead and so is the myth surrounding him.

Osama bin Laden sent his followers to hide in dark, dank mountain caves and often to their own suicides, from the comfort of his million- dollar villa. His death has dealt al-Qaida a major blow. The mystique of Osama bin Laden has been punctured.

The victory over hate-inspired terrorism is not yet complete. Our successful mission against bin Laden will no doubt lead to al-Qaida's remaining leaders issuing calls for retaliation. It is critical our intelligence and military strength continue to seek out those elements and franchises of al-Qaida that remain in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, and other places, such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. The threat may be diminished, but it remains.

Further, it is critical we ensure our military and intelligence communities continue to adapt to the threat of our irregular and unconventional enemy. The interagency cooperation that helped make this mission a success is impressive, and it remains a potent weapon in our effort to weaken the al-Qaida network.

This is an effort worthy not just of this Nation but of all nations. That is why it is important that we find answers to the significant questions raised by the news from Sunday night. Thirty-five miles from the Pakistani capital and a comfortable walk from the Pakistani military's most important academy, in a town where the Pakistani military and intelligence services own a large share of the property, al-Qaida appears to have built a massive complex, ringed by walls as high as 18 feet, protected by barbed wire, as the dedicated hiding place for Osama bin Laden. It is difficult to believe all this occurred without at least arousing the suspicions of Pakistan's security forces or their local officials.

The American people, who have provided billions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani Government, deserve to know whether elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence services or local officials knew of bin Laden's location over the 5 years or so he was there and if they did not know, how that could possibly be the case. Hopefully just as important, the Pakistani people deserve these answers, for they have suffered greatly from al-Qaida's violent extremism. Assassinations, bombings, death of civilian and military personnel alike--all these losses show that al-Qaida and its hate-filled terrorism and its terrorist allies threaten Pakistan's very existence. I believe some of Pakistan's leaders know this to be true, and I was heartened by the reaction of Prime Minister Gilani to bin Laden's death. He said, ``I think it's a great victory and I congratulate the success of this operation.''

It is urgent that the Pakistani Government get answers to the questions about what its military and intelligence agencies and local officials knew and share the answers to those questions with the world and with their own people.

Pakistan can be an important ally in the fight against terror. It has as much, if not more, at stake in that fight as anybody. All the more important, then, that we openly and honestly address the questions which have been raised by the presence of terrorist No. 1, public enemy No. 1, the world's enemy No. 1--the presence of that person in Pakistan in such a central place for all these years. It is important that those questions be honestly answered so we can continue this fight together.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time for debate on the resolution that is pending be extended by 15 minutes, with the additional time being equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, with all other provisions under the previous order remaining in effect.

With this agreement, the vote will now occur around 3:45 p.m.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of S. Res. 159, honoring the members of the military and intelligence community who carried out the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. I am as happy to rise today as at any time in the past 10 years--and it has been for the last 10 years that I have eagerly awaited the moment when my colleagues and I could take to this floor and celebrate the news we got this Sunday: that we got Osama bin Laden. Justice has been done. The world has become a better place now that bin Laden is no longer in it.

This is a time for national unity and celebration. It is a time to finally close a painful chapter in the history of our Nation, even as our larger fight continues. And, most of all, it is a time to give thanks and recognition to a distinguished group of our fellow citizens

who will forever occupy an honored place in our history.

I want to echo my colleagues in offering my humble thanks to the brave men who carried out the daring operation, as well as to the men and women in uniform who enabled their success. I have been involved in national security my entire life, and I am hard pressed to come up with another military operation that demonstrated such sophistication, such professionalism, such precise and lethal effectiveness to accomplish such a momentous and consequential objective. I am truly in awe of what these young men have accomplished, and I thank God that our Nation continues to produce heroic warriors such as them who are willing to give everything, to sacrifice everything, to devote their lives not to the quest for wealth or fame but to the service of a just and noble cause that is greater than their self-interests. We do not yet know their names, but we honor their achievements and we celebrate their heroism. They have made history and earned their place in it.

