any other members? please shout out. sorry? we said senator graham. congressman dent of pennsylvania, congressman murphy of pennsylvania. i think we have them all. i think you should take that as a sign of the enormous gratitude we have and how inadequate words are to thank you. i hope the presence of so many members who will go from here to the 9/11 event where we will also honor you but first for you to see as long as this castle exists, anyone who visits here will see the name of your loved

one and can honor his or her memory. [applause]

[inaudible]. . >> waleska martinez.

nicole carol miller. gene peterson. christine snyder. john talignani. deborah jacobs welsh. [applause]

>> and memory of the memory -- september 11, up 2001. u.s. capital. >> you may want to come back. thank you. >> liz and delmar, please proceed to statuary hall. -- ladies gentlemen, please proceed to statuary hall. >> this was from yesterday. there are moments of silence at several times this morning for thousands gathered at a park

bench ground zero. we showed you president obama and gates at the pentagon at a ceremony to ensure a while ago. colin powell was speaking this morning near shanksville, pennsylvania. at 10:30, the u.s. senate will pause and take a moment of silence. house members spoke on the house this week about september 11, where they were and how they felt. their comments run about an hour. what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and ask the house to agree to h.res. 722. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 722, resolution expressing the sense of the house of representatives regarding the terrorist attacks launched against the united states on september 11, 2001. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the

gentleman from california, mr. berman, and the gentlelady from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. berman: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the resolution under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. berman: mr. speaker, i rise in strong support of this resolution, and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. berman: mr. speaker, this resolution pays homage to the lives lost on september 11, 2001, and recognize the -- recognizes the anniversary as not only a time of solemn commemoration but also a demonstration of america's great resolve in combating terrorism. it extends our enduring and deepest condolences to the friends, families and loved ones of the innocent victims. and recognizes the heroism of

u.s. service men and women who defend our country today. it honors the nation's first responders and others whose valiant efforts did credit to their country on that horrible day and who continue to help keep us safe. and it expresses gratitude to the leaders and citizens of other countries who assisted, supported and stood by the united states in the aftermath of the attacks. in america's modern and fragmented society, collective memories are few. but each of us remembers where we were on 9/11 when we heard the news. we remember the days of unity that followed when we acted together to protect this country from those who were determined to bring us to our knees. we remember the efforts that congress, the executive branch and the american people have made since then to protect our nation from a real and an ongoing threat. and even though eight years

have passed, we must remember that al qaeda, while under pressure everywhere, remains a serious threat to the united states. the very al qaeda leadership responsible for ordering the attacks on september 11 continues to rally those who would do us harm and along with its taliban allies seeks to defeat our troops in afghanistan. . this is when we must stand together to recall a moment when trarts targeted america's strengths. our very foundations were under attack and we will carry on the fight against extremists who seek to do us harm. in this battle, the global realities of the 21st century require that we use not only our military, but all of the tools available to us, economic, financial, diplomatic and cultural resources to promote a better alternative to extremism

and to protect our national security. mr. speaker, none of us will forget what happened eight years ago. we will always remember the victims of 9/11 and the loved ones who survived them. we will always honor the first responders who lost their lives that day and those in uniform at home and abroad who risk their lives today and every day to defend america. we will continue to promote our founding principles of freedom and aqult and ensure that the lives lost in pursuit of our ideals are never forgotten. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: mr. speaker, it has been eight years since our country and the entire world stopped and looked on helplessly as the slaughter of innocence at the hands of al qaeda unfolded

before our eyes. although we watched in safety, our fears and hopes were without warning forced to fight for our lives. it is a true miracle that so many escaped destruction, but we will forever mourn the thousands who perished on that terrible day. our sorrow, however deep, cannot match those -- cannot match those whose loved ones were taken away on 9/11. we will always share a part of it. the passage of years has not smoothed the deep impressions that we will bear for the rest of our lives. but as americans, it is not in our nature to resign ourselves to helplessness, even when facing seemingly impossible challenges. instead, we rally and focus our minds and efforts on meeting and overcoming the threats that we

face. we have always done so and we have always won. if there's anything useful that we can take away from this tragedy, it is the unmistakeable warning we have been given of the unseen dangers that we face in this new century. from that, a clarity of vision and a new understanding of the world has emerged. over the past eight years, we have come to know our enemies. we have learned that their hatred of us, success and freedom is too deep to be changed by concessions and appeals to reason. we now grasp the magnitude of the threat and it is a global one. other countries have come under attack and so can no longer deceive themselves that once again this is a men ace for the united states to handle alone while they stand safely on the sidelines. we have uncovered their hiding places in caves, in villages, in

deserts, in cities, in jungles, in back alies, in nations far away, as well as right here in our own homeland. but it would be a mistake if our successes lead us to believe that the danger has passed. we have seen destruction descend from clear and sunny skies and know that it can happen again. to hope that our enemies will abandon their mission, to relax our watch is to invite destruction. president lincoln said that those who are responsible for our nation's course, which includes the members of this body, cannot escape history. we have a responsibility to do all in our power to ensure that our country is secure and that america's promise for the world that generations have labored and fought for and died to protect remain whole and unbounded. how we meet this reality will

repeatedly test our national character. we are right to remember and mourn those men, women and children who died on that day so sharply eached in our minds that it seems like yesterday. but this tragedy must be redeemed by a new understanding of our duty to our beloved country and to our fellow citizens. and what it is to be an american. as long as we draw breath, we will remember those who asking nothing other than to live their lives in peace were brutally murdered by men without conscience or mercy. let those who remain be steadfast, be courageous and live lives worthy of their great sacrifice and thereby honor their memory. with that, mr. speaker, i would like to reserve the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves her time.

the gentleman from california. mr. berman: i'm pleased to yield three minutes to the distinguished chairman of the house armed services committee, mr. skeleton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. cancel cancel -- mr. skelton: >> mr. speaker, eight years ago on september 11, 2001, this chairman beer was empty, the capitol was evacuated, the pentagon was burning, the twin towers in new york lay crumbled and almost 3,000 of our citizens were dead. we can never forget them and we should never forget what we owe them. today, we will once again mourn the families and those who have fallen and we express our deepest sympathy to their friends and loved ones. this is only right. but it's not enough.

we owe it to the victims, to their loved ones, to the survivors, to ourselves to make sure who carried out this awful attack are brought to justice and ensure that they can never again attack and kill our people here at home. for too long, the war in afghanistan was the forgotten war. only recently have we refocused our attention on the war on al qaeda and the taliban who shelter them as they carried out their plot to murder thousands of americans. we cannot -- we can debate the best way to prosecute the fight against al qaeda and taliban. for our part, the president has proposed a strategy on afghanistan, with which i gee. we cannot walk away from the fight and allow the memoú@fñçx#ç

failure means the taliban will control afghanistan and permit their allies to operate from their. failure means we let down those who died on 9/11. we can and should. it is not a civil war. it is not an easy war. we have a real strategy. strategy and for the first time, we are providing the resources needed for the fight. we have a new commander who is breathing new life into our effort and we must show that we have resolve. together, our men and women in uniform, the time and resources they need to show progress in the fight against enemies who carried this and supported the attacks of 9/11. america was attacked on 9/11 by a ruthless, callous enemy and we

cannot forget that and walk away from the war in afghanistan against them. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: i yield one minute to mr. boehner, our respected republican leader. mr. boehner: let me thank my colleagues for yielding and for this resolution that's on the floor. all of us will remember, i think quite clearly where we were on the morning of september 11, 2001. i think all of us will remember the victims of this heinous act that occurred that day. while we today remember those victims and remember their families and we remember the

first responders who put their lives in danger as well, i think we need to resolve that we will never forget of those who perpetrated that attack. and vow that we will continue to go after them. i want to associate myself with the remarks of the the gentleman from missouri, chairman of the armed services committee, who understands quite clearly that if we walk away from our efforts in afghanistan, the taliban will once again be in control, providing safe haven for those who perpetrated these attacks. and while it's been now eight years since that attack, our enemies are still out there, still attempting to injury americans, kill americans both

here and abroad. and i think it's critically important that we as a nation never forget what happened on 9/11 and vow what many of us believe is important that our number one job is to provide safety and security to the american people. and so i thank my colleagues for their resolution that's on the floor and honor those who gave their lives on 9/11 and think of their families and the first responders who continue to suffer today. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california. mr. berman: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to a member of our committee, the distinguished member from new york, mr. engel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. engel: i thank the chairman for yielding to me and i rise in strong support of his resolution and i want to reiterate some of the things i said before with

mr. towns. when i go back to new york every week and look at the skyline of new york, it will never be the same. the world trade center is no longer there. as much as that pains me, it pales in comparison that we lost 3,000 people that day and each and every one of those lives is precious and what september 11 means to me, it means to me what the previous generation talked about on december 7. president roosevelt said during december 7, 1941, pearl harbor that that was a day of infamiliary. to us, september 11, 2001 will always be a day of infammy. it showed the best in people as well as the worst of people, the terrorists who attacked us showed the worst. but the first responders and the people from all parts of the country who came to save

people's lives, that's the best in people. i want to mention that the new york delegation has been fighting for a health bill, which would ensure that those who were first responders and others who came as volunteers at the world trade center, that their health needs should be taken care of by this country and there are people who live in all 50 states. mr. speaker, as we commemorate and mourn the lives that were lost at the world trade center at the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania and many people in my district that were killed as well as all districts in new york, we have to redouble our efforts to fight terrorism. but i want to say that i was very, very proud that day to be an american and proud to be a new yorker, because the way the people of new york responded was exemplary. so every day we hear of more and more people that we find out were lost at the world trade

center. i hope we pass this unanimously and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the the gentleman from indiana, mr. pence, chairman of our republican conference. mr. pence: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. pence: let me rise in gratitude to the majority leader, mr. hoyer and minority leader, mr. boehner, for bringing this important resolution to the floor, bringing a bipartisan resolution to the floor is perhaps the best way to commemorate the bipartisanship that followed the extraordinary event of eight years ago this friday. i was here on capitol hill that day, as my colleagues were. it was just as pretty a day as it is today. and the shock and horror of the

images on the television screens, the smoke rising from the pentagon still is with me today and informs my service in this building, as it does all of our colleagues. but let me say, today's resolution is important because as the old book says, we are to mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve and we are to pave the debts of honor and gratitude that are owed. this resolution remembers those that were lost that day. and this nation should never forget the lives that were lost at the pentagon, in the heart of our great city of new york or in a field in pennsylvania. so we remember them today. and we think of their families. but we rise to pay a debt of gratitude to all those who rushed in when others were rushing out, who filled recruiting offices, who put on

the uniform of the united states and went in and confronted this terror where it all began. and let us, as we grieve and as we mourn and remember and pay debts of gratitude, let us also resolve to continue to do all we can to maintain that bipartisan commitment that began on that very day and continues to this day to make sure that our nation and our soldiers and those who protect us at home and abroad have the resources that they need to get the job done and come home safe. with that, i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from new york, mr. ackerman, will control the remainder of the time. the gentleman is recognized. mr. ackerman: thank you, mr. speaker. it's my pleasure to yield to the majority leader of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hoyer: i thank the distinguished chairman and gentleman from new york. i thank mr. pence for his

