Jon Kyl: “let me make two quick points and perhaps close this debate. First of all, under U.S. law, families and victims of crime…”

“let me make two quick points and perhaps close this debate. First of all, under U.S. law, families and victims of crime in the United States, Americans, have the ability to go through the State Department to get this kind of information. That provision was included in last year's intelligence bill. Secondly, I made the point earlier we are not as concerned about American citizens having the right to get information declassified as we are foreign organizations. What I pointed out was there are two foreign organizations that are specifically defined in the bill as being permitted, then, to have access to this information and to require the departmental procedure which would result in the declassification or at least the consideration of declassification of this information. That is what is unprecedented here. That is what would be so astonishing. Finally, the process here is not a simple, inexpensive process where the CIA can inject and stop it. It is an interagency group, and the CIA can be and, in fact, a majority of time where this has been used, my understanding is it has been overridden. There are private people on the panel as well as representatives from other government agencies. As a result, you are talking about an extraordinarily time-consuming and expensive operation for people who are really charged with other responsibilities. With respect to the American citizens, I think we have that covered.…”