I want to offer the same praise for our intelligence professionals. It is a truism that intelligence fails in public and succeeds in private. So it is a great day indeed when we can celebrate such a public success of our intelligence professionals. There are men and women across our intelligence community who have devoted the past 10 years, and many more before that, to finding bin Laden. Despite setbacks and sacrifice, despite the loss of leads and the death of friends, regardless of whether the trail was hot or cold, they woke up every day and carried on the fight. And now we honor the fruits of their perseverance and sacrifice, even as they themselves remain hard at work--exploiting the new information we have recovered, analyzing the new data, and setting up the next operation.

I also want to offer my deepest congratulations and appreciation to the President and his national security team. I credit them with making the elimination of Osama bin Laden their top priority--and for accomplishing it so impressively. Regardless of the myriad groups and parties and factions into which we Americans divide ourselves on a daily basis, the killing of Osama bin Laden is a national triumph and all Americans should feel proud and appreciative of the leadership shown by President Obama and his team on this matter.

I specifically want to credit the President with ordering an airborne assault by ground forces rather than aerial bombardment. It would have been a lot easier to simply turn bin Laden's compound into a smoldering crater, but it would have denied us the certainty we now have that bin Laden is dead. It took real courage to assume the many risks associated with putting boots on the ground, and I strongly commend the President for it.

I would be remiss if I did not also thank President Bush and the many officials who labored with him for 8 years to do what has now been done. I know it is one of President Bush's regrets that he could not eliminate bin Laden on his watch, but he and his team should take solace in the knowledge that they laid the foundation for Sunday's operation, and they deserve credit for that.

Finally, I want to say a word to the many American families for whom this celebration is bittersweet because it recalls memories of the mothers and fathers, spouses and siblings, sons and daughters, who were stolen from them, and from us all--not just in the September 11 attacks but in the many acts of mass murder for which Osama bin Laden was guilty. No act of man can fill the aching emptiness of a loved one lost. For that there is only the grace of God. But it is my sincerest hope that the elimination of Osama bin Laden--this act of justice done--will help to ease the pain and bring closure to what has surely been a decade of torment, as we were daily reminded that the world's most wanted terrorist was still free.

I also want to credit the families of the victims of September 11, 2001. Had it not been for their relentless efforts and advocacy, Congress would not have established the 9/11 Commission and adopted many of its important reforms of our national security establishment-- reforms that no doubt were instrumental in facilitating the joint and collaborative operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden. I could not imagine a greater contribution that the 9/11 families could have made.

Of course, the death of Osama bin Laden does not portend the elimination of al-Qaida or the end of terrorist plots and attacks against our country. We must remain vigilant in our pursuit of every enemy who would do harm to us and our friends and allies. And we shall do so. But there is no denying that the death of Osama bin Laden will have a significant impact in this long war. It will enable us to focus more of our time and attention and resources on others who would do us harm. Perhaps more importantly, it will enable our country to look more fully forward--to focus more completely on supporting the peaceful democratic awakenings that are sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, which are the greatest repudiation of al-Qaida that we ever could have imagined or hoped for.

If there is any consolation in the fact that Osama bin Laden lived as long as he did, it is that he got to witness Arabs and Muslims by the tens of millions rising up to demand justice and dignity, not through suicide bombings and mass murder, but through peaceful change, political freedom, and economic opportunity--the very ideas that bin Laden's perverse and murderous ideology seeks to destroy. That could be the truest death knell of al-Qaida, and I for one am very happy that Osama bin Laden got to hear it--just before a team of American heroes ended his wretched life.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise in strong support of this resolution and offer my congratulations to the men and women responsible for developing the intelligence and carrying out the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden on Sunday, May 1.

This is perhaps the most important, and certainly the most stunning, intelligence operation I have seen in my 10 years on the Intelligence Committee. I wanted to congratulate, first and foremost, President Obama. As he stated in his Sunday night address to the Nation, he directed Leon Panetta shortly after taking office to ``make the killing or capture of bin Ladin the top priority of our war against al-Qaida.''

