Trent Franks: “Mr. Speaker, in the very simplest of terms, the strategic goal of terrorists in this war is to be able to hide from…”

“Mr. Speaker, in the very simplest of terms, the strategic goal of terrorists in this war is to be able to hide from justice long enough to be able to gain access to weapons of mass destruction with which they can radically alter the future of American freedom for generations to come. The strategic challenge that we face is in finding and defeating terrorists before they gain access to such weapons and proceed to achieve their horrifying goal. It is obvious that the critical factor in all of this effort is intelligence, for if we knew where every terrorist in the world was at this moment, we could destroy nearly all of them in less than 60 days. But, Mr. Speaker, we have been held back by liberals in this country. Every effort the President has made to gain such intelligence has been resisted. We should consider the terrorists' own words if we doubt their commitment to strike this country in the most horrendous way possible. Osama bin Laden said many years ago, 'It is our religious duty to gain nuclear weapons.' Hezbollah's Nasrallah said of America, 'Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan is absolute. Regardless of how the world has changed after September 11, death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan. Death to America.' Terrorists, Mr. Speaker, believe that they have a critical advantage over the free people of the world.”