remarks. on many days on this floor we -- it's a place for heated debate. and that is, of course, as it should be. that's what our founders intended. but at this moment, as mr. pence, the chairman of the republican conference pointed out, and as i will point out as the majority leader on democratic side, there are no democrats or republicans on this floor because we joined to remember and mourn the attack on america. not on democrats or republicans but on america and on its values and on what it stands for throughout the world, freedom and justice. september 11, 2001, was a day of grief and of shock, of fear, of anger, but today it can and must be something more. a day to rededicate ourselves with memory and with service to the ideals that make our nation great. as i said earlier, freedom, pluralism, quality, rule of

law, justice. those no less than our buildings and our citizens were the targets of the 9/11 terrorists. and though buildings crumbled and the dead are lost to us, it's in our power to see our ideals remain strong and unscathed. so on this eighth anniversary, along with the republican leader, mr. boehner, i was proud to introduce the resolution marking september 11 as a day of remembrance but also a day of resolve. so many conflicting emotions marked this day. grief for nearly 3,000 men and women and children murdered. heart felt sympathy for those who loved and lost them. an unspeakable pride in the first responders, firemen, policemen, medical personnel who served and indeed

sacrificed on that day. among the 3,000, 343 firefighters, 37 port authority officers and 23 police officers who died serving their fellow citizens as they ran into dangers. jaws not away from them. alongside them i understand the passengers of the united flight 93, ordinary americans who discovered their extraordinary heroism at a moment of crisis and who quite possibly saved this building, this chamber and the capitol dome from ruins. it is my own view that that was the target of this third plane, to strike down that dome which here in america and throughout the world is a symbol of freedom and pleuralism and and, yes, democracy. we also remember the cyst

sacrifices of our troops -- remember the sacrifices of our troops, not only those who lost their lives under our flag, but those who make the everyday sacrifice of separation from family and home. not all of us is called to serve as heroically, but in a number of small acts to our community, we can emulate our services in both ways large and small. that -- that is our resolve today. and along with it we take the lesson of our vulnerability to heart. we commit ourselves to defending america from whatever threats may confront it. with all of our military force, all of our diplomatic skill and all of the power of our moral example. our lives are limited, but we have in our keeping the ideals and truths that have animated our nation since its founding. and that we trust will outlive

us. outlive all of us to light the lives of our children and grandchildren and as a great grandfather, let me say for generations to come. they have lived through war, through economic crisis and through the gravest attacks. now while they are in our keeping let us defend them, serve them, live for them and pass them down unharmed and undamaged. all that, my fellow colleagues, on behalf of the 300 million people who have sent 435 of us here to represent their views and their aspirations, their courage and their commitment, let us again resolve today. may we hold it for tomorrow and every day thereafter. i yield back the balance of my

time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield three mis the torment is recognized for three minutes. -- the gentleman is recognized. >> let me commend the majority leader and the report for showing the spirit of bipartisanship. mr. speaker, to temper 11 israel. it is with us every day -- i lost approximately 150 friends and constituents on september 11. in fact, i cannot drive throughout my district without ve throughout my district without seeing sign after sign, street signs commemorating the police officers and firefighters who

were killed on that day. it's a tragedy that continues today in those families, with their friends and their neighbors. but it's also an ongoing threat against the united states of america. the attack on september 11 did not end on september 11. the fact is we have an enemy of islamic terrorism, al qaeda, which threatens us throughout the world and indeed here in our own country. in new york alone, there was going to be attacks against the brooklyn bridge, against the synagogues in riverdale, in the north bronx. so these are issues -- these are tsh this is a threat which is ongoing and it's real. we always have to keep our defenses up and we have to thank the men and women of our armed forces who are fighting throughout the world, the men and women of our intelligence agencies, the men and women of the state and local police departments in new york, the new york city police department, nassau county police department, suffolk county police department, there are more than 1,000 police officers dedicated to fighting terrorism in counterterrorism

units. again, it's daily, daily effort. as the ranking member of the homeland security committee, i'm aware of many of the threats we have stopped. and we -- and realize again how the enemy is never going to stop and we can't let our guard down. also, in the interest of bipartisanship, i believe we should give president bush credit for setting up the international level of cooperation with so many countries throughout the world and also breaking down bare areas within our own intelligence agencies and requiring them to share information with local police departments. it's not -- it's not because of luck that we have not been attacked in eight years. on september 12, 2001, no one would have thought we would have gone eight years without being attacked the way we were on that horrible day on september 11. and also in the interest of bipartisanship, it's important for us as republicans to stay with president obama and his policy in afghanistan which is the continuation which we began against the taliban and al qaeda after the attacks on september 11. this issue of international terrorism is too important to allow us to be divided by

partisan politics. we came together as a nation on september 11 and the days after. it's important that we stay together. this, as president kennedy said in 1961, it's going to be a long twilight struggle. we won that cold war and we are going to win this war. we are going to prevail if we stand together as one, stand together as a nation and realize that our enemy steampting to destroy us. if we stand together as one with our allies and our forces here in this country we can never be defeated. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: i yield myself three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. ackerman: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of the resolution and commend the majority leader and the minority leader for their good work. we have before us an excellent memorial resolution. it's succinct, strong and truly expresses what i truly believe to be the position of the entire house. as we consider this resolution, i'd suggest that every member

take a minute to close their eyes, if they're in their offices, turn off the chattering of the television or the -- their staff and try to think back to september, 2001. it really was eight years ago. remember how beautiful a day that that was. perfect. clear, crisp september day with a cloudless sky. remember where you were when you heard that our nation was under attack, when you first saw those awful images of the towers gushing black smoke and the pentagon in flames. remember the thousands of our fellow americans who perished in the world trade center and at the pentagon. remember the inconceivable heroism of the first responders who rushed into the flames and the chaos in order to save others. remember the defiant courage of the passengers on united flight 93 who lost their lives but probably saved the most glorious symbol of our

democracy in the world, the u.s. capitol, and many, many who were working here on that day. remember our shock and fury. remember our national unity and the feeling of common purpose. remember how the whole world stood with us and shared our outrage and our agony. these memories are available to all of us if we take but that one moment. we all experienced these events and all that is needed is to take the moment, to set aside a little bit of time and let it all come back. why? is it a morbid fascination with catastrophe? is it merely to justify some policy or expenditure? i would suggest two other reasons. first, the memory is what we owe to those who were so unjustly murdered. we cannot bring them back, and we cannot give meaning to the horrific act that took them from us. but we can remember then as our

fellow americans, as people whose lives were connected to thousands of our fellow citizens who still mourn them to this very day. second, i think we should take the moment to ponder the last eight years. what have we done in response to that day? what have we learned? what do we still owe to those who died? and what we have used their deaths to justify? have we made the world a safer place? have we made our homeland more secure? will the next generation of americans face more or less danger because of our actions? each of us will still have our own answers to these questions, just as each one of us remembers that awful day uniquely. i yield myself another 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for additional 15 seconds. mr. ackerman: and this great nation which gives each person complete freedom, thought, belief and expression in which the govern choose who will govern them, the meaning of

9/11 and the consequences of that terrible, terrible, terrible day remain for us to decide each man and woman for themselves. all it takes is that moment to remember. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman reserve his time? mr. ackerman: reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from indiana, mr. burton, the ranking member of the committee on the middle east and south asia. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. burton: i'd like to say to my colleague from mr. ackerman, i really appreciate your remarks and they were right on the money. i heard a lot of my colleagues say we should remember those who sacrificed their lives on september 11. and i think that's fitting and proper. but one of the things i don't want to ever happen again is a repeat of 9/11. and for the past eight years we have had not had another attack due in very large part to the

homeland security people and to the c.i.a. and to the f.b.i. we have intercepted information from terrorists, and we've been able to prevent additional attacks because of the work they've done. and i think it's improper for us today while we're remembering those who sacrificed their lives on that day, the firemen, the people in those planes, i think it's -- we'd be remiss if we didn't think about the future and be concerned about that never happening again. and right now the justice department of the united states is investigating the c.i.a. and those people have been involved in stopping terrorist activity by going after the terrorists and making them give us information that would stop an additional terrorist attack. and today, they are under scrutiny, and some of them may be prosecuted for doing their job. and i think that's improper. everybody in america owes our intelligence agencies a debt of gratitude and homeland security a debt of gratitude for

protecting this country for the last eight years. and if we don't want to see another 9/11 and none of us do and there have been some prevented like the one in california that was going to take place, if we don't want to ever see that again, we must support the intelligence agencies who are stopping the terrorists. and right now with the attack that's taking place by the justice department on the c.i.a., only discourages those who do their job to protect this country from doing their job. if you're a c.i.a. agent today and you know the justice department is watching every single thing you do in trying to stop a terrorist attack, are you going to want to -- can i have 30 seconds? ms. ros-lehtinen: i yield 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. burton: are you going to want to take the risk of being prosecuted because you're going after a terrorist to make him give you information that will stop another terrorist attack? we're demoralizing our intelligence agencies by doing this right now. it may be unintentional. i don't know. but we certainly should not be

doing it. they were doing their job. if you don't agree with waterboarding or whatever it was, ok. but that's something that's in the past. we shouldn't discourage our intelligence agencies from doing their job now. we want to protect every single american from another terrorist attack. and the way to do it is certainly not by attacking our intelligence people. . mr. ackerman: i yield a minute to the gentleman, mr. sires. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. sires: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of the resolution expressing the sense of the house regarding the terrorist attacks launched against the united states on september 11, 2001. as the district i represent sits across from downtown manhattan, my constituents and i faced with constant visual reminder of that day's tragic event. as time passes we must continue to commemorate this sad day. we will remember the innocent

lives that were lost, the heroes that emerge interested this disaster, and we'll remember how this day will forever change our lives. as new generations grow older, we must pass on the lessons of this day and the significance to our country. for eight years we have mourned the lives lost. we have worked at home and abroad to protect our great nation, its people, and the ideals it represents. i am pleased to join my colleagues in remembering this significant day and recognize how it continues to affect all our lives. i thank my colleagues for introducing this resolution. i yield back the balance of my time. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. mccaul. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. mccaul: i thank the gentlelady. mr. speaker, today we rise as americans first and foremost to remember, to remember the victims of 9/11, 3,000 americans

were killed on that day, to remember the fallen heroes, the firefighters, police officers who rescued so many lives and some gave the ultimate sacrifice. i remember watching on the television on 9/11 with my daughter as a second airplane flew into the building, she said, daddy, why did that airplane fly into the building? by the time the second one hit we all knew that this was no accident. this was an intentional act of terrorism, an act of war against the united states. i was a counterterrorism prosecutor in the justice department. we saw many warning signs. the embassies in africa, u.s.s. cole, 1993 world trade center, ramzi yousef who almost brought the world trade center down that day. when they arrested him, many of you may not know this, they found baby dolls stuffed with chemical explosives he continue end to take on airplanes, part of the plot to blow up 12

airplanes simultaneously. the evil genius, his uncle, sikh muhammad, master mind of 9/11, who to this day the information we obtained from him saved american lives. the most chilling experience hi as a member of congress was to see muhammad in prison down in guantanamo. the man who was responsible for killing 3,000 americans. as a 9/11 commission said, the only way we will ultimately prevail in this twilight struggle is through good intelligence. we cannot tie the hands of the intelligence community. we cannot threaten them with prosecution. we cannot have a global justice policy that marne dieses terrorists -- ma randizes terrorists when the first words you say to them is you have the right to remain silent. how in the world will we get good intelligence with that policy? if i could close with a f.b.i.

