[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 123 (Friday, August 7, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S9067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SUPPORTING THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, my colleague, Senator Lieberman from 
Connecticut, had put an item in the Congressional Record that was a 
letter to the President urging that the President and the Attorney 
General take action to stop the further notion of investigating members 
of the U.S. intelligence community for activities long since past 
related to the interrogation of terrorists after the September 11 
attack on the World Trade Center. I found this to be a particularly 
well-reasoned statement as to why this kind of continually looking 
backwards, this kind of politics that seems to want to continue to 
scratch at old wounds, can be very destructive to our safety and 
security in the future.
  Among other things, Senator Lieberman quoted President Obama and 
said:

       President Obama had it right when he said that with regard 
     to past behavior by the intelligence community, he is ``more 
     interested in looking forward than . . . looking backward.''
  And Senator Lieberman said:

       Given the threats that we face as a Nation, it is 
     imperative that we follow the President's lead.

  He went on to point out that if we don't, we are going to chill the 
activities of the intelligence community.
  He noted--and I will note, as well--that there are so many very hard-
working, dedicated Americans working in a frequently very dangerous 
environment whom we have asked to find out the most difficult things, 
such as: What are these terrorists up to? And might they have plans to 
attack us again? It is very difficult to get this information.
  Anything we do that chills the methods by which they do that--short, 
of course, of violating the law or engaging in torture or other 
impermissible activity--simply hastens the day when there is another 
successful attack against the American people. We need to do everything 
we can to prevent that. The reason I was reminded was there are reports 
this morning we have been successful in taking out one of the most 
dangerous terrorists in Pakistan, someone who was allegedly involved in 
the planning of the death of Benazir Bhutto and who had been sought for 
a long time.
  I was thinking about the activities of some of my colleagues in the 
Senate attacking the previous administration for considering a program 
that would involve the use of intelligence community assets to track 
down and find and then either capture or kill these terrorist leaders 
who are responsible for so many deaths. The assumption was it was 
somehow wrong for the United States to consider doing this. This 
program was begun back when President Clinton was in office, and he 
issued a directive which basically said: If there is a way we can find 
and either capture or kill these people, we should do so. The program 
was never implemented because there were potential problems with it. 
The same thing occurred during the Bush administration. It wasn't 
implemented. The Intelligence Community wasn't advised about it. Had 
there been a decision to go ahead with the program, the law would have 
required that the Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate be 
briefed. But there was great criticism of the Bush administration and 
Vice President Cheney.
  I wondered at the time, how about these people whom we send into 
harm's way to try to find these terrorists and either capture them or, 
if they attempt to fight or flee, to kill them, what does it say to the 
people we send into harm's way to accomplish this, when there is all 
the criticism back home that somehow there is something wrong with it?
  I was pleased this morning when the news of the alleged attack and 
killing of this terrorist leader was greeted with a great deal of 
approval in the media and by the people who commented on it. That is 
the kind of reaction our intelligence officials need to see when they 
go after these very dangerous terrorists--not a reaction that, gee, 
maybe we need to read this guy the Miranda rights before we try to 
capture him.
  The reality is, these people are not generally subject to capture. We 
have the facilities and the means to track them and, frequently, we do 
track them by these means, and we are able to take them out. Since we 
are engaged in a war with these terrorists and they would kill us if we 
don't kill them, if you don't have the ability to capture them, then 
killing them and taking them off the battlefield in that way is totally 
appropriate and under the rules of war.
  That is why I am pleased this kind of event is greeted with 
enthusiasm and approval because it might send the kind of signal to the 
intelligence community we want to send, which is: Do your best to 
defeat the opposition in the war on terror. I think Senator Lieberman's 
point was well taken in the letter he wrote.

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