Cord Byrd: “1 year ago last week the American people were forced to experience the unimaginable when terrorists placed a bomb in a…”

“1 year ago last week the American people were forced to experience the unimaginable when terrorists placed a bomb in a Federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 innocent citizens, some of them children. In response to that grisly deed, as well as the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the downing of Pan American flight 103 over Scotland, the United States Senate passed S. 735, the ``Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act,'' on June 7, 1995. The measure, I think it is important to note, was supported by 91 Senators, myself included. I supported that bill because I believed it was a good piece of legislation that went a long way toward helping law enforcement agencies combat the rising scourge of domestic terrorism. It was an effective measure with many important provisions--important crime-fighting tools--specifically designed to thwart this growing menace. Our goal, or so I thought, had been to stop domestic terrorism before it could happen; to let terrorists know that they were going to be put down before they could carry out their cowardly acts.”