[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18299-18300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              WELCOME BACK

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, since we have all been gone, the Glasgow 
Airport has been bombed, Piccadilly Circus in London was the site of an 
attempted terrorist attack, another attempt on a hospital, and within 
48 hours, the British Intelligence Agency rounded up several credible 
suspects. Their use of intelligence should be commended. They have 
faced terrorist attacks on their soil for over 30 years and put in 
place the tools to deal with these.
  On the other hand, it seems the liberal leadership of this Congress 
wants to backtrack in our attempts to track and survey potential 
terrorists by scaling back our critical intelligence-gathering efforts.
  They took issue with the program designed to monitor phone calls from 
potential terrorists. They railed against the PATRIOT Act. They even 
shifted funds from critical intelligence-gathering programs to put it 
into a slush

[[Page 18300]]

fund to study global warming. Mr. Speaker, the last time I checked, 
global warming didn't have one single thing to do with putting a bomb 
in Piccadilly Circus or trying to blow up the JFK airport. Global 
warming didn't bomb the USS Cole or take down the Twin Towers. Climate 
change can be studied, but it need not be done at the expense of human 
intelligence needed to help eliminate international terrorism. We need 
to adjust our priorities. It's time to get to work.

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