Senate Proceeding on May 2nd, 2011 :: 2:13:35 to 2:33:35
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2:13:15 to 2:13:35( Edit History Discussion )

then the local law enforcement that just works overtime, the firefighters, the police, and all the rest. extra work that's going on in the hospitals and clinics and nurses and doctors working overtime. in my part of the world, too, state and federal employees have really pitched in at every level, starting with the army corps of engineers, the

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department of natural resources of the state of illinois, the illinois emergency management agency, the federal emergency management agency. it's an amazing outpouring of support. last friday, i bored a plane -- boarded a plane in chicago, flew down to marion, illinois, and took a helicopter into caro. caro is, of course, the southern

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tip of our state, as i mentioned earlier, the confluence of the ohio and miss is rivers. and i saw -- the mississippi rivers. and i saw there things that were going on in the town of caro, illinois, that were frightening and disturbing. this is a town in its day, in its heyday, was one of the major port cities caro, as the ohio and mississippi came together, and

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then coarsed on down to the gulf of mexico, was a major city with major economic activity. over the years as river traffic changed and the economy changed, caro changed too. it now has a population of a little less than 3,000 people. many of them are very poor. they have an african-american mayor, mayor childs. i believe he is the first, if

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not the second, african-american mayor. they've had issues of racial strife over the last 50 years. they struggle to keep businesses in place. their schools are always challenged. and now on top of that comes a flood. if you went along the ohio river leading up to caro, you'll see an amazing levee. it's the kind of wall of protection, concrete wall of

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protection which every river community would love to have. on the mississippi side, not so much. but the interesting thing that i found when i went down there is even that side of the river, ohio river, with this huge concrete levee has serious problems. it turns out the water level is so high

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that the pressure of the rising ohio river is forcing the water into what's known as sandboils. so out of nowhere in the midst of a lot or geyser of river water. you think, what's going on here? it's, you know, 10, 15, 20 feet away from the levee.

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we will, that's because the entire ground is so saturated an the river is working its way underneath eating up t layer. i walked along with a national national guardsman taking pictures of the screen. we took to one place where water was bubbling and as the national national guardsman was taking my photograph, the street collapsed

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under him and he fell two or three feet down because all of this water had eaten out all of the substrata under the street. that's why this has become so serious that the mayor, mayor childs, started with a voluntary evacuation and then last saturday night said, let's everybody leave this town. we don't know what's going to happen next.

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and that is the reality. not only of care row, but of several other communities. the 2,800 people of cairo were evacuated saturday when the ohio river reached its highest level since 1937. it rose above the 15.5 foot level this weekend and is expected to go higher. five other illinois communities

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are now under a voluntary evacuation order. old shawnee town junction, brookporkts and galcnda are being asked to evacuate. the water levels there were continuing to rise in cairo a few days ago.

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this is cairo, illinois. the water slefl so high the homes are inhabitable. i saw many homes like this but i also saw some superhuman effo describe, where people decided even with a home that close to the river they were going to build a wall of sandbags around their home and save it.

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it sounds impossible, but they're doing it. and the sandbags are up to five feet high, holding back the water which, tab it weren't there, would have in-- which, if it weren't there, would have inundated the home. people are up night and day, 24 hours day, in rowboats going back and forth trying to

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preserve the one thing on earth that means so much to their home. that's the kind of battle taking place in homes all around alexander county and cairo. the sustained water level has

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put an unprecedented amount of pressure. at or above flood stage for the foreseeable future. and the levee may not withstand that pressure. with cairo's levee bursts, the ar town will be inundated with as much as 15 feet of water. the entire state of illinois is

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operating under a state of emergency. 32 patrol. the army corps of engineers and local visa sponders are putting generators and supplies where they're needed. my thoughts with are the people

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and families, especially those who have had to leave their homes. i am grateful for all the people who are work around the clock to control the ohio river. general walsh is in charge of the army corps of engineers in this area. i talked to him several over the weekend. he has a very, very difficult decision to make. i have seen it made in the past.

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it is never easy. the decision he has to make is, if a city is threatened, like cairo, illinois, he has to determine whether it is the right thing to do to open a levee to relieve the water pressure of the rivers by flooding adjoining farmland.

