Arlen Specter: “The oversight is going to continue on this matter. We are dealing with a constitutional responsibility of the Congress…”

“The oversight is going to continue on this matter. We are dealing with a constitutional responsibility of the Congress, that is the Senate and the Judiciary Committee, to conduct oversight on the Department of Justice and on the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This inquiry has demonstrated to this Senator that such oversight is sorely needed. When I was District Attorney of Philadelphia and an assistant district attorney before that time, I had occasion to deal with a great many applications for search warrants. To find now that the key FBI personnel entrusted with the responsibility to apply for warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to get information on agents of foreign powers, at a time when the United States is threatened by terrorism, and they do not know what the right standard is, is just scandalous. It has already been detailed on the public record that had they followed the right standard, and had the FBI gotten the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui, that 9/11 might have been prevented.”