Jim Sensenbrenner: “the motion to recommit should be rejected for the following reason: In many cases, what begins as an ordinary criminal…”

“the motion to recommit should be rejected for the following reason: In many cases, what begins as an ordinary criminal investigation will end up leading into material relating to how terrorists finance themselves or how terrorists act and further criminal activity as well. Let me give an example. Last month, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, gave a very eloquent speech to the annual conference of his Labor Party somewhere in England. That speech was covered by C-SPAN. I saw most of it. I hope that many of the other Members did as well. But one of the things that Prime Minister Blair said was that 90 percent of the heroin that is sold in the United Kingdom is sold by Osama bin Laden's front groups, and the money that is used from people who purchase the heroin is used to finance Osama bin Laden's terrorist activities. Under the motion to recommit by the gentleman from New York, if there is an ordinary, run-of-the-mill drug investigation that might include terrorist activity or might not include terrorist activity, the expanded law enforcement provisions of this bill would not apply until there is evidence that terrorist activity has infiltrated that part of the drug trade. By the time that evidence comes up, it might be too late, and there might be another terrorist strike that could have been prevented as a result of the increased law enforcement powers that are contained in this bill.”