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so people who are now perhaps only minor victims of flooding would see their farmlands inundated. that's in missouri. and they don't like the idea. who would? they've resisted it in court and at two levels now, the court has said, it is an army engineers' decision. i speak with general warble all

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through the weekend and he walked me through the decision. i said, this is a difficult, hard decision you have to make. you'll get no pressure from me. i believe that cairo, illinois, is right now teetering on the edge and could be inundated with floodwater and 2,800 could lose their hoaxes that's my side of the equation along

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with their other communities. but i know you have to make a calculation on rainfall, the level of the rivers, and trying to make some calculation about critical infrastructure in both instances, and i said, just use your best engineering and scientific judgment. i'll back you up, whatever you decide. he's put in place the explosives

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to blow the levee downriver on the ma missouri reid side to relieve the pressure not only in illinois but in kentucky and i think parts of tennessee as we will well, i think that may be a decision to be made within the next few minutes. whatever his disirks whatever the army corps decides, i will stand by it because i know it is a good-faith effort to do the right thing and thill a say:

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if they end up flooding some farmland in missouri, i'll stand by my colleagues from that state as w well as all other in the midwest to make sure those people are made whole, that they have some recovery through our government for losses in farm profits and the liefnlgt it is the least we can dovment if they end up saving a city, then the cost to the government will be

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dramatically less than it might otherwise have been. it's a hard, hard decision. having seeing it first hand, my sympathy goes to the army corps of engineers and all the professionals who are fighting this battle every single day. mr. president, i'd tyke make one additional statement and ask consent to be placed in a separate place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, last night about 9:00, i

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received a call at my home in springfield, illinois, from vice president biden. it was kind of a surprising call on a sunday night, and i was even more surprised when that osama bin laden had within captured and killed and president obama would be making a statement very shortly. i waited up to hear that statement. i was catching a plane early thorntion but i wanted to hear it first hand.

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i guess every single one of us can rember where we were often 9/11. i know where i was. it was just a few feet away heemplet we were in an office, a room just off the capitol floor here, the senate floor in a meeting with senator daschle when we'd heard about a plane crashing into the trade center

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in new york and then another one, and then we realized this was not an accident. we watched as america and we next? this building, this of a building, the united states capitol? thank goodness the courage of passengers on a plane that was brought down in pennsylvania probably saved many lives, maybe my own.

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but we knee -- we came to that mind it all was a man named osama bin laden had declared war on the united states of america and was prepared to kill thousands of innocent people to push his terrible extremist agenda. for ten years we have been engaged in the largest global man hunt in the her to find this man. president obama i am a sure used

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every resource of the government to do that job, and i am i commend him for that effort. but last night because of the courage of navy seals and our military who stepped up, osama bin laden was captured and killed. i know having spoken to people in the white house that the president stuck his neck out on this because there was a

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question as to whether he was actually there. and they believed there was enough evidence, the president said go forward. we did it without any loss of life on the american side or any loss of innocent life of civilians. but it appears now that we have taken away the leader of al qaeda. that is a good development for all of us. i don't know if it means that there will be a more peaceful

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world. we probably should assume the opposite for at leas time-being. that these terrorist organizations will now strike at the united states to establish that they're still credible. well-well, we've got to be vigilant and stop them before it happens. and we've got to pursue them for whatever it takes to bring them to justice.

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perhaps though it will go into another drefntle perhaps we will find that once al qaeda, the head of the snake, has been chopped off, perhaps al qaeda will start to wither. if it does, maybe some other organizations will have second thawlts about the terrorism business. that would be the best outcome, even better if we could start bringing our troops home from afghanistan. but i want to commend

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and women in uniform, those yesterday that showed such courage, those in the intelligence community who have worked night and day for almost ten years trying to find this man and i want to commend the president for showing the kind of leadership we needed, to bring to justice the most dangerous terrorist criminal on the face of the earth. it is something that i think speaks well for our government

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and for our people. there's one other point i would like to makers mr. president, and the president made it last night in his statement. he repeated what this been said by president george w. bush after 9/11. i had my differences with president bush, but there were moments wouldn't i couldn't about agreed with him more. particular lit moment when he made it clear that our war

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against terrorism was not a war against islam. it was not a war against muslims or muslim americans. i was so glad that he did it because we've seen ample evidence of discrimination against people of that religion 0 who have had nothing to do with terrorism but, unfortunately, have been discriminated against. last

