Gearge Bush Speech

"We Are a Country Awakened to Danger and Called to Defend Freedom."

Following is the text of President George W. Bush's address to a joint session of

Congress on the evening of September 20, 2001:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, mem-bers of Congress, and fellow Americans, in the

normal course of events, presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the union.

Tonight, no such report is needed; it has already been delivered by the American people.

We have seen it in the courage of passengers who rushed terrorists to save others on the

ground. Passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help

me welcome his wife, Lisa Beamer, here tonight?

We have seen the state of our union in the en-durance of rescuers working past exhaustion.

We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying

of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of

strangers their own.

My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the en-tire world has seen for itself the state of

our union, and it is strong.

Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has

turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring

justice to our enemies, justice will be done.

I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time.

All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats

joined together on the steps of this Capitol singing "God Bless America."

And you did more than sing. You acted, by deli-vering $40 billion to rebuild our communities

and meet the needs of our military. Speaker [Dennis] Hastert, Minority Leader [Richard]

Gephardt, Majority Leader [Thomas] Daschle and Senator [Trent] Lott, I thank you for your

friendship, for your leadership and for your ser-vice to our country.

And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support.

America will never forget the sounds of our na-tional anthem playing at Buckingham Palace,

on the streets of Paris and at Berlin's Branden-burg Gate.

We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul,

or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo.

We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin

America.

Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own. Dozens of

Pakistanis, more than 130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and women from

El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and hun-dreds of British citizens.

America has no truer friend than Great Britain.

Once again, we are joined together in a great cause.

I'm so honored the British prime minister had crossed an ocean to show his unity with America.

Thank you for coming, friend.

On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country.

Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years they have been wars on foreign soil,

except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the

center of a great city on a peaceful morning.

Americans have known surprise attacks, but nev-er before on thousands of civilians.

All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world, a world

where freedom itself is under attack.

Americans have many questions tonight. Ameri-cans are asking, "Who attacked our country?"

The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist

organizations known as al Qaeda. They are some of the murderers indicted for bombing

American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.

Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money, its goal is

remaking the world and imposing its radical be-liefs on people everywhere.

The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim

scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics, a fringe movement that perverts the

peaceful teachings of Islam.

The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and

make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children.

This group and its leader, a person named Osama bin Laden, are linked to many other

organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad [and] the Islamic

Movement of Uzbekistan.

There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries.

They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places

like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their

homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.

The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime

in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.

Afghanistan's people have been brutalized, many are starving and many have fled.

Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion

can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard

is not long enough.

The United States respects the people of Afgha-nistan -- after all, we are currently its largest

source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime.

It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring

and sheltering and supplying terrorists.

By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder. And tonight the

United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban:

Deliver to United States authorities all of the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land.

Release all

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