Political Quotes

“More than 12 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, as we see our military presence in Afghanistan wind down, it is time to take a hard look at our counterterrorism policy. We need to consider which of our policies are working and which, while perhaps well-intentioned when they were adopted in the highly charged weeks and months after 9/11, are not making us safer. There is ample evidence that the status quo is unsustainable. As recent revelations have made clear, we need a careful review of our surveillance activities. For example, this summer many Americans learned for the first time that Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act has for years been secretly interpreted to authorize the collection of Americans' phone records on an unprecedented scale. Despite the massive privacy intrusion of this program, the executive branch has not made the case that this program is uniquely valuable to protecting our national security, and that is why I introduced the bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act with Congressman Sensenbrenner. We want to end this dragnet collection and place appropriate safeguards on a wide range of government surveillance authorities. We also must close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. In the coming days the Senate will take up and debate the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014. That act contains many provisions that are central to our national security, and many of those provisions will help our allies around the world.…”