[StBernard] Republicans Block Renewed Effort to Dismantle al Qaeda

[Westley Annis]

Republicans Block Renewed Effort to Dismantle al Qaeda

 

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans today procedurally blocked an amendment to
the Homeland Security Appropriations bill sponsored by United States Senator
Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., that would have made it the United States'
principle priority in the Global War on Terror to capture or kill Osama bin
Laden and dismantle his al Qaeda network. Senate Democrats had scheduled a 1
p.m. CT vote on the amendment, but an unappealable point of order against
the measure was raised by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. Sen. Landrieu
introduced a similar amendment to the Defense Authorization bill last week,
which stalled after a partisan deadlock.

"My amendment would have made it the policy of the United States to destroy
our No. 1 enemy - Osama bin Laden and his network," Sen. Landrieu said.
"They attacked our homeland on Sept. 11, 2001, and continue to plot against
us while we are entrenched in a five-year-long civil war in Iraq."

Sen. Landrieu's amendment stated: "It shall be the policy of the United
States Government that the foremost objective of the United States in the
Global War on Terror and in protecting the United States Homeland is to
capture or kill Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other members of al
Qaeda and to destroy the al Qaeda network."

The amendment would have appropriated $25 million to the CIA intended to
fund reestablishing the agency's bin Laden task force, know as Alec Station.
The al Qaeda-hunting group was disbanded by President Bush after the
administration determined that bin Laden no longer posed a threat to the
United States.

According to the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, "Al-Qa'ida is and
will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the Homeland, as its
central leadership continues to plan high-impact plots, while pushing others
in extremist Sunni communities to mimic its efforts and to supplement its
capabilities."

 

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