agent's quote before 9/11, someday someone will die and the public will not understand why we were not more effective at throwing every resource -- 15 more seconds. ms. ros-lehtinen: an additional 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. mccaul: thank you. he said someday someone will die and the public will not understand why we were not more effective at throwing every resource we had at certain problems, especially since the biggest threat to us now, osama bin laden, is now getting the most protection. we will never forget that day. we can never make the same mistake again. we owe that to the victims and heroes of 9/11. it is our most solemn obligation to first and foremost protect and defend the american people w that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: i'm pleased to yield one minute to the gentleman from new york, mr. mcmahon. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for one minute. mr. mcmahon: thank you. i rise today in strong support of house resolution 722, and to honor all those who were murdered or injured in the

terrorist attacks of september 11. as we honor that day, we are reminded on that day we saw the worst in humanity and the best in humanity. let us focus@@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ i think of people like more than the 300 people from my district who lost their lives that day. like a devoted father who served as a member of the fire department. he was on his way home from a tour of duty when he was on the verrazano bridge. he turned his vehicle around and drove back. he took his gear out. he ran back through the tunnel to the world trade center where he joined his brothers and others and rescued tens of thousands. but they lost their lives. steven's family anti-people of new york city honor his memory and bravery with a 5-k race

nonal known as the tunnel to tower race honoring their lives. we honor them. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. frelinghuysen, an esteemed member of the committee on appropriations who also lost constituents that day. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. frelinghuysen: i thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. i rise in support of the resolution and ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. frelinghuysen: eight years ago have passed since tragedy struck our nation. in lower manhattan, pennsylvania, and across the river at the pentagon. more than 3,000 of our fellow americans lost their lives. the events that have day remain etched in our memory. of that loss 700 victims came from new jersey, many from my congressional district, many more from new york, other states, and 80 nations. for those of us who had this tragedy hit so close close to home, i know that each september

11 brings with it a great deal of sorrow. later this week all of us will have the honor of attending a number of 9/11 remembrances. especially in new jersey the home of so many good people who died. as well as to honor those who sought to save them, our first responders. my constituents remember that day every day, that day dawned like most days in new jersey bright and clear. crowded train stations in the morning taking people across the hudson to lower manhattan. parking lots packed with cars as they are most mornings. that evening, however, the scene was far different. trains weren't full, cars remained your honor claimed in parking lots, and many families were left wondering what had happened to their loved ones. a single day that changed how each of us would think for the rest of our lives. at one of those small train stations there is a tree at whose base is a plaque inscribed, we shall never forget

our friends and neighbors who road the rails with us that morning but did not return with us that night. that remarkable, pointian quotation. we will never forget those victims, we will never forget those who sought to save them. at the pentagon, in pennsylvania and in lower manhattan. their bravery will never be forgotten. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: i'm pleased to yield one minute to the gentlelady from texas, ms. sheila jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for one minute. ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. jackson lee: i thank the distinguished gentleman from new york and the distinguished gentlelady from florida. this is a duty that we do not relish but that we obligate ourselves to be able to be

reminded of the lost souls of september 11, 2001. it changed the innocence of america but yet we stood tall as we mourned with these families from far and wide that we are america that believes in justice and civil liberties and, yes, the bill of rights. the homeland security effort was born during that time. i began to serve on the select committee and now the homeland security committee. the work we do every day should be silent work, but it is work to ensure that the nation's airlines and airports, train stations and railroads and mass transit and everywhere we go protects the american people. it is a world that stands up against terrorism but understands that america can be a friend. so today as we come together as a congress, as we did those few years ago, and stood on the front steps singing god bless america, i rise today to tell those families we will never forget them, and it is our

obligation to be diligent, to be responsive, and to be remembered. god bless america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentlewoman from florida reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: mr. speaker, i'm privileged to yield one minute to the gentleman from ohio, mr. kucinich. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. mr. kucinich: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. for a statement from september 11, 2001, to be entered into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. kucinich: i rise in support of the resolution. it's important we remember 9/11, those innocent who lost their lives, those who put their lives at risk while saving lives, and those who survived to grieve the loss of irrepoliceable loved ones. we have a responsibility to remember 9/11. it would be good, too, for us to remember the course of action our nation embarked upon as a consequence of 9/11. we have a right, duty to defend ourselves. in the name of 9/11 war was waged against the people of iraq who had nothing to do with 9/11. at this point let us remember our troops, too, and their fices

-- sacrifices since 9/11 and the over 1 million innocent civilian casualties never where who also paid a price because of 9/11. we should never forget 9/11 and we should never forget the truth. in our grief we know the truth is our ultimate defense. the truth is our security. it's the truth which sets us free and the truth which keeps us free. god bless america. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from florida continues to reserve. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: thank you, mr. speaker. could i request of the gentlewoman from florida if she has the time and would be willing to lend us one of her minutes? ms. ros-lehtinen: yes, we would be more than happy to do so. we were waiting to see if some of the speakers who had reserved time would show up, but since they are not here yet, we would be more than pleased to give you some of our time.

mr. ackerman: thank you so much. if someone shows up and you need the time i would be happy to make a unanimous consent request. it's my pleasure to recognize the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pascrell, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized -- the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for one minute and 45 seconds. mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, madam chair lady. . i rise as this congress commemorates one of the most horrific day in our nation's history, that day being september 11, 2001. so many of us in new jersey and new york lost our friends, our loved ones, acquaintanses and people we never met before. it's difficult to believe that it was almost eight years to the day when our nation was

attacked by foreign terrorists who claimed almost 3,000 lives, including 411 of our nation's bravest first responders. as a member of the homeland security committee, i am proud of the steps that we've taken since that faithful day to make the american people safer, but or work is far from complete. this is a mission we as public servants can never stop striving to achieve. i'm also proud that earlier this year we passed the aptly named edward m. kennedy serve america act which will designate september 11 as the first annual national day of service and remembrance. on september 11, more so than any other day of the year, we should come together as americans and find new ways to save our nation and hopely that will spill over to the days after. so as i say to all of you that

many of the wounds of that faithful day will heal over time, that we will never forget the heroism we witnessed, the lessons we learned, the redemption the american people earned for their own strength. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pascrell: and so we pray this never happens again. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from florida continues to reserve the balance of her time. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: i yield myself 10 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york's recognized for 10 seconds. mr. ackerman: we have no further additional members, so if the gentlewoman would like to close, we'll wait on the speaker if she chooses to close as well. ms. ros-lehtinen: you need an additional minute? how much time do we have, mr. speaker? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida has two minutes remaining. and the gentleman from new york has three minutes remaining.

mr. ackerman: mr. speaker, i yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york's recognized for two minutes. mr. ackerman: mr. speaker, the day after that horrific event, i was back in new york. i went to the piers where the people were waiting to claim bodies and hear of missing loved ones. there was a gentleman before this huge wall where people had posted pictures of relatives that were missing, and there was one gentleman standing there, was close to midnight, all by himself in traditional orthodox jewish gash with a long black -- garb with a long black coat standing in front of a picture that looked remarkably like him and he just stood there stoned face and i just went over and stood next to him as one of the firemen called him to my attention. and he said without turning away from the picture that he was looking at on the wall of the missing person, he said, that was my brother. he's gone.

he called me moments before the building collapsed. he said he knew what was happening but he would not leave his workplace. he worked in a station next to a young man from puerto rico who was sitting in a wheelchair and who was frightened. and he said, my brother told me i will not let him stay here to die alone. and they were holding hands when his brother hung up the phone. that was the kind of bravery we saw from americans, all kinds of americans on that faithful day. let us remember them and the sacrifice they made. mr. speaker, i'd like to yield the balance of my time to the speaker of the house, ms. pelosi. i would yield back first to the distinguished gentlewoman from florida. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from florida.

ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield myself the remainder of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you. i thank my good friend from new york and the chairman, mr. berman, and hoyer, and mr. boehner for this resolution before. mr. speaker, before we talk about -- when we talk about the 9/11 attacks on our nation, we must also recall that it was an attack on our way of life. it was an attack on what we stand for, on what we represent. what is it we represent? freedom, democracy, liberty. these are the values that distinguish our nation, our people from our attackers, the belief in freedom, the belief in democracy, the belief in liberty. and as we recall this somber anniversary and this resolution before us, let us honor the memory of those whom we lost, the murdered, for it was a crime, and the heroism of our public servants, our first

responders, our ordinary fellow citizens who were so extraordinary that day who discovered the extraordinary courage of self-sacrifice on behalf of their fellow citizens. some of whom they had never met, including many of us in this building. and let us resolve that 9/11 will not just be an anniversary that we commemorate with an interesting and touching ceremony, but that 9/11 is really a symbol of what america is about, how we dealt with that struggle, how we dealt with that devastation, how we dealt with that sorrow and what we said we would do as a people, that we would not let this attack go unanswered. and to frame the events of that day as they should be framed, as freedom versus oppression,

as tolerance versus hatred, as incitement versus understanding. and this is what we fight for to this day, for freedom, for tolerance, to make sure that we can -- not just recall the days of 9/11 but also honor the memory and what they stood for. and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from new york, ms. clarke. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york's recognized for 30 seconds. ms. clarke: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i rise today to add my voice to those who have spoken in support of this bipartisan 9/11 resolution, h.res. 722, and i'd ask unanimous consent that my remarks be added to the record, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. clarke: thank you.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. ackerman: i thank the speaker and i thank the distinguished the gentlelady @ @ to close the debate. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker is recognized. mrs. pelosi: thank you for bringing this opportunity to the floor for us to speak about the unspeakable horror of 9/11. we are treading on sacred ground, a ground will never thought we would see in our country. but, it as the fine dust how we dealt with it and how we carry on after words. one of the goals of one of the goals of terrorists is to instill fear.

so not only do they take lives and destroy a community, try to destroy a community, they also instill fear as to how we will act upon the challenges that we have as we go forward. that did not happen with 9/11. the american people rallied in a way that moved all doubt that we would not suffer that consequence. but it's the families of 9/11 who made the biggest sacrifice that's self-evident. but when they turned their grief into action, working with the 9/11 commission to help the 9/11 commission to help that this doesn't happen again, they did a great service to our country. in just a few moments in the capitol we will unveil a marker of bravery to recall the sacrifice, in particular, of

the men and women on flight 93 who died in rural pennsylvania to honor -- we gather to honor their families who will be with us. and this is the day that they have chosen for that, and to ensure that we never forget their heroic deeds, their bravery and the sacrifices of those individuals. they made a decision in that flight not to fly into washington, d.c. perhaps into this capitol. again, it is to those families that we owe so much, whether it was in rural pennsylvania, in the pentagon, or in new york at the twin towers. following that ceremony, we will go to staff wear hall where leaders of both parties and both sides of congress will recognize the heroes of 9/11, the firefighters and first responders, the rescue workers and all who perished on flight

93, in the pentagon and the world trade center on that terrible morning. it is in their names that we mark this day. it is in the memory of those who died that we in the words of this resolution renew our devotion to the you universal ideals that make this -- to the universal ideals that make this nation great, freedom, pluralism, equality and the rule of law. it is in their voices -- it is their voices that remind us not just of the images of destruction and dispair but of the unity we all felt in the wake of the attacks and of our common humanity and shared strength, of our potential to move forward as one community, one nation. when we take inspiration from the memories of the heroes of 9/11, may this resolution rekindle the spirit of service and sacrifice among all americans. may god continue to bless the united states of america. thank you, mr. speaker.

