Political Quotes

“On amendment 2937, I wish to thank Senator Whitehouse for his leadership on this issue; Senator Feingold and our two great chairs, Senator Rockefeller and Senator Leahy. I will briefly describe this amendment. When we debate these issues, our friends on the intelligence side say you cannot stop us with cumbersome procedures that will not allow us to listen in on a phone conversation a terrorist might be engaging in, you have to act quickly. That is a legitimate wish. You certainly do not want to let a phone conversation slip away while you are going through days and days and days in court. But this amendment has nothing to do with that. We do not interfere with any phone conversation that might legitimately be listened in to, that might be tapped ahead of time. What we are saying is this: There ought to be oversight to make sure our intelligence agencies obey the rules; that when there is a conversation or a person, an American citizen on the line who should not be listened in to because the conversation is not about the intended subject, that they quickly stop listening.”