When the effort to collect and analyze intelligence on this compound in Abbottabad bore fruit, President Obama made a courageous and very gutsy decision to order the strike, even though the intelligence community could not assure him with certainty that bin Ladin was there.

At the operational level, the hunt for bin Laden and the read on his compound has shown the greatly improved collaboration and cooperation across the intelligence community and, of course, the Department of Defense.

The CIA has received and well deserved the lion's share of the credit. The agency collected the human intelligence and carried out other missions that found and characterized the Abbottabad compound, and CIA analysts took the lead in analyzing and reanalyzing that information.

The CIA's Counterterrorism Center has a banner on the wall that reads, ``Today is September 12, 2001.'' It has been nearly 10 years, but their perseverance and dedication has truly paid off.

I also want to recognize the efforts of the National Security Agency which provided signals intelligence and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency which conducted the imagery analysis on the compound. It was truly a team effort.

I also commend and give thanks to the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, the team that flew to the compound under cover of night and conducted the raid. It was not a picture perfect operation, and changes to the plan were necessary as the lead helicopter was forced to land unexpectedly. But the highly trained and skilled members of the Navy SEAL team adjusted, reached their target, and they killed Osama bin Laden without taking any casualties themselves.

I was first briefed on the compound and the possibility that it housed Osama bin Laden in the beginning of last December along with Senator Kit Bond who was vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee at that time. Since then, the current vice chairman, Senator Saxby Chambliss, and I have been regularly briefed and updated on the intelligence.

I thank Director Panetta and his team for keeping the Intelligence Committee leadership informed. As one who is regularly critical of our government's inability to keep secrets, it is very reassuring that this highly sensitive and sensational intelligence was kept under wraps for months.

There is no doubt that Sunday's operation gives rise to a number of questions. Among the most important of them are, one, what did Pakistan know about bin Laden's presence and this compound in the up to 6 years he was there? It has to be pointed out that this compound was eight times bigger than any home in the vicinity. It was just a quarter of a mile away from another home. It was a mile away from a major military academy. It had razor wire on the top of very large walls, and it was very large in itself. Trash was not picked up, it was burned. No one really came in and out except the two couriers who went about delivering

messages from a distance from the compound.

It should have been an issue of curiosity, and neighbors surely would have been interested in who lived there. Why is it so big? What is going on there? But there was virtually no reaction.

The second point is, what does bin Laden's death mean for al-Qaida and for the affiliate groups and lone wolves he has inspired and led? As the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I will be looking for answers to those questions and get more of the details of the operation itself. Tomorrow morning, in a joint classified hearing with the Armed Services Committee, we will be looking into these and other issues. But this resolution is about commending the men and women of our intelligence community and the U.S. military for their dedication and years of work that led to 40 minutes of incredible success. It should also recognize the fact that since 9/11, intelligence has been streamlined, stove pipes have been taken down, and analysts have greatly improved in their trade craft.

As a matter of fact, the intelligence having to do with this one facility was red-teamed once, red-teamed twice, and red-teamed at least a third time. The red-teaming process gives the ability of our analysts to debunk the intelligence, to try to indicate what might be a lapse, an ``inconclusion,'' a false judgment. It is a very valuable process.

This resolution also recognizes the measure of justice now delivered to those who mourn and remember the thousands of men, women, and children claimed as victims on 9/11 and in the other attacks carried out by al-Qaida under Osama bin Laden both here and around the world.

This will not end terror as we know it today, but it surely is a monumental step to be able to put an end to the man who championed the cause, the man who provided the inspiration, the man who raised the money, and the man who was purely and simply the major leader.

Osama bin Laden is no more, and the time is upon us. I hope the world will be listening to try to consider a better path, to move away from acts of terror, move away from the killing of innocent men, women and children, and become part of the councils of government, whatever they may be, across the world, to debate, to discuss, to vote, and to put forward principled policies.