i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: all time for debate having expired, the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 722. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative -- mr. ackerman: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the rules are suspended -- for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? mr. ackerman: mr. speaker, i call for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to cl >> that bill was passed later in the day. they are not in session today. next week, members will consider a new energy bill. also, legislating -- legislation

changing about student loan programs. live coverage continues when the house gutters on monday. top 30 p.m. for speeches. tomorrow, we will show you this week's tribute to walter cronkite. president obama spoke at the new york city sewer money this week along with andy rooney and cbs evening news producers. we will show the ceremony saturday night at 8:30 p.m. eastern. this week, the supreme court heard oral arguments on campaign finance. the first session for cintas sotomayor or. >> wouldn't we be doing more harm than good by a broad ruling in a case that does not involve core business, corporations, and actually does not involve traditional non- profit corporations. >> security argument in its

entirety saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. -- hear the argument in its entirety. supreme court week starting october 4th. is there more than one definition of conservative? on saturday, the -- "the new york times" review editor talks about the death of conservatism. but for the complete schedule online at booktv.org. >> 1.7 million new immigrants each year. half of these are followers of islam. immigration, islam, and the west. from christopher caldwell. >> at 1145 eastern common chairman carl evan talks about his trip to i -- a trip to afghanistan.

we will have live coverage of that. in the meantime, from this morning's washington"journal." live. in the meantime, james kitfield, who has been on this program for the past eight years talking about al qaeda and the war and afghanistan and 9/11, he is with us with this new article from the "national journal." one of the quotes from his article is -- what does that mean? guest: it means is still out there, still plodding, still training, still trying to attack the west. what i try to address in the article and what has interested me and a lot of other counter- terrorism experts is that we would have thought there would have been a lot more successful attacks on the west.

and there were a rash of successful attacks -- the london bombings, the madrid bauman from the bombings in istanbul. but they have tapered off. attacks on the west have not been successful since 2005, and they are limited attacks. the question in a lot of people's minds is why. maybe we are doing something right. maybe we have been lucky. the idea behind the story is to put one of these failed plot under the microscope and to see what it taught us about what we're doing right. host: we will get to that in just a moment, but on the maur macro level you write this- that said, what has that done for the war on terror? guest: that was the original

move -- mujahedin, a lot of them trace their experiences back to the experience is against the soviet union. there were very experienced, hardened people. they have had to recruit to replace those guys, and they have been able to, but you cannot replace experience. they're having a quality control problem. as you bring in less experienced people, the era of less good at operational security, less fluid at moving in the west, for instance. we still see these al qaeda facilitators the train in these camps and then go to europe and other places and try to initiate local cells, but these guys are not as good as the originals, apparently. the fact that a credit is in pakistan trouble areas means that intelligence is focused like a laser on communications and cummings and goings in the pakistani trouble areas. theseç guys, more often, before

they even get to their place where they want to initiate a plot, are being followed. host: why did you go to spain to report on al qaeda? guest: i wanted to put a failed plot under the microscope to see what we could learn from that. in the barcelona a plot that they exported from last year, i'd have striking similarities between daud and his successful madrid plot of the -- of 2004 where they killed almost 200 people and injured 1700 more. the similarities were striking and in both cases, bin laden initiated it. both spots were for the same motivation, trying to peel off spain from the military coalition in iraq of 2004 and afghanistan in 2008. they both involve one of these facilitators who came directly from an al qaeda training camp to spain to initiate a local cell by radical preacher or a local mom. they both involve the suicide bombings. they both involved

communications through cyberspace. yet one was successful and one was not. i thought it made a good case study to see what we did in the second case that we were not able to do in the first. guest: absolutely, i mean, these guys study each plot, the ones that are successful, the ones that are not successful. they go through their own little dissertations and case studies to see what worked and what did not. madrid was considered a spectacularly successful terrorist plot. the accomplished peeling off of our military alliance coalition -- the peeling off of spain from

our military alliance coalition. and 9/11, that to them was a very successful operation but they have been unsuccessful in trying to repeat either instance. host: international efforts? guest: the intelligence sharing is obviously far better than it used to be. our allies in the west and in the east have set up these counter-terrorism centers that are now talking to each other. we have passed laws and bilateral agreements for intelligence sharing. in this case, it was clear that one of the plotters was actually an informant for french intelligence. in the past, the french by not have been chairing that in real time with the spaniards. in this case, they did. -- might havenot have been sharing that in real time with the spaniards. in this case, they did. host: so many of the terrorists

in the field barcelona applauded were from pakistan. guest: right, and you saw this also in madrid. in that case, a lot of them were from algeria and morocco. before long time, we have said that a lot of the great old abilities that we have are the 15 million muslim immigrants -- one of the great and vulnerabilities that we have are the 50 million moslem immigrants in europe. that has long been seen as a vulnerability. in this case, there were some 15,000 pakistani immigrants that live in barcelona. host: 15,000? guest: yes, and they are able to move pretty freely within that sea. what was interesting, though, is that someone fingered them. in talking with the spanish top counter-terrorism people, they say they are getting a lot more tips from the muslim community and that gets to my final point in that article, which is a al qaeda is suffering a crisis of legitimacy amongst a lot of

muslims now. there's a lot of dissatisfaction with al qaeda. for a couple of reasons. the primary reason is the wanton slaughter of muslims. that strategy was first adopted by al qaeda in iraq to kill shi'ite moslems as a way to start a war with sunni muslims. but they have carried it on and had bombing parvin -- bombing parties in jordan and in saudi arabia, the most holy land in the region -- religion. a lot of the imams have come out against the spirit of -- against that. every time bin laden or al- zawahiri have issued these threats and cannot follow through, they are seeing as an -- they are seen as not successful. we will put our allegiance as elsewhere. host: is it important to send more troops to afghanistan? guest: it is a related, but

different subjects. let's put it this way, the success you have had in keeping out on the defensive in the smaller region of the pakistani trouble areas, if afghanistan fails and the taliban retake afghanistan, there is no reason to ascuge@@@@@@@ átad @ @ @ @ : >> i think feeling in afghanistan could have dire strategic consequences. i will leave it to the generals to decide whether failing or succeeding requires more troops or not. >> capturing bin laden? >> you know, it would certainly be nice, wouldn't it? i would love for them to get him. i think the movement would go on. he has created a movement. movements do not die with a single person. having said that, he is the figure had which would be a substantial blow against them if

he were captured and killed. >> i want to go back to your comments and " from your article about muslims in europe. "officials do not discount a cut is unmistakable focus on young muslim men in europe and the u.s. guest: and that makes the point that i was referring to. we are torching a lot of these plots, but we are also seen -- we retorting a lot of these plots, but we're also seeing not just instantaneous action from local cells. a lot of these cells have local immigrants involved in them. two intelligence services, the british and the dutch, both revealed, as with the barcelona

and madrid plots, that all of these plots have facilitators with direct ties to al qaeda and have trained in terrorist camps in either afghanistan or pakistan. so, they are still trying there is a lot of smoke up there with these failed plot. without much smoke and i were there was going to be fired. -- with that much smoke i worry there is going to be fire. there was a plot to bomb jewish centers in your, iraq -- a plot to bomb fort dix and other plots of thwarted in the u.s. host: were those homegrown plots? and how sophisticated were they? guest: you have to put each one under a microscope. those were seemingly homegrown plots. you have to really wait until those things -- the really nice thing about the spanish system is that they try these things in open court. you can learn a lot more. some people say it is better if

you do not learn those things because intelligence secrets come out. the other argument that is that you can actually understand what happened. i am not sure if there was a facilitator in from outside in those american plot. there certainly were in almost all of the european plots in recent years. host: james kitfield has been running about national security intelligence and the wars for many years. and has written a book about it. "prodigal soldiers" is another book he has written. he has been awarded for his coverage of the iraq war. how many times have you been to afghanistan and pakistan? guest: my focus was iraq until recently and i have been there four times. host: first caller is from

indiana. caller: i wonder if this would have taken place earlier if bill clinton -- if the bill clinton glitch had not been involved and whether donald rumsfeld is still grinning from ear to ear, and dick cheney, if it is going to take something like what happened in 2001 on this datq4to cause an uproar in afghanistan. . . we can look back and remember 9/11 and not get shaken from our complacency. one thing you cannot have in this fight which was stressed by officials is the you cannot pat yourself on the back and say that you one and let down your guard. as we look back on the 9/11, the

lesson is that you cannot be complacent. host: ext. call from a buffalo grove, illinois. caller: i have a couple questions about iran. first off, i would like to point out which i just noticed about the recent wars in afghanistan and iraq agreed with their nuclear weapon talks, i was wondering if you had any thoughts or comments that they would be in any way tied into that. is ira goingn to be involved and why did we militarily encircle them? i think it is pretty interesting that russia has ties with iran. and that netanyahu went to

russia for a secret meeting. guest: an interesting question. on al qaeda's relationship with iran, it's not a natural alliance. iran is shia, al qaeda is suni. this is included. bin laden's son stayed there and went back to afghanistan and was killed by one of our predator strikes. iran uses hezbollah for it's terrorist operations.

it is in bed with hezbollah but not a natural friend. >> we have taken away in terms of the tail taliban to the east which is why iran is feeling strapy right now. all of its regional competors we have taken out. caller: i wanted to express my deepest sympathy. i have friends who lost their daughter on one of the flights into the twin towers. they were on the anti-war march. they were well aware that the

strike on that day had nothing to do with iraq. mr. kitfield, i wanted to ask you, the core excuses. but al qaeda, their core issues. when are their objections? our military basis on land in that part of the world to protect our access to oil. what are their core objections to the west? >> guest: sure. that's a very good question. they want to establish an islamic surrounding by strict

sharia law. they want us to withdraw all support from israel, saudi arabia and egypt so that they can take over those countries. very much like the taliban had in afghanistan before 9/11. they see us and our money and support for these regimes as thwarting that. >> christopher called well will be on c-span q&a, sunday at 8:00 p.m. is the muslim population in europe a threat to you? guest: it is a potential threat. when you have people who are s

dispoe sesed and angry and some iman can say it's these western culture. . they will listen. i think our own muslim population is pretty well inter he greated in the united states. we have to keep our eyes on and make sure there's not a d dispossesed muslim population that feels like they are

discriminated against. guest: spain has decide the the best way to try these is in open court. there may be military ways to do that. there is something good that comes of the public being able to see in open court just what really evil people these are. host: democrat, you are on the air. caller: the only true way to measure whether we are any safer is to try to find out how to

measure the intensity and determination of the people who want to attack us. is it any less today than eight years ago? are they as determined today as they were eight years ago? more americans have died under the bush-cheney regime than all

other presidents combined. guest: you get to the debate of what should have been the response? >> what was his first point? guest: the level of intensity. that's a good question. the ultimate level of intensity. the core still fighting are still as devoted as ever. the question is are they swimming in a see of discontent

they have having a harder time recruiting. people that can recruit aren't as good, there aren't as many. the suicide bombings we are eeg everyday show that. host: when is the role of a social imam pushing a terrorist forward? guest: they've been forced to rely more and more on the local cells. they are young, dissatisfied muslim men who go to acsz radicalized mosque and it is preached that the west is its enemy. they decide, you know, we are going to do something about

this. host: if al qaeda was dismantled -- guest: if it went away, we would be much safer. that means they were a direct threat. i@@@@@@gn@ @ @ @ @ gr

eight years after 9/11 if they felt we were saved for. guest: absolutely. for the reasons we have been talking about, we put them on the defensive, increased intelligence sharing between intelligence agencies in the west and the middle east. we have focused -- we understand the problem. we understand that you have to make that reach to the muslim population. after watching comes and goes. we no matter -- we know better.

