Representative Heather Wilson: “And one of the things that's so deeply troubling is they don't even need to get a nuclear weapon to sell terror across a…”

“And one of the things that's so deeply troubling is they don't even need to get a nuclear weapon to sell terror across a whole region. It is just nuclear material or a suitcase-sized device that could cause tremendous damage and mass casualties, huge economic dislocation; and that is their intent. And sometimes you listen to these tapes from bin Laden, and I was sitting in my office reading over the most recent one that he sent out on 9/11 on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. You read through this and go, man, this guy is nuts. It just sounds nuts, but he is serious, and he has shown the ability to carry out mass attacks in the United States and to inspire followers to try to do the same. We have to take this threat seriously. So the question is, as a Nation, and this is one of the things I look forward to talking a little bit about with my colleague tonight, all right, if the first duty of the United States Government is to protect America, to protect Americans from all enemies foreign and domestic, so how do we do this? How can we not only be better today than we were 6 years ago on the morning of 9/11? That's not the challenge. How do we be better tomorrow than we are today? I think the greatest accomplishment we've had over the last 6 years is that we've not had another terrorist attack on our soil; but just because we're one step ahead of them today is not good enough. We have to stay one step ahead of them.”