On the recordMay 9, 2011
the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee has pointed out the Deputy Attorney General is a member of the national security team of the President, and the President has already used the authority under the Constitution to make a recess appointment of this nominee. But the question before the Senate today is whether the Senate should confirm the nomination of James Cole to serve as Deputy Attorney General. There are three reasons why I oppose this nomination. The first is Mr. Cole is one of the earliest and most vociferous advocates of bringing foreign al-Qaida terrorists to American cities for civilian trials--a position since repudiated by the Attorney General himself in the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and I am grateful for that. But Mr. Cole has never recanted his position that, in effect, these are criminal cases to be prosecuted as ordinary crimes rather than terrorist acts during a time of war. The problem, of course, with the paradigm of treating terrorism as a criminal case is that we don't punish the terrorists until they have actually been successful in committing a terrorist attack. In war, half the battle--maybe more than half the battle--is trying to stop the terrorist from actually accomplishing his or her goal of killing innocent people. We do that by interrogating detainees and finding out what they know about the organization and plans of terrorist attacks. Mr.…