tribal areas of that area. host: have we made mistakes? guest: of course. host: where? guest: i'm in the camp that thinks iraq was a huge mistake for starters. the original strategy was to defeat the west and to withdraw support from all these regimes. the fight was afghanistan. iraq was a huge i do version of resources. caller: my heart goes out to all the fooinl victims.

i'm wondering do you think we are safer now than we were. also bush and chepy have been criticized so much for the war. why, why has the vietnam war -- they have not been ridiculed for this. my husband was in vietnam. we lost all our friends in the vietnam war. what's going on here? what's wrong?

every time the current president opens his mouth -- george bush is not president anymore. the bush administration can rightly be krit sdiezed for a lot of things. >> it is a mixed that has been noticed. the polls now show that there are muslims turning away from al

queda. you have to give the bush administration credit. the establishment of the national counterterrorism center, the hardening of the national transportation system, the screens at airports. this things have had an impact. it is a mixed bag. host: round lake, illinois. caller: my question is, as far as it is safer to -- actually, this is a comment. i do not think you are right about being safer. it took nine years between the world trade center attack and they fail the first time. they killed a couple people the first time, over 3000 people the

second period with the 9/11 commission findings on helping to make us safer, i feel at the real idea was never implemented so we really do not know who is coming out of the country and if the people coming here are doing what they're supposed to be doing. we never secured our borders on the south or the north. we still have over one of the thousand immigrants or migrants coming over the border every year on documented through the desert. when you go to another country and kill people's mothers, sons, daughters you were going to make enemies. i just pray and that the american people keep us safe by keeping vigilance and bush did not keep us safe parade be kept him safe. guest: we are not safe.

i did not say we are safe. he makes a very good point. securing the borders, we would not every person coming in and out of the country. we have tried. we have had the same problem in afghanistan with people coming across from pakistan. we are safer than the 9/11 breed i could be proven wrong, and we will see. all these plots show was that we are safer. could another attack happened? absolutely. host: the crowds are gathering at the pentagon. robert gates will host a remembrance. at the pentagon tomorrow, 184 people died, 125 from the pentagon, and the rest of board flight 77. the president will be there in 10 minutes.

after this call from austin, we will take you live to watch the activity. austin, texas. caller: it was not the greatness of the group that caused 9/11. it was our government. the fbi lady knew they were learning how to fly and learning how to land. we never did follow up on that. he planned to is going to do something by attacking us. host: to take that point, what about intelligence sharing. guest: there were tolbert -- terrible until this lapses that led up to 9/11. we tried to address those. we had intelligence reforms where we now have an intelligence czar the entire intelligence community host:. -- their work together to share

intelligence. it is a work in progress. we will say that i am pretty confident that we are much better in the intelligence sharing than we were pre-9/11. host:nationaljournal.com search for james kitfield. here is his most recent article containing the contagion. thank you very much. >> we are live on capitol hill premier roy to hear back shortly from senator karo levin who traveled into afghanistan. -- and carl levin. that is coming up shortly. the briefing is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. life here on c-span. the senate is in session today. you can follow that on c-span2.

democratic leaders are planning to vote early next week to admonish joe wilson if he does not apologize on the house floor for yelling, "you lie," that president obama. a speaker for nancy pelosi said they'd announced yesterday they will likely move forward for the disapproval vote against wilson absence of an apology. the senate is in session today working on transportation spending. earlier today, they held a moment of silence for the eighth anniversary of september 11th. moments of sounds across the country mark this anniversary today on the terrorist attacks on the new york city, pa., and the pentagon. this morning, president and mrs. obama had a moment.

[bell tolls] nbell tolls] [silence]

[silence] [playing, "taps"] ♪ ♪ >> in new york, the dow their heads in silence. they mourned the time the second

plane hit. this morning,"washington journal" asked viewers if they felt safer. host: they took several pages of newsprint to put together the nearly 3000 names. "the baltimore sun" lead editorial was "new president, old war." on this anniversary, it is important to recall why we are fighting and what is at stake. polls suggest americans of losing faith that the war in afghanistan can be one. august was the deadliest month for u.s. soldiers there since the conflict began, and a resurgence taliban has regain control over large parts of the country. he said the 21,000 more troops there this year, but american commanders say that still might not be enough.

meanwhile, our nato allies are wearying of the fight and seem ever more reluctant to send a dish -- additional trips of their on. this is how the editorial concludes. stealing the country to see this conflict through to the end will turn out to be the greatest challenge of his presidency as it was for his predecessor. we cannot afford to let our guard down, and how well he is able to keep the nation say it will test his leadership in ways that may make his efforts to secure health care reform, fix the economy, and push through other major domestic initiatives seem almost easy by comparison. that is from "the baltimore sun" is morning. if you want to send us say tweet, cspanwj is our address. the president yesterday released this statement on continuation on the national emergency with respect to certain terrorist acts. because the terrorist threat continues, the national grid is declared on september 14th,

2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond september 14th, 2009. therefore, i am continuing in effect for an additional year of the national emergency the former president declared on september 14th, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat. this notice shall be published in the federal register and transmitted to the congress. we have a tweet here. it is hard to believe that eight years later our workers are still not secure. i gripped in new york and will never forget 9/11. -- i grew up in new york. our first caller is from washington d.c.. are we say for eight years later? caller: i think we are. i have a real concern. the concern is really as far as health care. host: why you think we are safer? caller: i think we are safer and

would like to say why i do not think we are safer. i think we are safer because we are more alert now and a lot of things that were taken for granted as far as planes and everything like that, i think we are safer. i have been waiting for so long trying to get this point in. i think if we do not get health care, that is a security risk because the rich do not fight in our wars, okay? the children do not fight in our wars. it is the port and the middle class fighting our wars. if we do not pass a health care for all, who are going to fight our battles for us when the enemy comes to try to attack us or whatever. host: michael from illinois. a republican. are we safer? caller: know. host: why not?

caller: i would like this -- i wish this was a debate. in general, we have completely forgotten about the possibility of nuclear attacks. we have not addressed the issue of cumming -- of someone coming over the border. we have not addressed anything other than security at airports. frankly, i fly a lot. i have been on at least 90 planes in the last eight years. i have a cigarette lighter in my pocket all the time. they never take it away. i think it is more appearance than anything else. honestly, i do not feel safe. i do not feel safe with our current regime, if you want to call it that. i think he is afraid to do what it takes to stop any terrorist

organization. host: gemma from spokane washington. are we safer -- jim spokane, washington. are we safer? caller: i have been over there. i served with the guard. we are not safe at all. being over there then coming back home, the news media does not tell what is really happening over there. we basically ignored afghanistan to the point they are within an arm's reach of a nuke. we have a thing called the patriot act which is doing more against the average american to make -- and make him feel safer. that is very, very dangerous. the democrats and republicans have not gotten together to develop a worker program so they

can feed their families down in mexico. host: in -- mike in l.a. caller: are spent the last judgment service to our country. i believe that we are safer. we now have a president who is engaging and interested and intelligent and working on our problems at home, were trying to work on difficult problems like health care. the main reason that we are safer and the main reason that we have been so at risk, in my opinion, is that our former president got as into a situation in iraq and afghanistan now that has been making as much less safe. especially his vice president, one of the most dangerous people that has ever held an office in the united states, the fact that those two are now out of office,

i think that is leading to our future and for their safety. i feel much safer now than i did with george bush and dick cheney in office. >> part of this morning's washington journal. we're going to leave this segment and take you live to the gallery for senator carl levin is back from the strict to afghanistan. -- back from his trip. >> eight years ago this morning, our nation was attacked by terrorist extremist motivated by hatred. it is always appropriate to remember the shock of that day, the innocent lives lost, and the efforts our nation has made since then to insure that afghanistan, the nation that hosted those terrorists, cannot again become a safe haven for terrorists seeking to attack us. i believe that the best way to succeed in afghanistan is to take major steps to strengthen

and support the afghan army and police so that they can take a principal responsibility for their own national security and progress. in short, we need a surge of afghan forces. the obama administration's new strategy focuses on securing the afghan population and their safety. they want to partner with the afghan security forces in that effort. it is an important step in improving the situation in afghanistan. the change in strategy has led our forces, in the words of the general, to live, eat, and a train together with the security forces to plan and operate together, to depend on one another, and to hold each other countable, and to treat the

afghans as equal partners in success. as the general properly put it, the success of the afghan security forces is our goal. now, the best way to achieve that goal, in my judgment, is that we increase and accelerate dramatically our efforts to support the afghan security forces in their efforts to become self-sufficient in delivering security to their own nation before we consider whether to increase u.s. combat forces above the levels already planned for the next few months. the most effective way to retake the initiative in afghanistan is with a series of steps to ensure that afghans army and police have the manpower, the equipment, and the supports to

secure their own nation. for a long time, many of us have urged the establishment to the goal of 240,000 afghan troops and 160,000 afghan police by 2013. i believe is both possible and essential. we need to advance those goals by one year. let's move that up to 2012. it to do that, we need significantly more traders including greater contributions from our nato allies. larger afghan security forces will require additional equipment. there must be a major effort to transfer a significant amount of the equipment that is coming out of iraq to the afghan army and police. finally, we should make a concerted effort to separate the

local taliban from their leaders. in iraq, large numbers of young iraqis switched over and became the sons of iraq. here is what the general had to say about that. he said that most of the fighters we see in afghanistan are afghans. the most that we do not see are deeply theological -- illeogical. some are frustrated with local leaders. the general said, i believe in other words the general believes, that there is significant potential to go after mid and low-level taliban fighters and leaders to offer them reintegration into

afghanistan and their constitution. this game changer in possibility was not apparently factored into the general's assessments. there is no plan yet to put into place a "sons of iraq" approach in afghanistan. there should be. when we visited a village in the council of elders, one elder told us when we asked him how long should american forces stay here, he said the following. "until the moment that you make our security forces self- sufficient, then you will be welcome to visit us, not as soldiers but has guests." we need a surge of afghan security forces. we have not done nearly enough to put that in motion.

to do that, we're going to need, again, many more traders, hopefully recruiting a much larger number of native traders, we're going to need a surge of equipment coming out of iraq and instead of coming home, a great deal of it should be going into afghanistan instead. we need a plan to reintegrate these low level taliban fighters, these local fighters back in to the afghan society. our support of this search of the afghan security forces will show our commitment to the success of the mission that is clearly in our national security interests, but we would do so without creating a bigger u.s. military footprint which provides whichfodder for the taliban. -- which provides political

fodder. we should consider an increase -- we should not consider an increase beyond what is already planned by the end of this year. >> if you were talking about nine adding any additional u.s. troops, -- breeze suggesting they should change their mission or are you calling on nato to provide the training? by how many more trainers do you think we need? also, i assume this came up when you met with the secretary. what was your reaction? >> i met with secretary clinton on the hill. anyone else have a question? no, i am just kidding. [laughter] of course this came up in our meeting with secretary clinton

and secretary gates. i expressed my view just the way i expected today on the floor of the senate. they obviously understood. they did not react positively or negatively. they welcomed it freed the three of us met, senators reid and kaufman were with me. what i am saying, and i am saying it carefully, we should complete the plan, the number of additional combat forces when we go in this year. what we must do to succeed in afghanistan is to focus on the strength of the afghan military forces. we need to do this in a way that we have not yet done.

