Today Governor Mark Dayton released the following statement regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden:

"The death of Osama Bin Laden is great news. I congratulate President Obama and the American soldiers, who successfully carried out this crucial mission.

As a member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, I traveled to Afghanistan in January 2002, just three weeks after American forces had routed the Taliban. There I saw a large warehouse, where all of the American intelligence services had initiated a coordinated effort to locate and eliminate this mastermind of the terrible attacks of 9/11. Finally, over nine years later, they have succeeded.

Since then, over 22,000 heroic Members of the Minnesota National Guard have deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations around the world to defeat terrorism and defend freedom. They deserve to share in the pride for this successful mission.

I have instructed Minnesota's Commissioner of Public Safety Ramona Dohman to redouble our vigilance in the next weeks to assure Minnesotans are fully protected from any repercussions from this incident."