[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 130 (Monday, October 11, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1873]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SIMMONS AMENDMENT TO H.R. 4548

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                         HON. MARK STEVEN KIRK

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 7, 2004

  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, on June 23, 2004 during the debate of the 
Simmons amendment to H.R. 4548, the Intelligence Authorization Act for 
fiscal year 2005, I was misquoted in the Congressional Record. My 
statement should have read:

       Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Simmons amendment. 
     Unlike some other amendments in this bill that are offered 
     for partisan advantage, this amendment is offered by a former 
     CIA officer with detailed knowledge of how the U.S. 
     intelligence community works. To my knowledge, there are only 
     three current Members of Congress who worked with the CIA: 
     our chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), the 
     author of this amendment; the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. 
     Simmons); and me, who was detailed to the CIA from navy 
     intelligence.
       This amendment seeks to change our intelligence culture to 
     become more effective in the age of the Internet. Today, 
     every two-bit terror organization in the world has a Web site 
     broadcasting information on its activities. Internet news, 
     political parties, and foreign government sites all offer new 
     material to our intelligence community.
       For years in the cold war, our enemies collected open-
     source data on us, but we were forced to collect secret data 
     on them. That is now changing. There is a wealth of open-
     source data on our adversaries. Every analyst in the 
     community should be encouraged to use as much current and 
     accurate open-source data as possible; and I applaud the 
     gentleman, who knows the CIA so well, for offering this 
     amendment to keep our culture up to date with the current 
     technology.

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