six months ago or so, the majority of the members of the armed services committee wrote to the president urging that there be an increase in the goal for the size of the afghan army to 250,000 soldiers. that was on may 19th. it was a fairly long, detailed letter talking about the importance of adopting a much larger goal. we then talked about 2003, as i said today, we should not only a doubt that much larger role, but we should do it one year earlier. if we are going to succeed in afghanistan, without ourselves creating a much larger footprint

and target for taliban can attack and make propaganda use of. on the equipment side, senator mccain and i back in march wrote to secretary gates quoting general barno, the former commander of the combined forces in afghanistan. . . these are the steps that i believe that we need to take before we consider additional combat forces in afghanistan.

i want to state that as clearly as i can. that is the position that i take. i think there is a major consensus, may i say, about strengthening the afghan army. i do not think that is the question. we have not adopted yet the new goals. we have not put in place the trainers to help us reach those goals by 2013, much less 2012. we have not adopted a shift, a major effort to get equipment to the afghans. instead of much of it coming here from iraq with great cost involved, i think the american people would support and i support -- i think most of my colleagues would support -- getting essential equipment, basic stuff -- we are talking bullets in vehicles and a few other things -- to the afghan army so they can take major responsibility for their own security. and what we do not yet have in place, although everyone agrees

that the potential is there, a plan to reintegrate into afghan society those local taliban fighters. that is what we must do, take those steps on an urgent basis before we consider additional combat forces. >> senator, are you saying that its general mcchrystal comes back and says he needs more combat troops, that the president should reject his request? >> i'm saying this is my recommendation to the president, and i hope he considers it. >> [inaudible] do you think that is a true statement, and how much is that playing into it? >> my recommendation is based on how we can best succeed in afghanistan. i believe that the best way to defeat the taliban in afghanistan -- and they are incredibly unpopular -- is for

the afghan army to be in large, to be strengthened, and for us to coopt these local taliban fighters. that is what it is based on. i just how we can best succeed in afghanistan. there are a number of things going for us in afghanistan. one of them is the hatred of the people of afghanistan for the taliban. only 5% of the afghans support the taliban. by public opinion polls over there. secondly, they have an army that is willing to fight, an army that is dedicated, an army that is motivated, and that army needs to be significantly enlarged and strengthened, and that should be our focus. >> separate from that, do you agree with the speaker, as a democrat? >> i think there is a significant number of people in the country that have -- and i do not know the exact percentages -- that have questions about deepening our

military involvement in afghanistan, but i am motivated, as chairman of the armed services committee and as a senator and as a citizen, in succeeding in afghanistan, what i consider to be an important national goal. which is to make sure that afghanistan is not once again dominated by the taliban and will harbor al qaeda. that is a major national need. the best way i believe to achieve it is in the way that i have outlined. >> [inaudible] what is your sense of exactly what resources mcchrystal will ask for or whether the white house is willing to consider

those? >> i do not know what general mcchrystal will be asking for. the three of us met with him at length as well as with other leaders and commanders on afghanistan, but he did not share with us, nor did we expect him to, the options he is laying down for the president in terms of additional combat forces. as of right now, it is likely there will be a request from him for additional combat forces. i think that is likely based on all the stories that we read and from body language that we would get from him, but that is the current likelihood. i think that it is hopefully useful and constructive for those of us that have spent a lot of time not in combat, but a lot of time from a policy perspective of looking at the complexity of afghanistan and how we can succeed in afghanistan, for us to share our ideas about how best to succeed in afghanistan. >> [inaudible] >> i don't have a sense as to

what the white house, where the president's thinking is at the moment. let me repeat something that i think is important. i think there is a consensus, not only among administration leaders, but probably the american people, that it should be a goal to strengthen the afghan security forces. i think even people who will disagree as to whether we ought to send additional combat forces to afghanistan would fundamentally agree with that point. and that is important because this is not a matter that -- where most people i think in the congress say pull out all of our troops and forget it. i think most people want to say strength in the afghan security forces as an important goal. we ought to build on that and look at what have we not done to strengthen the afghan security forces. why have we not, for six months, adopted a much higher goal in

terms of the level of those forces? why have we not put in place and equipment strategy for those forces, particularly when we are bringing back an historic amount of equipment from iraq at great cost to transport to this country? and why have we not yet adopted a plan for the call option of the local taliban fighters? we are told by everybody that the potential is there, that there is mumblings in the various provinces of people who would like to come back and live in a civil society, but they need to do that. they need to be assured that they will not be attacked because of their prior attacks on us, that their families will be protected after they switched sides, and they need jobs, so we have to be able to give assurance to these local taliban fighters that they will be able to join the army and get other jobs. that takes a plan. it has not yet been done. it is urgent that we take these specific steps, if we really believe, as i do and i think

most people do, that the afghan security forces have to be the main line of security for the afghan people. >> sound frustrated. >> [inaudible] >> what is the what? i did not hear the question? >> what is your next step? is there an amendment to the appropriations bill? >> i do not have any plans for prescriptive language at the moment. i'm not sure that we need any in order to make this shift in our focus to strengthening the afghan security forces. i do not know yet. i, preliminarily least, do not think it will take prescriptive language to do it. the other part of your question was? >> what is your next step? >> the next that will be to continue to meet with administration leaders. i had a very brief conversation

with general jones on the phone. the three of us will be meeting with him next week and talking to colleagues. obviously, this is an issue, which every one of us in this country, much less everyone of us in the congress, is deeply interested. >> so many are critical and frustrated with the president's policy right now. can you describe how you feel how he is handling this? and can you talk specifically about the initial force is going there? do you support that? do you think there will be enough? what would lead you to feel that should be considered? >> on the second question, i would be able to state that before we consider additional combat forces, we ought to take the steps i have outlined and other steps to strengthen the afghan security forces. before we consider additional combat troops, we ought to take these steps to strengthen the

afghan army. that is the answer to the second part of your question. >> [inaudible] >> the ones that are already in the pipeline i think should go there. in terms of your second question, i am not frustrated. i am determined that i give my best advice, based on the experience i have and based on the responsibilities i have, to simply give my best advice to the president of the united states and to the people around him, and i am doing that, and that is something which i am determined to do, so i'm not the least bit frustrated. as a matter of fact, i have had great access to the secretary of defense and the secretary of state and the security adviser to the president, to admiral mullen. i could not ask for greater access, and that is what i will continue to utilize, that access. >> i remember a moment when

senator warner return from iraq, and he said that the war in iraq was drifted sideways. are we at that kind of tipping point? >> in parts of afghanistan, the security situation has deteriorated. and it can be turned around. so that is my assessment. if we can get in place the larger afghan army that is the clip, i think this thing can turn around. if we can put in place a plan to reincorporate into the society of afghanistan those lower-level taliban people, that are open to that, i think this thing can turn around. that is my feeling about it. it is a very different situation in different parts of afghanistan, by the way. i would not want to generalize

about all of afghanistan, but it is clear that in some parts of afghanistan, that the security problem has worsened. >> but if the shift you are seeking is not made, what? what happens? >> i think it is less likely we will succeed in afghanistan. >> in slightly unrelated news, what is going on with the nomination for the secretary of the army? >> as of yesterday morning, there were discussions under way, i think, between the administration and i know with members who have blocked the vote on his nomination. i do not know what happened with those discussions yesterday afternoon. i do not know if anything came of them or not. hopefully the blockages can be removed so that we can get through a vote, but there are some senators that have holds on that nomination, and we have done everything we can do to remove the holds, but the

administration had to have some kind of conversations. i do not know the nature of the conversations or the demands precisely. i have a general idea. and whether they were able to be satisfied, so i hope we can get to this nomination next week. it is long overdue that we vote on it. >> how many additional trainers are necessary? [inaudible] >> there are 4000 trainers included in the 21,000 additional troops that have been previously approved by the president. i do not have a specific number of additional traders, but we have been assured that that assessment will be made for us, regardless of whether the administration moves in precisely the direction that i have recommended. we will get from our people out in afghanistan those numbers as to what trainers and what else

can be done in order to move these goals forward to 2012, and the goals here being the 240,000 for the afghan army. so we will get the numbers. i do not have them yet. currently, though, according to the numbers we do have, we are short about 12% of the needed trainers based on the current goal for the training of the afghan army and police. >> as far as fraud in the afghanistan election, did you talk with officials about this? >> we did, and it obviously is a major layer of complications for this process. i do not know it is an understatement, but it is an accurate statement. i think it complicates it until it is straightened out. let me try again. i will come back to you. >> you talk about success in

afghanistan. what is your definition of success in afghanistan? how long do you think that should take? >> a stable country which is not run by the taliban and has democratically elected officials and where the people of afghanistan feel that they are secure. obviously, we hope that we will seek a delivery of services to the people of afghanistan. we hope that the nation can be built there which will gain the confidence of the people that they are in fact having their needs met by economic policies, by development policies. that is all very desirable, and i think it will affect the ability of the afghan army to provide security, but i focus, and the chairman of the on

services committee, on the security part. security is essential for all of those other good goals to be accomplished. >> is there a point you think we should pull out after five or 10 years? >> do i think that? i would not set a timeframe. >> you said you think -- should some of the money to pakistan to help them and their fight against the taliban? >> we visited pakistan briefly, the three of us. we had a day in pakistan and at the end a day in iraq. there is actually some progress being made in pakistan. some of the successful attack on some of the terrorist leaders have had a positive effect in pakistan, have given confidence to the pakistan government and the public.

the people that they fundamentally do not like are no longer with us, at least some of those leaders. there is a network in pakistan, which is the current major source of people that are going back and forth across that border. hopefully, the pakistani government will address the problems caused not only to them, but to us by the activities of that network. but we are cooperating with the pakistan government in the hope that we can strengthen them and their efforts, which i think now have got some hopes for success in taking on the terrorist groups that threaten their own survival. >> you argued forcefully for a timetable to withdraw from iraq as the only way to get the iraqi government, forced the iraqi government to get its act together. now, senator feingold is saying we should have a timetable to withdraw from afghanistan. why not? >> i think the situation is

different. there is a whole host of differences between the two, including differences in a situation in the army. situation's very different in terms of the political divisions that exist in iraq. there are obviously divisions that exist in afghanistan, but they are not the same, and i believe in iraq that the only way we could force the political leaders to reach political compromise on the key issues like division for the oil revenues, constitutional changes, that the only way we could force that and get them to do what only they could do was to tell them there is an end point to our troop presence, and that was an action-forcing mechanism in iraq that was essential. at this point, i do not see that we need that in afghanistan. for me, what is needed in afghanistan is to focus on the strength of the afghan military

and police. >> i'm a little confused. if we appoint any more trainers to go, are you envisioning them are civilians, or do you think they should be military? >> there will need to be additional military trainers. hopefully, nato will supply them. i assume we will be supplying additional trainers, also. if the afghan army is going to get to even the current goal of 140,000, much less to the 240,000, which i believe is likely to be a goal that general mcchrystal will propose. the defense minister in afghanistan has recommended that level for long time. 17 of us on the on services committee, about 2/3 of the armed services committee wrote six months ago, urging the adoption of that larger level.

