Pete Stark: “yesterday's horrific, cowardly attack on the United States was a senseless act of terrorism by enemies who abhor…”

“yesterday's horrific, cowardly attack on the United States was a senseless act of terrorism by enemies who abhor America's principles of freedom and justice. The terrorists who perpetrated this attack, however, have a miscalculated view of America: they believe we are weak, but we are strong; they believe we will cower in fear, but we will stand tall in solidarity; they believe they can break our resolve, but our unity will only be strengthened. First and foremost, my heart goes out to the victims and the victims' families of this terrible, horrific attack. The Congress of the United States, along with all Americans, stands with you in this time of sorrow and tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers also go to the firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, ambulance teams, hospital workers and all public servants who are working to rescue survivors and to care for the injured. Your heroic efforts will be long remembered. Even as we care for our citizens who have been victimized by this horrible crime, the resources of our government must now be directed toward finding those who caused these acts of violence and bringing them to justice. We must also examine the ways in which we protect ourselves, and we, as leaders, must critically review how we allocate our resources to defend this nation from terrorist attack. In the meantime, our nation stands resolute in the face of this crisis.”