[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 165 (Monday, December 19, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14010-S14011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to commend my 
colleague from West Virginia, Robert C. Byrd. Some of the people who 
are witnessing this session of the Senate had a chance to hear this man 
speak just moments ago. I do not know of another Senator more dedicated 
to our U.S. Constitution or one who has been more fearless in attacking 
Presidents of both political parties when he thinks that they have gone 
too far. Senator Byrd's speech should be read by every American as a 
reminder of basic freedoms in this country that we should never, ever 
take for granted.
  I listened to his speech as I was sitting in my office and I thought 
I would come to the Chamber and try to follow in his footsteps, though 
what I have to offer cannot possibly match what he had to say.
  Several things have occurred over the last several years which are 
historic in nature and troubling. This administration has decided on 
three occasions, at least three separate occasions, to depart from the 
traditions of America, traditions which we have followed for 
generations, Presidents, Republican and Democratic alike.
  It was this administration which told us we could no longer wait to 
be threatened by another country, we could no longer wait to be 
attacked by another country, we must act preemptively, we must strike 
first, based on intelligence and information we must attack first, and 
that is why we invaded Iraq. What did that intelligence lead us to 
believe? That Iraq had weapons of mass destruction threatening the 
United States and our allies; that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons 
that could threaten the Middle East and the United States; that Iraq 
was in concert in some way with al-Qaida and responsible for the 9/11 
attacks; that Iraq was securing fissile material from Africa to 
manufacture into nuclear weapons. All of those things were told to the 
American people, some by the President in his State of the Union 
address, and every single one of them turned out to be wrong.
  The President told us we needed to attack Iraq for those reasons, and 
it turned out none of the reasons were valid, not one. So he would 
change the foreign policy of the United States not to wait and 
carefully make a decision about whether we commit our troops and our 
treasure but, rather, to move preemptively--a departure from foreign 
policy for generations.
  Secondly, this administration said that we had to depart from the 
traditions of the United States for generations when it came to the 
interrogation of prisoners. This Bush administration argued that we had 
to redefine torture in a way that was inconsistent with treaties the 
United States has accepted as law of the land. Terrible things 
occurred. We saw the worst of them in some of the photos from Abu 
Ghraib and reports from other agencies.
  Thank goodness for the leadership of Senator John McCain, a 
Republican of Arizona, himself a POW in the Vietnam War, also a victim 
of torture in that experience, who stood up to the administration and 
said, You are wrong. Torture is not American. If we are fighting for 
values, those values cannot include torture.
  He was responding to our troops who were writing to Members of 
Congress saying, Give us clarity, give us direction, tell us if the 
world has changed;

[[Page S14011]]

soldiers, graduates of West Point, who were told we do not engage in 
torture as soldiers representing the flag of the United States of 
America. Thank goodness for the leadership of Senator McCain in 
confronting the Bush administration and forcing them to back down when 
it came to this dramatic change in the standards for torture.
  Now comes another chapter in changing the tradition of America under 
this administration relative to our right of privacy as American 
citizens, the PATRIOT Act, which I voted for to give this Government 
more powers to fight terrorism, but we said every 4 years we will look 
at it to make certain we have not gone too far, that we have not given 
up our basic rights and freedoms in the name of security and safety.
  Now we are involved in a debate. My colleague from Alabama has been 
to the floor several times. As a former prosecutor, he argues that 
under the PATRIOT Act we have to trust the Government, we have to trust 
the prosecutors, not to go too far. Unfortunately, that is not the 
standard in America. The standard in America says in this Constitution, 
this Bill of Rights, that our basic freedoms are guaranteed to us, and 
before this Government takes those freedoms or infringes upon them, 
there must be good reason and good cause.
  Last week, on a bipartisan basis, we said, Stop this version of the 
PATRIOT Act, make certain that changes are made so that the freedoms 
and rights of Americans are protected. In the midst of that debate came 
a revelation which is truly astounding, a revelation that for years the 
Bush administration, through Government agencies, has been involved in 
wiretaps and eavesdropping on American citizens. The reason this is of 
concern, of course, is that it violates a longstanding legal 
requirement that the Government has to obtain a court order to 
eavesdrop electronically on an American in the United States. We spell 
out with specificity what the Government must do if it is going to 
invade our privacy, listen to our conversations, hack into our 
computers, whatever it may be. The grounding for that is not just some 
speech on the Senate floor or the House; the grounding for that is this 
Constitution, where its fourth amendment makes it clear from the 
beginning of this Nation the standard we would use, a standard worth 
repeating in the fourth amendment:

       The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
     houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches 
     and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall 
     issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or 
     affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be 
     searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

  That is in our Constitution that we have sworn to uphold. And for 
thousands of unsuspecting Americans, their basic records, their 
communications, their computers have been looked at and listened to by 
this Government, without legal authority.
  So therein lies the third dramatic departure of this administration, 
from a tradition which most of us assumed would never be violated, a 
tradition which says that our privacy can be compromised if a President 
assumes the power to do it. This President did not come to Congress 
saying, I need powers to listen to America's conversations. No. He just 
did it. He said he has the power to do it as Commander in Chief.
  Well, there are some obvious questions that should be asked when we 
hear these things. Where is the concern in Congress? Where is the sense 
of outrage in the Senate? Where is the sense of obligation that our 
generation owes to our children to make certain that we are held 
accountable to protect their constitutional rights? I am glad that 
Senator Specter of the Judiciary Committee has said we will have a 
hearing on this, and we should. This is a serious matter.
  Some of us saw recently a movie about Edward R. Murrow titled ``Good 
Night and Good Luck.'' I remember Edward R. Murrow. As a young boy, I 
used to see him on television from time to time. This movie depicts the 
McCarthy era where the Congress in this case overstepped its authority, 
and one Senator from Wisconsin literally destroyed lives, literally 
infringed on the rights and liberties of individual citizens. The sense 
of outrage in America rose to such a level that eventually he was 
called to task and discredited for what he had done in violation of the 
basic rights of American citizens. It took some time. In the beginning, 
the red scare kept people quiet, they did not want to raise this issue.
  Sadly, in this war on terrorism, we may be going through a parallel 
moment in history, where our fear of another 9/11 has kept us entirely 
too quiet and silent when this Government has gone too far. I hope what 
we have learned about this wiretapping and this eavesdropping, these 
violations of basic rights of citizens, will cause all Americans, not 
just those of us serving in the Senate, to stand up and speak out. If 
we swore to uphold this Constitution, it was not just the paper that it 
is written on but the spirit and values that it stands for, values of 
privacy and freedom which once lost may never be reclaimed.
  I urge my colleagues to read carefully the earlier remarks of Senator 
Robert Byrd and consider carefully our individual responsibilities.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, may I ask what the order is at this moment?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in morning business, with 
Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes.

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