Monday, September 11, 2006

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kit Bond, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued the following statement on the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the United States. Bond made his comments during a ceremony honoring fallen FBI agent Douglas Abram, who was shot and killed while serving in the line of duty in 1990:

“On September 11th 2001, the violent extremists, willing to die in order to kill innocent people in a warped interpretation of their religious mandates, destroyed a symbol of our economic power, partially destroyed a symbol of our military power, and attempted to destroy a symbol of our representative government.

“September 11th was a wake-up call that we, and our way of life, were and had been under attack by radical Islamists. They awakened the survival instincts of the American people and now our country is safer, because law enforcement and our intelligence agencies, including our men and women of the FBI who we honor today, have disrupted terrorist plots planned on American soil using the Terrorist Surveillance Program, the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, detainee debriefings and the Patriot Act.

“We honor our brave defenders, along with the men and women of our military, especially Missourians serving in the National Guard and active military in combat overseas, for their efforts to deny radical Islamists the sanctuaries they need to plan attacks and pursue acquisition of weapons of mass destruction to use against the United States.

“While the terrorists took away some of our symbols, and the lives of innocent people, they could not destroy the American spirit of hope and optimism.”

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