Political Quotes

“I wish to commend Senators Collins and Lieberman for their leadership in working round the clock for months to translate the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission into reality. Thanks to their tireless and bipartisan effort, I and my colleagues today can point to a provision in the intelligence reform bill that will clear the fog of unnecessary secrecy that has for too long clouded our national intelligence picture. As the principal sponsor of this bipartisan provision, which will establish for the first time an appeals procedure that members of Congress may use regarding the classification of materials for national security purposes, I wish to explain how I envision this new process working. The power to classify documents as secret is one of the most powerful tools in American Government, and it seems to be very much in vogue. Over-classification of documents is now the rule rather than the exception. Documents are sometimes classified for political reasons rather than to protect national security interests. Last year alone, the Federal Government spent $6.5 billion creating 14.3 million new classified documents. That is double the number of documents 10 years ago. This awesome power should be used judiciously, and it surely should not be the subject of old fashioned horse trading, as it was last summer during the preparation of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-Iraq war intelligence.”