Barney Frank: “I am troubled by the pattern that appears to be emerging within the U.S. Justice Department under the leadership of the…”

“I am troubled by the pattern that appears to be emerging within the U.S. Justice Department under the leadership of the Attorney General of deviating from what ought to be the course of action appropriate right now. We were victimized on September 11 by a fiendish, unfortunately skillful group of mass murderers who wreaked terrible destruction on innocent people. And clearly a tough, effective law enforcement response is one of the things that is called for. We worked hard in the Congress to enhance the law enforcement powers of the Federal authorities. There was virtual unanimity that they should be given increased surveillance powers. In the end, some of us were disappointed that some safeguards we had devised were not in the final bill and some of us opposed it, but we did not oppose it because we opposed the enhanced surveillance powers. We agreed on those. We should be going further. Congress is partly guilty of having insufficiently funded the Immigration Service and others who are our first line of defense. There is broad support in the Congress and in the country for this kind of increased law enforcement, but I fear that the Attorney General's actions may be jeopardizing that consensus and he is introducing into a subject that ought to be one of virtual unanimity a degree of conflict.”