WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today released a report by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, detailing the panel’s oversight and legislative activity during the 109th Congress. 

The report, Five Years after September 11: Keeping America Safe, is a summary of the subcommittee’s efforts to understand the terrorist threats to the United States and determine what remains to be done to secure the homeland. 

“In the 109th Congress, the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security was the Senate Judiciary Committee’s most active subcommittee, holding 12 hearings,” then-Chairman Kyl and Ranking Member Feinstein said in the report.  “The subcommittee’s efforts to promote legislative improvement require vigorous and effective oversight of the departments within its jurisdiction…most important, of course, are the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.” 

The report specifically highlights the panel’s key accomplishments, noting the series of oversight hearings the subcommittee held that reviewed a broad range of issues critical to the nation’s security. 

“Believing that we could not effectively fight terrorists and defend the homeland unless we understood possible threats and vulnerabilities, the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security focused its efforts during the 109th Congress on examining efforts to secure U.S. borders and possible future terrorist attacks.” 

A copy of the full report can be found http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/Report_109th.pdf 

An introduction to the report is included below. 

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On the morning of September 11, 2001, the nation and the world changed forever when 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial planes: American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center; United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center; American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon; and United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.  Masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network, the attacks killed 3,016 people and wounded thousands more.

On that day, we were, in President Bush’s words, “a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom.”6 The magnitude of the challenge is illustrated by the 1984 assassination attempt on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by Irish Republican Army terrorists. Their warning — and one that remains relevant today — was: “Remember, we only have to get lucky once; you have to be lucky always.” 

In response to these attacks the government took substantive steps to turn the odds in our favor. One sign of the success of our actions since 2001 is that we have not had another terrorist attack on our soil. Nonetheless, terrorists remain a grave threat to national security and public safety. 

Believing that we could not effectively fight terrorists and defend the homeland unless we understood possible threats and vulnerabilities, the Subcommittee on Terrorism Technology, and Homeland Security focused its efforts during the 109th Congress on examining efforts to secure U.S. borders, possible future terrorist attacks, and the means by which terrorists derive financial and ideological support. 

To this end, the Subcommittee held hearings on the threat of an electromagnetic pulse attack, nuclear smuggling, the nation’s emergency preparedness system, border security and openness in government information. The attached report is a summary of the Subcommittee’s efforts to understand the terrorist threats to the United States and determine what remains to be done to secure the homeland. 

JON KYL
Chairman Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security Homeland Security
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate

DIANNE FEINSTEIN
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security Homeland Security
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate