The freshman lawmaker also introduced
legislation to allow for drug testing for state aid recipients,
increased scrutiny of Transportation Security Administration employees
and stiffer penalties for dog attacks on police.

The
patriotic Bennett, known for waving his flag tie, reportedly said he
dropped to his knee and gave praise when he learned of the killing of
9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden last week in Pakistan. The Oklahoma
lawmaker spent 2003 and 2004 hunting the al- Qaida leader as a Marine,
blending in by growing a beard and wearing appropriate clothing.

“I
was deployed to Afghanistan and one of those who hunted this monster
for a year,” Bennett told the Sequoyah County Times. “We lost quite a
few men trying to capture him. I am very proud to see the mission to
catch him succeed and believe we have achieved a great success for all
Americans by destroying this enemy.”

Bennett,
who traveled in Afghanistan with an interpreter and mostly out of
uniform, told the publication that finding intel on Osama (referred to
as “The Ghost”) was tricky.

“Some
people were pretty friendly, but most of the time we had to buy
information,” Bennett told the paper. “We paid money for a lot of
information, some good, some not. … We’d talk to one or two sources, and
they say one thing, and information from one or two others would be
totally false.

“We chased that Ghost all over those mountains,” he said.

Bennett,
who admitted to being jealous for not witnessing the killing firsthand,
told the Sequoyah County Times that bin Laden’s death probably won’t
end terrorism.

He
commended President Barack Obama’s courageous leadership and the
decision to bury the terrorist at sea and not leave a shrine.

“The
Navy SEALs did the trigger work, but they had a lot of support behind
the scenes,” he said. “There are many who helped who the American
people will not know about. I am very proud of them, all of them.”

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