Senate Ok's Conrad-Dorgan Bin Laden Amendment
SENATE OK'S CONRAD-DORGAN BIN LADEN AMENDMENT
Senators Seek to Revive Effort to Deliver Justice on 9/11 Terrorist Mastermind
By a vote of 96-0, the United States Senate today approved an amendment by Senator Kent Conrad and Senator Byron Dorgan to refocus the nation's mission on bringing to justice Osama bin Laden, chief mastermind of the murderous 9/11 terrorist attacks, by reinstating a now-lapsed intelligence team dedicated to finding bin Laden.
Conrad and Dorgan introduced their amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill after public reports that the Administration had disbanded the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, and had previously shifted Arabic-trained military units off the hunt for the terrorist leader in Afghanistan. In a 23-page White House report on counterterrorism strategy released Tuesday, bin Laden's name appears once, and only as an example of how some terrorists are well educated.
"Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, planned, financed and organized a terrorist operation that killed thousands of Americans. It has now been more than 1,800 days since those attacks, and this man is still on the loose. This man has still not been brought to justice," Senator Conrad said. "The Senate agrees that it is chief among our priorities in the war on terror to bring the mastermind behind Sept. 11 to the justice that a mass murderer deserves."
"Our amendment makes certain that bringing Osama bin Laden to justice will be one of our country's most important priorities, and that he is pursued with real energy and with focus, clarity and a specific set of goals," Dorgan said. "Five years ago, Osama bin Laden directed the attack against America, yet today he remains free and continues to threaten America from his secret location. I applaud the Senate for approving our amendment, and for voting to re-invigorate the effort to apprehend him and bring him to justice, something that, when accomplished, will make all Americans more safe."
The legislation is called the "Bring bin Laden to Justice" amendment. It dedicates $200 million in emergency money to an intelligence task force focused on bin Laden; backers of the amendment increased the resources dedicated to the task force from $20 million after talks with fellow senators, staff and analysts. The amendment would also require a classified report to Congress every 90 days on the activities of the federal government related to bringing bin Laden and other top associates of al-Qaeda to justice.
The Senate is expected to pass the Defense Appropriations bill later today.
http://dorgan.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=262591