<span style="style" 11pt;="11pt;" font-family:="font-family:" "times=""times" times"="times"" new="New" roman","="roman","" ,""=",""">For Immediate Release: May 2, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) released the following statement regarding the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s capture. Bin Laden was the mastermind of the Al Qaeda attacks carried out on September 11, 2001 and one of the primary justifications used by President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq:

“I want to commend President Obama, our brave men and women in uniform, and the entire intelligence community for their tireless efforts related to Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately, President Bush took us off course from this important mission with his misguided invasion of Iraq – a war that is still ongoing after nine years and has tragically resulted in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and Iraqis. President Obama rightly recognized that our focus should be elsewhere if we were to capture bin Laden, and he executed the mission to achieve the goal.”

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Follow McDermott on Twitter: @RepJimMcDermott.