I very much appreciate the efforts of the majority leader and the Republican leader in bringing this resolution to the floor, and I urge its adoption.

I notice my distinguished vice chairman on the Senate floor. I particularly want to thank him, Senator Chambliss, for all of the cooperation we have been able to effect together.

You truly have been wonderful. It has been a great joy for me to work with you, and I only wish I could give you a glass of California wine to salute this very special day.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I stand, as every Member of this Senate does today, I am sure, in support of not only this resolution but everything this resolution stands for.

The elimination of Osama bin Laden as a symbol of murder, of tyranny, of repression is an important moment. It is a moment that came 10 years after it should have. If we could have found Osama bin Laden 10 years ago when we were looking for him, 9/11 might not have occurred. But it did occur.

The message for him and the message for others is you cannot hide from the forces of freedom and democracy. This was a moment when the forces of freedom and democracy triumphed over the forces of repression. This was a moment when the symbol of one view of the future was eliminated with the kind of violence he himself had perpetrated on so many others.

The President made a great decision to send this team of the best of the best into this compound to find Osama bin Laden, to know for sure face to face that he was either going to be captured by Americans or, in this case, killed by Americans, to be able to take the hard drive, the documents. The information he had surrounding him will tell us a lot about his contacts, and who knows what it might tell us about the network of al-Qaida. The President could have made a decision to bomb the compound. I guess we would be sifting through the ashes today to see if Osama bin Laden was there. We might have been able to confirm that, but we would not have been able to confirm all the information the SEAL team was able to take with them. These are two important decisions made by the President. I think the decision to bury Osama bin Laden in an unknown spot but with the kind of respect his own religion required was also another good decision. I want to be supportive of the President and the decisions made.

There are times when a Predator missile is the right thing to use and times when it is not. One of the things we see from the death of bin Laden is that there is value to capturing our enemies and getting information from them. That thread of information that began maybe as long as 9 years ago finally was able to unravel in a way that made the connection that needed to be made so that Osama bin Laden could be found, so that justice could be done, so that the price would be paid by him, as it has been paid by so many others in defense of freedom.

Certainly, there are questions today about Pakistan, but there is no question that Pakistanis have died fighting alongside Americans in the last decade. There is no question that Pakistanis have been the victim of terrorism. Hopefully, this will be a moment that brings all of those who should want freedom to the same side.

I just returned from a quick visit to Egypt, which could very well be on the right path in the Middle East, a path where, without violence, people stand and want more freedom, they want democracy. That is not the goal of the extremists of Islam, for whom Osama bin Laden became the great symbol.

We do not believe Osama bin Laden has been in operational control of al-Qaida for some time. It would be wonderful if we find out in the next few days that he was and the terror of al-Qaida would be eliminated. I do not think we will find that out. But we do know he was a symbol in a way that is unique, in the way he symbolizes this wrong view of the future, the way he symbolizes the wrong view of the requirement that everybody living together be exactly the same. We, unlike any other country in the world, defy that view of the future. We have proven like no other country has ever proven that people can live together in great diversity, that people can live together with different points of view, and we can live in a society that still flourishes. Of course, we are the enemy of a world view that that is not possible. It is not because of anything we have done to the extremists in the world community; it is because of who we are.

Yesterday, the message of who we are was registered again in a powerful way as we all over this country and people all over the world talked about what happened the evening before, certainly not only the SEALs who went into the compound to see that justice was done but also all of those who are willing to serve, those who could have been among the elite who went in or all those who have served, the over 4,000 Americans, including many Missourians, whose lives have been lost in the last decade, in addition to the 3,000 lives that were brutally taken by the operatives of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden on September 11, 2001.

