Political Quotes

Representative Heather Wilson: “This legislation will tie our intelligence community in knots in order to protect the civil liberties of terrorists in…”

On the recordOctober 16, 2007
This legislation will tie our intelligence community in knots in order to protect the civil liberties of terrorists in foreign countries who are trying to kill Americans. There are some in this body who may believe we shouldn't have intelligence services. I believe it was Hoover who said that gentlemen shouldn't read each other's mail. Well, we are not dealing with gentlemen here. We are dealing with terrorists who are trying to kill Americans and are using commercial communications to talk to each other. We must do everything we can to prevent that terrorist attack, and that means listening to their conversations if we get an opportunity to do so.

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of legislation on intelligence gathering and national security.

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More from Representative Heather Wilson

Feb 25, 2008

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I know we are coming to the end of this hour, but I think there is something important for Americans to understand. We all remember where we were the morning of 9/11. We remember what we were wearing, what we had for breakfast, whom we…

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Oct 23, 2007

So we get the intelligence tip of a lifetime to be able to prevent the next terrorist attack, and this bill, the RESTORE Act, would prevent us from protecting American citizens?

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Oct 16, 2007

That is exactly right. The biggest problem is that the terrorists who are trying to attack us, and even foreign governments, are increasingly using commercial communications. So they don't have dedicated lines between a couple of…

govinfo.gov

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