to get to their, you obviously are going to need a significant number of trainers. i do not have that number now, but there's a be a significant portion of that coming from nato. the least they could do, it would seem to me, is to provide the trainers that are essential to get the afghan army up to the point where i think everybody thinks they should be. i think you will find that general mcchrystal will adopt that goal by 2013, but i'm suggesting that it is so important that we focus on the afghan military's strength that we bring that goal up to 2012, and that is where we will be getting data from our folks in afghanistan as to what would it take in terms of trainers, in terms of support, in terms of equipment, in terms of logistics, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of the mid-level leadership that is needed -- what will it take to get us to that goal -- or to get them, more accurately, to that

goal by 2013, or as i would hope for, 2012. >> another question, perhaps, a little off the topic. there was an exercise today by the coast guard by the pentagon as the president was going to come and speak about 9/11. radio traffic prompted concerns about shots being fired, alarms going up. a lot of people were concerned. the question is, nobody here on the capital was told about that. no police in washington at all were told about it. >> after the fact, you mean? when not told about what? >> about this plan. >> the plan or the event? >> were not told about the fact that the coast guard was going to have security simulating apparently live fire. >> i'm surprised because it strikes me as if that kind of coordination should exist. >> given the fact that pakistan

seems to be harboring al qaeda, how critical is it to maintain military bases in afghanistan to send out or go after al qaeda in pakistan? >> that is a reason for our presence in afghanistan. not the major reason, but surely a legitimate reason. the major reason is because of the importance of being partners with the afghans, and what they want to do, which is to take over responsibility for their own security. they feel very passionately about that. but talk to the minister about the need for his own country to take responsibility for their own security, and he is very eloquent about that subject, and

i think most afghan leaders are. they want to have the ability to take on the taliban. they hate the taliban. they have lived under the taliban, and the main reason we are there is to help them succeed in their effort because we never again want to see and afghanistan other taliban control because they will again harbor al qaeda that attacked us. i do not know if that answers your question, but a second or third reason for being there is the one that you just gave. >> [inaudible] >> it's going to depend upon the circumstances and situations and progress in pakistan. >> [inaudible] >> i am. i'm more concerned about the iranian role in iraq, but i'm also -- >> is it the same role they are playing in a canister and? >> i say they are playing games,

both ends against the middle, and there have been some situations where iran has been helping afghanistan. it is a mixed bag. >> [inaudible] >> i forgot, but in terms of equipment -- i think there was an equipment situation where there was equipment coming in from iran that was needed, but i'm not positive of that. i cannot remember because it was many months ago, when there was another specific instance where iran was helpful, but maybe they are up to mischief and a mixed bag. >> [inaudible] >> it obviously makes our goals in afghanistan more complicated. the afghan army right now has got great support from the afghan people. they are the number one institution in the eyes of the

afghan people. that institution, however, can only be as strong as it needs to be if it is defending a government and is guided by a government and is supervised by a government that has the support of the afghan people. right now, because of the election situation, there are clouds about the results, and until those clouds are removed, hopefully in a way which is satisfactory to everybody, that uncertainty is going to be there, and that is not healthy in terms of public support in afghanistan, for the government, which is in charge of that army, but the army itself is the number one institution in afghanistan in the mind and heart of the people in afghanistan. ok, thank you.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> senator levin was asked in a news conference about the coast guard exercise on the potomac river. the coast guard says that radio communications for a routine exercise were overheard by the public, leading to news reports and confusion amid today's commemorations of the nine 11th anniversary. were told no shots were fired. the u.s. senate is in session today. they are set to continue work on $122 billion for transportation and housing programs next budget year. the senate has passed four of the 12 bills that set federal spending. live on c-span2.

meanwhile, the house not in session today. next week, democratic members say they will consider a new energy program for research on hybrid vehicles. also, legislation changing how hybrid lenders -- a private lenders participate in student loan program. the associated press reports that leaders are planning to vote early next week to admonish republican representative jo wilson if he does not apologize on the house floor for yelling at president obama during the house speech. live coverage on monday beginning at 12:34 morning our speeches. let it -- legislative business starts at 2:00. tomorrow, a memorial service for walter cronkite. president obama spoke at the ceremony along with an earring and others. we will show that to you saturday night at 8:35 eastern. this week, during a special session, the supreme court heard

oral argument on campaign finance. the first session for justice sonia sotomayor. >> we would be doing more harm than good by broad ruling in a case that does not involve core business corporations and actually does not even involve the traditional non-profit corporation. >> hear the argument in its entirety saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. starting october 4, an extensive look at the role, traditions, and history of the court from its justices during supreme court week. >> earlier this week, the house oversight subcommittee on national security held a hearing on detecting fraud and waste in afghanistan and pakistan. we will show it to you now for the next two hours.

>> good morning, everyone. the hearing entitled "afghanistan and pakistan, accountability committee oversight of a new interagency strategy" will come to order. before we begin, i would like to quickly address one piece of business left over from the subcommittee's june 6, 2009 meeting in title of a " u.s. contributions to the response to pakistan's to humanitarian crisis." after that hearing, i received a request to submit a statement for the record. i would note that the usaid received an invitation to submit a statement prior to the hearing but declined to disappear however, i ask unanimous consent that the record be reopened, the statement is submitted for the record, and that the hearing record be closed again.

without objection, so ordered. i ask unanimous consent that only the chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee be allowed to make opening statements. without objection, so ordered. i ask unanimous consent that the record be kept open for five days so that all members of the subcommittee be like to submit statements for the record. without objection, so ordered. once again, good morning to everybody here. i have already explained to the people on our panel, as i'm sure there's no sign of disrespect for members to the people who have been kind enough to testify, and that those members that do not get here to the hearing will certainly read the testimony for the record and a transcript afterwards, but at least on the democratic side, i know there is a cop is going on. as i indicated, probably some discussion about health care if i'm not mistaken -- there is a caucus going on. the hearing today probably could not be more timely than it is. in the coming days, the commanding general in afghanistan is expected to request that president obama provide significant additional

numbers of troops for our efforts there. meanwhile, in coming weeks, congress will consider final passage of a bill to passageusaid to pakistan. in short -- passage of a bill to triple u.s. aid to pakistan. as we have learned in iraq, however, is an increase in conflict resources exponentially increases the likelihood of waste, fraud, and abuse. unfortunately, some of our programs in afghanistan and pakistan to date have been flawed and lacked basic accountability measures. for example, last year, the subcommittee and general government accountability office conducted investigations of the coalition support program, by which the united states reimburses pakistan for expenses it incurs in surging counter- terrorism operations. this program has represented the bulk of united states aid to pakistan in the past seven years, some $6.7 billion today. the investigation has found that there were no receipts for a significant portion of u.s.

reimbursements to pakistan and that the program lacked basic accountability provisions. further, the reimbursement program is not really designed to accrue the pakistan military capabilities for counter- terrorism and counterinsurgency operations. in a pianist and, the government accountability office report brought attention to significant lack of accountability -- in afghanistan. the department of defense has combined security transition command in afghanistan could not provide records, could not provide serial numbers, or could not locate a significant portion of the weapons provided. in addition, the report drew to the attention the inability of the afghan national security forces to safeguard those weapons. while we are at a crossroads of united states policy here in washington, d.c., it appears we are also at a crossroads on the ground in afghanistan and pakistan.

the taliban is resurging. three weeks ago, afghanistan held presidential and provincial elections in the middle of this deteriorating security situation. results are not final, but there are credible reports of widespread fraud. any collateral legitimacy of afghanistan's president -- any cloud over the legitimacy of afghans president would add to the problems there. in pakistan, the story is more mixed. after years of inconsistent attention to the threat posed by militants, pakistan leadership seemed to have gathered the resolve necessary to confront the challenges they face. they harnessed the political will and manpower to retake the valley and adjoining areas of the region. many pakistani soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice during this campaign. unfortunately, it stalled at the border of atwaziristan, by all accounts a hotbed of militancy. the killing last month was a significant development but must be followed by a concerted

efforts by the pakistanis themselves to bring security and reassert the authority of its government in this troubled region. in afghanistan, the united states and internationally construction and aid efforts face a daunting challenge trying to rebuild war-torn country in the midst of active insurgency. the challenges and politically -- political sensitivities currently restrict mobility, access, and presence necessary to do the task. the principal question guiding today's hearing is whether the accountability community is prepared to ramp up its own questions to mirror the massive increase in resources that the united states will devote to pakistan and afghanistan in the coming years. frankly, i have serious concerns about the community's collective ability to provide comprehensive oversight coverage that keeps pace with the rapid bloom in united states activities in the region, especially given the enormous burdens already borne by those officers. the threshold challenge they face is security. after numerous trips to afghanistan and pakistan, i am

acutely aware of the limits imposed on personnel in the country, but a sustained physical presence is crucial to establishing the relationship necessary to receive tips of waste, fraud, and abuse. three-week locations are not enough to establish the informal interactions that could provide vital information about slot and fatally activities. another concern i have is the accountability committees coverage of the united states aid in pakistan. security challenges make efforts all the more vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. in particular, i have serious questions regarding oversight coverage in the federally administered tribal areas. finally, i would like the thoughts of all the panelists on the call to afghan-ize more of our aid efforts. how will the united states accountability communicate navigate its role in overseeing such program? we count on the inspectors general and gao to stand against waste, fraud, and abuse.

especially in these difficult economic times, we must demand absolute transparency and accountability for every last taxpayer dollars. thank you. >> i think the chairman. i want to mention that republicans are caucusing as well. i apologize if i had this look like, but i have the same concerns as the chairman with regard to the oversight committees ability to police and make sure there is not severe waste, fraud, and abuse. with the backdrop here of a commitment to step up our troop levels there, with what michael mullen and others have described as a serious and deteriorating situation in afghanistan, makes this kind of hearing very important, to see what safeguards are in place, and if you have the resources and tools to ensure that our money is being well spent. with that, i look forward to hearing the witnesses.

>> thank you. the subcommittee will now receive testimony from the panel before us. i will give a brief introduction of each of the panelists. we have a very distinguished panel that has been doing great service to the country, which we appreciate, and we understand also the difficulty. to my far left is major-general ronald fields, who serves as the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction -- arnold fields. he served as deputy director of the africa center for strategic studies in the department of defense. he retired from united states marine corps in 2004 and previously served as the deputy commander of marine corps forces in europe. general fields holds a b.s. from south carolina university and an m.a. from pepperdine university. mr. gordon heddell serves as inspector general for the department of defense. he served as the inspector general at the department's general labour.

he served in the united states a good service for 29 years, where he worked as assistant director leading secret service inspection in internal affairs programs worldwide. mr. heddell holds a b.a. from the university of missouri and an m.a. from the university of illinois. mr. donald gambatesea served as the deputy director of the united states marshal service. he previously spent 24 years as a special agent in the united states secret service, and he holds a b.a. from john carroll university. ambassador harold geisel serves as acting inspector general for the department of state. from 2002 to 2003, he served as head of delegation but negotiations with the people's republic of china on the construction of a new embassy.

