Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about this administration's decision to try the 9/11 conspirators and the Christmas bomber in our civilian criminal justice system. Prosecuting the five 9/11 conspirators currently detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, as well as the Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in article III criminal court indicates a disturbing tendency by this administration to make terrorism a law enforcement priority rather than an intelligence priority. It a mistake to treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem alone, a mistake that is only compounded by the fact that the intelligence community was not even consulted before they were prevented from gathering any intelligence from Abdulmutallab, a member of a terrorist organization sworn to be at war with America. As the 9/11 Commission found: An unfortunate consequence of this superb investigative and prosecutorial effort was that it created an impression that the law enforcement system was well equipped to cope with terrorism. As we know from an examination of events before 9/11, law enforcement means alone cannot eliminate the threat from al-Qaida. After Abdulmutallab failed to detonate an explosive device on Northwest flight 253, he was taken into custody by law enforcement. Other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation, no member of the intelligence community--in particular, the Central Intelligence Agency--had the opportunity to question Abdulmutallab and gather intelligence.…”