Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to thank the Government of Kenya and its President Kibaki for the difficult decision he and his government have made with regard to Somalia. We all recall Somalia as the site of the Black Hawk Down tragedy in 1993. As much as Americans might wish to ignore that troubled country, I do not think we can. Somalia is a country whose government collapsed in 1991 but has now given rise to what is arguably the second largest terror presence on planet Earth, called al-Shabaab. The country also represents a new 21st-century threat of piracy across America's Persian Gulf oil supply lines. On October 16, at the invitation of the Somali Transitional Federal Government, the Kenyan Government launched Operation Protect the Country against the al-Shabaab terrorist organization based in Somalia. We all recall that al-Shabaab is an al-Qaida affiliate that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States since 2008. It is responsible for multiple attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda, including a suicide bombing in July 2010 in Kampala that killed 76 people, including an American citizen, 25-year-old Nate Henn of North Carolina who worked for the Invisible Children nonprofit organization. Also, on October 25, al-Shabaab kidnapped and is still holding another American citizen, 32-year-old Jessica Buchanan of Virginia.…”