This resolution that recognizes the courage to bring justice, that recognizes the evil that was done by Osama bin Laden and his followers, that recognizes the importance of freedom and democracy in a society is a resolution I am proud to support. I am proud of what the men and women did for us in executing this well-planned mission, but also of everybody who serves every day, for all the families who have a missing place in their hearts, for someone whose life was lost serving this country, for all the families who live with someone with a disability because of the kind of war we are in now.

I am pleased to stand here representing my State but hopefully representing, as all of us do, the forces of freedom and democracy that will ultimately triumph over the forces of repression and murder and chaos that one-world view would try to perpetuate. We recognize today another step against that view of the world.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Thank you very much.

And I congratulate Mr. Reed on the amendment. I think it is wholly appropriate that we commend all of the intelligence services and our elite Special Forces who participated in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. And it really wasn't a victory over one person or one leader, but a blow to the entire network, to the belief system of those that believe violence, killing innocent men, women and children of all religions, is a way to promote your political gains.

If you think about the incredible accomplishment that happened after, and started really after 9/11, we had to make up for huge gaps in humint intelligence. And through the help of this body and this Congress and President Bush and then on to President Obama, we began to reassemble the abilities and capabilities of our intelligence community. Through interrogations, information was developed about how al Qaeda works and we understood its logistics, how it finances and recruits and moves people, how it recruits people to do suicide bombings, how it plans operations. All of that came in the early days.

Then 5 years ago through an integration, there was a little piece of information, a nickname applied to an alias with someone who was hanging around other folks who were probably using nicknames applied to an alias who may be a courier for Osama bin Laden. And through all of our collection agencies, signals intelligence, satellite intelligence, other forms of intelligence, a case was slowly and surely developed that finally allowed, with a few lucky breaks and some great determination from our intelligence community, the ability to locate the place where they believed Osama bin Laden was hiding out. Once that was determined, they brought in our Special Forces community, who did an exceptional and superb job in bringing him to justice in what was a difficult situation.

So I want to compliment Mr. Reed and Mr. Grimm for bringing this amendment forward to give a small sense of recognition to all of the work on behalf of the entire intelligence and Special Forces community, and the soldiers too who risked their lives in holding ground in places like Afghanistan to reestablish security there so that al Qaeda won't find safe haven there when they leave. All of those

things and all of those capabilities are incredibly important. All of that service and all of that sacrifice led to last Sunday's successful event.

Let us not forget, al Qaeda may be hurt, they have lost their operational and inspirational leader; but they are not down. This is not the time to back off. This is not the time to say that we should do other things or maybe we shouldn't be places at all. This is the time to step on the gas and break the back of al Qaeda as a threat to the world as we move forward.

Again, I want to congratulate Mr. Reed and Mr. Grimm, and I wholeheartedly support this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, it's laudable that they would commend the men and women of the intelligence community. We certainly thank them for that. We just did that a few minutes ago. That would certainly qualify for the department of redundancy as we would move forward.

The one that I find mystifying, we came so close, so close, to finally making this a bipartisan product. So the

first part was great. You said thank you very much to the folks and hid behind the great work of the men and women of the intelligence community. But then you blow up the entire intelligence bill by prioritizing of funding.

Two things that does. One, it blows up the work, the framework. There's a priority framework in the intelligence community that sets these standards and tells the intelligence community, here are your priorities, given place, given region, given resources. That happens already. So you basically say, well, we don't believe that you ought to be doing that. We should be doing that. Wrong answer.

The second part of it is we have a classified annex and it talks about very important investments that we in a bipartisan way have worked to get to--code breaking, cybersecurity. What you are saying is cybersecurity isn't as important. You think this is more important. That is not for us to determine.

We just went through months and months of work to tell the intelligence community to put the classified annex together to say, here are the intelligence priorities as we go forward. This bill is intended to gut the work of the last few months that we have just done in a bipartisan way.

I tell you, it's a little frustrating knowing that we came that close, Mr. Speaker, to getting a bipartisan product that represents the values of the intelligence community, the resources that they need, and, yes, says thank you to the men and women who will never be known for the work they do to keep America safe.

I recommend a strong rejection of this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.