The Hunt for Bin Laden - reward to double to $50 million (and a truck...)

[The Straight Story]

THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN -- (House of Representatives - November 20, 2004)

GPO's PDF

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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. KIRK) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago Osama bin Laden was able to run his al Qaeda network freely, thanks to the protection of the Taliban regime. Today, he is on the run, frequently crossing the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan to elude coalition forces.

Last January, I traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to determine how Osama bin Laden continues to avoid capture. When I traveled to the Kyber Agency, I was reminded that the State Department had run a very successful rewards program that had previously led to the arrest and capture of Mir Amal Kansi, a terrorist who had murdered two CIA employees and injured three others in a 1993 shooting outside CIA headquarters in Virginia. The promise of a significant monetary reward was enough for some Pakistanis to turn Kansi in to the proper authorities. The program worked before, and it could easily work again.

When I returned, I talked to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. HYDE), the chairman of the Committee on International Relations, and had help from the gentleman from California (Mr. LANTOS), the ranking Democratic member, and we introduced legislation to increase the maximum reward this program could offer from 25 to $50 million for some of the world's most dangerous terrorists. It made sense that we increase the reward for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Additionally, our bill allowed the State Department to use non-cash awards, and in a rural community, the provision of a truck or feed or farm animals can mean a lot in a rural community which could provide information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden.

I am pleased to report this legislation was included in the omnibus appropriations bill that was just passed by the House of Representatives. When the President signs this bill into law, he will give the State Department a new and powerful tool that can be used in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his senior associates.

Bottom line, with passage of this bill the reward for the arrest of Osama bin Laden can rise to $50 million. The passage of this bill could not come at a more critical moment, as earlier this week both the United Nations and the White House issued their latest estimate for the Afghan poppy harvest for the year. The estimate did not contain good news.

This year, the crop yielded enough poppy to produce 4,950 metric tons of opium. This represented a 239 percent increase in the crop last year. Evidence suggests that Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a narcostate; and worse, we know that al Qaeda and the remnants of the Taliban are now primarily funded by the sale of heroin.

Following the September 11 attack, the U.S. targeted bin Laden's Afghan sanctuary. We destroyed the Taliban's bases and bin Laden abandoned his terrorist training camps and also abandoned his foreign fund-raising efforts; but in their place, he and the Taliban have turned to the sale of heroin to finance terrorism. It appears that bin Laden and his patron, Mullah Omar, plan to rely more heavily on heroin profits than ever before.

The international community wrongly praised the Taliban when Mullah Omar eradicated Afghanistan's poppy crop in 2001. They failed to see that the Taliban only destroyed poppies after it had stored tons of opium paste in its own warehouses. The purpose of Mullah Omar's touted eradication was an effort simply to corner the market on heroin for greater profits.

During my mission to Afghanistan earlier this year, the brave new antinarcotics minister for Afghanistan, Mirwais Yassini, noted that one Afghan drug kingpin, Haji Bashir Noorzai, delivered 2,000 kilograms of heroin every 8 weeks to al Qaeda operatives. At the market price in Pakistan, this one supply chain alone would yield Osama bin Laden $28 million a year. The 9/11 Commission estimated that the September 11 attack cost only $500,000.

Passage of this law shows that we are recognizing the growing connection between bin Laden's finances and the sale of heroin. During consideration of intelligence legislation, I offered an amendment calling for the administration to study the feasibility of bringing the Drug Enforcement Agency back in to the formal intelligence community. My amendment passed unanimously, underscoring how critical it is to recognize the connection between drug cartels and terrorism.

Mr. Speaker, Congress has turned up the heat on bin Laden today. Our new law raises the top award to $50 million. We also allow for rewards to help in the arrest of drug kingpins who finance terror. We also give greater flexibility to paying awards in commodities, such as a truck or grain, that can mean a great deal to a rural family.

I applaud the action of the Congress and urge the President to make full use of his new authority to offer a $50 million award for the arrest of Osama bin Laden.

http://thomas.loc.gov
House, Nov 20
45 . THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN -- (House of Representatives - November 20, 2004)

[illflem]

1. Just what I've been waiting to hear,

I'm packing off to Afghanistan tomorrow, $25M just wasn't enough

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. how many afghanis would do it for 50, but not for 25?

i bet Halliburton finds OBL

[BREMPRO]

5. ya, that would help their bottom line. and cheney will get the

truck to transport his supply of suitcase nukes out of his bunker- when we kick him out of the white house. I'm an optimist.

[Liberal Mommy]

3. You guys don't seem to get it!

25 million or 50 million who cares?! I'm doing it for the TRUCK!! yeehaw! ;)

[The Straight Story]

4. Hell, us rednecks in ohio would do it for

a few new wheels to put on our trucks so we can use those blocks holding it up for another project.

[tanyev]

6. Excuse me,

if someone had turned in OBL for $25 million, couldn't they have bought their own friggin truck?

[shance]

7. So, is this like 40 acres and a mule?

The sincerity of this reward is so apparent.

[ComerPerro]

8. $25, 50, 100 million . ... It doesn't matter. What would be useful

is an administration that is actually interested in capturing or killing bin Laden. Because, Bush and the Republicans obviously don't give a shit. Bush told us so himself.