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what had we all believe: islam is not the enme mi. extremism and terrorism are the enemies. we'll work with muslims americans and muses limbs around the world to protect their religion, their honored religion, and will work with them to reduce the president also reminded everyone listening last night that when it came to the victims

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of osama bin laden's terrorism, muslim people were the victims time and time again. he was no friend of the muslim community himself. his life, unfortunately, of killing and violence took its toll in many communities, including muslim communiti around the world. i commend those who were working, continue to work night

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and day at every single level, federal, state, and local, to deal with the eraduation of terrorism. there's still much more to be done in terms of fighting this bavment i take pride in the work that has been done, a pride that is shared, i'm certain, by every re all across the united states. mr. president, i yield the flo and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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the presiding officer: the

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quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: i ask unanimous consent that we vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: i ask unanimous consent that w to proceed in machine. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: everyone knows where we were the moment we

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heard the tragic news of the attacks on this nation of september 11. i trust that all of us will long treasure the moment that we first heard the news last night that osama bin laden after a decade of determined and diligent work by our armed forces and the men and women of the intelligence community, had at long last been captured and killed.

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the successful operation by the navy seal team yesterday was the capstone of 10 years of distinguished and honorable service by our brave men and women in uniform. in afghanistan and in iraq and around the world, literally tens of thousands of americans over this past decade have faced battle resolutely, carried out

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their mission with valor and made all of us proud. when i visited our troops in afghanistan in february, i saw firsthand their determination, their level of professionalismes and their commitment to this important and long task. and i hope as we face the days ahead and the your honor certainty of what will be the path forward in our continuing

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conflict with al qaeda and all who would do us harm that there is no doubt about the determination of the american people about our resolve to pursue, to capture and to kill all who would plan attacks on the united states and on innocent civilians around the world. i wanted to pause today, mr. president, and simply

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reflect on all who have sacrificed so much. there are hundreds of delawareans currently serving in afghanistan, some active duty, some are the reserves, some with the national guard, and my wife and i and our family pray for them every night, a i know so many do in our nation for so many who serve us overseas.

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personal friends of ours, brook james and troy baucus and jeff steinberg, are all folks who are on repeat deployments and whose families we know, along with hundreds of othersment,, that bear the sacrifices of deployment. and there are many others -- 17 in the caves delaware -- who have made the ultimate sacrifice had this decade of conflict in iraq and afghanistan.

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sergeant sean mowdy, seaman air mn liz and many others mourned by their families and communities. the senate foreign relations committee begins tomorrow a series of six hearings on afghanistan and a review on our relationship with pakistan, alliances in the region and incredible investments that we

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need to continue to make to sustain our effort to take the fight to those around the world who would do us harm. but i just wanted to come to the floor today and for a brief moment pause on what this historic moment means for the american people. it was just a decade ago the attacks of 9/11 that a group of

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determined and hardened terrorists led by osama bin laden believed they had struck a blow, believed they had hit their target when four aircraft that had been commandeered were turned into missiles and sent at principal targets that they thought were the centerpieces of america. two of them succeeded in

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striking the twin towers and in knocking down columns of steel and glass. one of them succeeded in striking the pentagon and setting ablaze the center of our military might. and one more, were it not for the intervention of incredibly brave american citizens, might well have struck this very

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building in which we meet today, mr. president, or the white house. they did succeed in tragically taking thousands of innocent lives. they did succeed in striking a tough blow to our economy. they did succeed in surprising us with an unexpectedly vicious attack on thousands of innocent civilians. but, mr. president, they utterly failed.

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they failed to strike at our spirit. they failed to knock down our resolve. and i know around the world many marvel while thousands of folks flooded out of the pentagon and the twin towers, as hundreds of determined volunteers and public servants flooded in, risking, and in many cases sacrificing

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their own lives to try and save some of their fellow countrymen. most importantlily, in the months afterwards millions of americans took up the cause of volunteering to rebuild and restore our community, and thousands volunteered to serve in our armed forces. it is their resolve, it is their commitment, it is their professionalism.

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the great leadership of armed forces and the decisions made by president obama and vice president biden in leading our nation today that have brought us to this moment. i just want to close, mr. president, by saying those who struck us on 9/11 missed their target. they misunderstood our spirit and our resolve as a nation.

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and last night on the other side of the world, justice was served. the tragedy of those who were lost and the sacrifice of those who have chosen to serve will never be forgotten, but last night on the other side of the world justice was served. so let there be no doubt among any around the world who would