prior to serving as those, he served more than 25 years in united states foreign service. he holds a b.a. from johns hopkins university and an m.s. from the university of virginia. ms. jacquelyn williams as bridges served as managing director in the government accountability office. prior to this position, she served as the inspector general with united states department of state and the united states arms control and disarmament agency in the united states information agency and the broadcasting board of governors. thank you all again for you when this is your day and making yourself available with your substantial expertise. as you all know, it is the policy of this committee to swear witnesses in before they testify, i ask you all to please stand and raise your right hands. is there and new -- if there's anyone else will be testifying with you, i ask that they do the same period do you solemnly swear you tell the jurors, the whole truth and nothing but the trip? thank you. for the record, all the

panelists and some in the affirmative. i know some of you were kind enough to file extensive written statements, so you need not feel compelled to win just that. we are happy of commons for five minutes, and if we can, we'll go to questions and answers. >> good morning, members of this subcommittee. thank you for inviting me to participate at the subcommittee, in keeping with our mandate which focuses on afghanistan, opening remarks this morning will be provided accordingly. i have provided a written statement, and i wish to at this time highlight a few of the elements of that statement. as the newest organization at this table, it was less than a year ago that sigar obtained funding. we continue to build our organization to conduct the

views of our projects and to provide findings and recommendations that will serve the congress and the administration appropriately. congress has appropriated about $38 billion since 2002 to rebuild afghanistan. the president's fiscal year 2010 budget request includes additional funding for against and, which would bring funding for afghanistan to about $50 billion through 2010. together with my colleagues at this table, sigar certainly is committed to providing the oversight needed to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse and promote the effective implementation of the reconstruction program in afghanistan. we are members of the southwest asia joint planning group -- that is pakistan, afghanistan subcommittee on afghanistan and pakistan, which serve as forums for coordinating our work. all of that, which is said to

suggest that we do coordinates. also in our investigations were, we collaborate with the national procurement fraud task force in the international contract corruption task force. sigar has grown from an office of two to an office of 46 with an additional 17 prospective employees in the pipeline. we have offices in arlington, va., and in afghanistan, where we have offices in kabul, located at the embassy, and we are leaning towards 20, which we have negotiated by way of the nsdd process with the ambassador and the department of state. we have office space in several other locations in afghanistan, including the airfield as well as kandahar.

while growing, we have watched closely as the u.s. government has developed and expanded policy in afghanistan, and i wish to note the extraordinary work of the ambassador who recently testified before this very committee. he has consistently highlighted the importance of oversight in the new afghanistan-pakistan strategy. over the past several months, sigar has met regularly with senior u.s. officials. we have also built a strong network among the agencies, the international community, and the military components throughout afghanistan. these meetings, together with our ongoing war, help us monitor the administration's development of a new approach in afghanistan. of course, we are using this information as a basis to adapt and expand our oversight plans. we work continuously with members of the oversight committee to make sure that oversight work is coordinated and not duplicative, harvest the

highest priority areas, aims to produce change, and does not overburden the u.s. civilian and military personnel who are implementing the reconstruction programs. we are keenly aware that it is our job to find and document waste, fraud, and abuse. with the express purpose of working to improve the u.s. assistance program and identify wrongdoers. likewise, we are poised to identify lessons learned. our mission is difficult. it has taken time to hire staff capable and willing to do this work in a dangerous environment, but we have made considerable progress. as of last week, we have issued four mandated quarterly reports to this congress and five audit and inspection reports. another three draft reports are currently at the agency for comment as we speak. we have 21 ongoing reports, and

we expect to issue five more reports before this month. our investigative work has resulted in over $4 million of cost avoidance. in one case in the guilty pleas of 2 million people, offering -- to the pleas of two people offering $1 million in bribes. our work has identified problems with contract oversight, the lack of integration on the construction activities, and concerns with sustainment capacity. the impact of oversight cannot be measured solely by statistics. we believe that being on the scene is a real deterrent to waste, fraud, and abuse. we also operates a hotline, giving u.s. coalition partners and the afghan citizens of various methods by which to report allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse, related especially to the reconstruction efforts. the hot line has produced a number of credible leads that we

are, of course, pursuing. we are working hard to produce and provide the robust oversight essential for the successful implementation of reconstruction programs in afghanistan, and i welcome your questions there and to pertaining. thank you. >> q, sir. mr. heddell. >> thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. mr. chairman, oversight in southwest asia with the emphasis on afghanistan and pakistan is one of my top priorities. it is my goal to ensure the health, safety, and the welfare of our troops and to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. our current efforts include increased oversight by enhancing our in-theater presents and insuring comprehensive and effective interagency coordination. the oversight we provide through audits, investigations,

inspections, and assessments truly makes a difference, especially in such an unstable and dangerous region where the department of defense operations and troop levels are increasing. earlier this year, president obama announced a comprehensive new strategy to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. this strategy will involve several departments and agencies in our government. we have conducted oversight on pakistan in 2003 and again in 2009 and started oversight efforts in afghanistan in 2004. we are increasing our resources in the region to ensure proper oversight and staffing in regard to the new strategy and the buildup of u.s. forces and programs in afghanistan. to support our oversight, we have established field offices

in strategic locations in southwest asia. we also utilize an expeditionary work for small to support our efforts. this helps facilitate timely reviews and reporting of results while minimizing disruption to the war fighter. our central field office in the region is located at bagram airfield, with the support and endorsement of the commander of u.s. central command, we have stopped new offices in kandahar and kabul or team deploy personnel, six investigators, and eight auditors. in addition, our staff travel as needed for fieldwork in afghanistan. currently, there are five auditors and two engineers, for instance, on temporary travel in afghanistan, and i will be traveling there myself in the near future to meet with general mcchrystal and other commanders in theater. i have created a new key

position within the dod office of inspector general to ensure there is effective coordination and communication within the oversight communities within southwest asia. this position, the special deputy inspector for southwest asia, will report directly to me and act on my behalf to coordinate and the conflict oversight efforts. the dod ig is the lead oversight agency for accountability in the department. for southwest asia, including afghanistan and pakistan, there are three critical coordination and planning mechanisms. the southwest is a joint planning group, the comprehensive plan for south west is a, and our many investigative task forces. in addition, in may, 2009, the joint planning group established a new subcommittee to coordinate audit and inspection work solely in afghanistan and

pakistan. this subcommittee, chaired by the inspector general for the u.s. agency for international development, issued in august 2009 the afghanistan/pakistan comprehensive oversight plan. i thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss our ongoing efforts, and i look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with congress and all overside organizations engaged in afghanistan and pakistan. >> [no audio] >> good morning, members of the committee. thank you for inviting me here to testify today on behalf of the office of inspector general for u.s. agency for international development. i'm pleased to be here, along with my colleagues from other oversight organizations, with whom we work closely as the exercise our audit,

investigation duties. historic we, my office has overseen programs in these countries from our regional office in the philippines, increasing our staffing levels there as usaid funding had increased. we recently established a full- time presence of foreign service officers in these countries, placing an auditor and a criminal investigator in kabul, and two auditors and a criminal investigator in islamabad. these employees will be in addition to those currently providing oversight from our office in the philippines. we also have a request for three more positions. to date, in afghanistan, we have conducted 27 performance program audits in which we have made 84 recommendations for operational improvement. moreover, we have issued nearly 30 financial audits and have identified more than $8 million in costs, of which $1.3 million was sustained. in addition to conducting audits, we investigate

allegations of fraud and waste in these countries. in afghanistan, we have opened 44 investigations that have resulted in eight indictments, nine arrests, and three convictions and savings and recoveries have totaled $87 million. i want to mention just two of our recent investigations involving security contracts in afghanistan. in one, the defendant pled guilty to conspiracy this past week for his role in a scheme to solicit kickbacks in connection with the awarding a private security contracts. in another investigation, four individuals and a security company they work for were indicted after they obtained reimbursement for fraudulent expenses. the company and the individuals charged have also been suspended indefinitely from doing business with the government. one former employee is serving a two-year sentence and more than $24 million have been saved in connection with this investigation. in pakistan since 2002, we have conducted five program performance audits and made 12 recommendations for program

improvements. our 23 financial audits conducted in pakistan added approximately $6 million in question costs, of which 3.5 million was sustained, and we have several ongoing investigations in pakistan. we in the oversight community have been working diligently for several years to coordinate our oversight activities in afghanistan. our criminal investigators were closely with the national park demitasse force, which is established by the department of justice to identify and prosecute fraud associated with government contracts. we are also members of the international contra corruption task force, an interagency law- enforcement group that contracts for german fraud investigations and high-risk international locations such as iraq and afghanistan. a new coordination group which wheelchair was formed in june 2009 in response to the administration's focus of afghanistan and pakistan. this subgroup of the southwest asia planning group consists of

representatives from the organizations you see with me here today. the afghanistan-pakistan subgroup issued an oversight plan in august of 2009. i have submitted a copy of the plan with my written testimony and ask that it be made part of the record. this plan corresponds to the strategies developed by the u.s. government for assisting afghanistan and pakistan in addressing high priority issues. the five areas addressed in a plan of security, governance, rule of law, human rights, economic and social development, contract oversight and performance, and cost-cutting programs. the sub group will monitor this plan and make adjustments as necessary during quarterly meetings. the members of the suburbs have been working together to address oversight in this region for several years, and i'm confident we are effectively coordinating with one another to provide the best overside possible. i want to emphasize, however, that oversight is a shared responsibility. that of the inspector general and the agency's we oversee as

well as the contractors and grantees and limit foreign assistance programs. we must all be vigilant to ensure that tax dollars are not wasted. thank you again for inviting me here to testify. i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you. >> members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to discuss the department of state oig oversight plan and our coordination efforts to provide oversight of u.s. resources and projects in pakistan and afghanistan. i also lead this office from 1994 to 1995 and am pleased with the significant increase in oversight that oig is conducting a round world. -- around the world. this past spring, a subgroup was formed to better focus on oversight related to pakistan

and afghanistan. i'm pleased to report the suburban is working quite well. in addition, members take part in weekly and sometimes daily discussions. we are acutely aware of the difficulties in working in pakistan and afghanistan and the burden that our staffs can place on u.s. personnel working in this country's. therefore, we are committed to avoiding redundancy and maximizing our effectiveness. let me begin with pakistan. our middle east regional office will conduct a review this fall of the current management control environment in anticipation of a significant increase in funding program implementation during the next five years. merrill will assess risk and volatility associated with achieving current and new program objectives. our plan is to use this assessment to drill down and conduct more thorough examinations of those programs and activities designated as

most vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. as we learn from iraq assistance programs in 2004 and 2005, effective management controls are needed at the initial stages of assistance implementation. additionally, in 2008, the completed a review of the fulbright program in afghanistan. our office of inspections will conduct a full post-inspection of its embassy in islamabad in calendar year 2010. post inspections thoroughly cover every aspect of department activity managed by the embassy. in august, oig and embassy is, but agreed to have mero develop programs. our auditors will be stationed in pakistan, supplemented as needed with additional staff to provide the necessary oversight. mero has effectively used this staffing model at embassy baghdad and plans to open a similar sized office at embassy

cobble this month. we expect to have our office in pakistan open in early 2010 as funding levels permit. now, i will talk to afghanistan. our office of inspections will be in kabul this october inspecting the mission and should issue a report later in 2009. about 12 in paris, including a highly experienced team leader, a former ambassador, will conduct the post inspection of all mission aspects, including contacting, mission programs, consular affairs, and security and protection. additionally, the office of inspections will issue a report later this month on the department's mining program in afghanistan. in august, we released a report covering the performance of u.s. training center, formerly blackwater, under the terms of its afghanistan contract. mero also is participating in joint state dod audit of the afghan national police training and mentoring program. they will report at the end of this year. looking forward to 2010, mero

plans to work on a number of department-funded programs, including the following -- refugees and internally displaced programs, public diplomacy, and the embassy's guard forces. regarding investigations, in 2009, we created the middle east investigative branch to conduct investigations in support of the department's expanding middle east and south asia missions. the primary mission is to respond to criminal allegations and support investigative activities concerning department programs, employees, and contractors from pakistan to morocco with focused concentration and a high value of high-risk areas to iraq and pakistan and afghanistan. to date, six criminal investigators are assigned to meet with five posted overseas and one in arlington, virginia. we can move our personnel easily from these forward bases in the region as needed to islamabad, kabul, or other priority post. we plan to increase