Bob Barr: “The terrorist attacks on this Nation that occurred on September 11 did not occur because of freedoms that we have in…”

“The terrorist attacks on this Nation that occurred on September 11 did not occur because of freedoms that we have in this country under our Constitution. They did not exist because our Constitution guarantees all of us the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The attacks that occurred on September 11 occurred because of a very unfortunate combination of bad luck on our part, good luck on the part of the terrorists, very careful planning on the part of the terrorist, very poor planning, perhaps, very poor execution on the part of some of our Federal, State, and local agencies. Therefore, I do not believe we ought to be in any rush to judgment to diminish our freedoms in the misguided conception that it is those freedoms that gave rise to the attacks on September 11. I commend the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and others who worked very hard to craft a very necessary and vitally important balance between giving law enforcement those narrowly crafted tools it needs and protecting the civil liberties, including the right to privacy, of American citizens.”