Patrick Leahy

I am concerned about the potential impact on the privacy rights of innocent Americans.

I think our Guard has demonstrated the kind of pilots we have and the kind of maintenance we have for it.

I would renew my plea to lift sequestration.

The weakness and corruption of the police and public institutions that have created the opportunity for criminal organizations to flourish.

I have seen some very disturbing photos that purport to show Iraqi security force personnel, military, and militias operating, with them torturing people, killing them, either beheading them or beheading them after they were dead.

You always supported the Leahy Law, and I appreciate that. It is designed to prevent U.S. aid from going to units of foreign security forces that are committing those violations.

The absence of corruption would be a major thing, especially with the police.

I realize money is not the only thing. I mean, look at Haiti. Billions of dollars either spent or pledged down there, and it is going from bad to worse.

I don't disagree that is part of our problem.

In a world as dangerous as today, we are far stronger when we act together.

I have felt that, for 53 years, our policy of unilateral sanctions against Cuba hurt the Cuban Government far more than it hurt the Castro government.

They are going to have to take responsibility for their own mistakes.

Thank you. My time is up, but I will have further follow-up questions on what the press has uncovered, which appear to be war crimes in Iraq by the Iraqi Government and Iraqi military.

I realized that 50 years of policy on Cuba hadn't worked.

Much of that country remains under Taliban control with a weak central government.

We are putting in jeopardy the ability to post people overseas in dangerous areas safely.

We tried to check the priorities of whoever was in the White House, whether it was a Democrat or Republican as President.

The world seems to be on fire, sometimes literally, in so many parts of the world.

Think how much more we would accomplish if we stopped it from happening in the first place.

We have got to stop this devastating crime from happening in the first place.

I would join Senator Collins' request that this be a bill that this Committee will take up following the important work that you are doing today.

I am very honored to also support Senator Collins' bill, which she mentioned earlier, because we have to get resources and assistance to the most vulnerable youth in our communities who are being targeted by these criminals.

I was listening to what the Senator from Illinois was saying. I could not say it as well as he did, but I agree with every single word he said and I suspect that Vermonters, Republicans and Democrats alike, agree with what he said…

It was a Republican vote. It was a partisan vote, as you know.

I talked yesterday about as a young law student being recruited by the then-Attorney General of the United States to come to work for him, and I had asked him whether he would stand up to the President of the United States if need be.