Mark Kirk: “We cannot let homeland defense dollars be spent where there is no perceivable threat. We do not have enough funding to…”

“We cannot let homeland defense dollars be spent where there is no perceivable threat. We do not have enough funding to fortify the whole country; therefore we must be guided by the intelligence. If the intelligence showed that al Qaeda consistently targets Wyoming or Mississippi, then that is where the funding should be directed. But it does not show that. It shows that the targets are places consistently mentioned by Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants which are known to him in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These targets, over and over again, are New York, Washington, Chicago, Seattle, and other key sites regularly mentioned by al Qaeda. If we use the funding in this bill to fortify the wrong parts of this Nation, then we will be weak where we should have been strong. If we fortify the right places of our country, then we will blunt their attack, and we will protect the American people.”