Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our country and our intelligence community are at a crossroads. Over the last 14 months, we've been struggling as to whether we're going to be focused on defeating terrorists or whether we're going to be focused on a law enforcement approach. This couldn't have been defined more clearly than what it was yesterday when the manager of this bill brought forward an amendment that would have put our intelligence community professionals at risk putting them under criminal statutes that you wouldn't even apply to your local sheriff or your local State trooper. Thankfully, many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle joined with us and forced the majority to go back and rewrite the rule and come back and strip that provision from the bill. But that move yesterday should not have been a surprise. It was only last year that the Attorney General appointed a special prosecutor to investigate CIA personnel even though career Justice Department officials had already decided that there was no basis for prosecution. It appears that the majority wants to investigate and prosecute everyone who has been involved in our critical interrogation programs-- except themselves. The records of briefings have shown clearly and repeatedly that Democratic and Republican leadership of the House were briefed early and often on the use of the same techniques that they wanted to criminalize yesterday. And they never objected.”