[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 23 (Monday, June 13, 2005)]
[Pages 964-968]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the PATRIOT Act in Columbus, Ohio

June 9, 2005

    Thank you all very much. Thank you. Please be seated. Thanks for the 
warm welcome. It's great to be back in Columbus, Ohio. I remind people 
that my grandfather was raised here in Columbus, Ohio. One time I 
reminded people when I was in Columbus that my grandfather was raised 
here, my dad's dad--my mother called me; she said, ``Why didn't you tell 
them my father was raised in Dayton?'' [Laughter] I said, ``From this 
point forward I will, Mother.'' [Laughter] My dad's dad was raised in 
Columbus, and my mother's dad was raised in Dayton. [Laughter] It's nice 
to be back.
    I want to thank you all for letting me come by the Ohio State 
Highway Patrol Academy. I appreciate what you do here. I appreciate the 
hard work that you put forth in order to train men and women to be on 
the frontline of serving our communities and our country. I appreciate 
the fact that these are tough times for those who wear the uniform. But 
you've got to understand that the men and women who wear the badge of 
peace--the peacekeepers, the people on the frontlines of keeping our 
community safe--have got the gratitude of the American people. On behalf 
of a grateful nation, thank you for what you do.
    And I appreciate my friend Attorney General Al Gonzales joining me 
today. Thanks for coming over to introduce me. Get back to work. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank Governor Taft joining us. Governor, I appreciate you 
being here.
    I want to thank Senator Mike DeWine for joining us today. Proud 
you're here, Senator. Congressman Pat Tiberi--this is his district--
Congressman, I appreciate you coming. He said, by the way, ``Ohio State 
is in my district.'' He said, ``You tell those Texas Longhorns''--
[laughter]--I'm not going to tell them what you said. [Laughter] I 
appreciate Congressman Dave Hobson joining us as well.
    I want to thank the State attorney general, Jim Petro, for joining 
us; U.S. Attorney Greg Lockhart. I want to thank Director Ken Morckel 
for joining us today. Thank you,

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Ken, for being here. Paul McClellan, State and local officials, most of 
all, people who wear the uniform, I'm proud you're here.
    Today when I landed at the airport, I met Dianne Garrett, who is 
with us today. Dianne has been a volunteer with the Whitehall Citizens 
Police Academy Alumni Association for 8 years. She represents thousands 
of people across our country who are working hand in glove with their 
local law enforcement to make the police stations work better. She's a 
part of the citizen corps. She's a part of the emergency response team 
in Whitehall community.
    The reason I bring up people like Dianne is it's important for us to 
always remember that the great strength of America lies in the hearts 
and souls of our citizens. The true strength of this country lies in the 
hearts of those who are willing to help volunteer to make our 
communities a more compassionate, decent, and safe place. If you want to 
serve Ohio, if you want to serve America, help feed the hungry, find 
shelter for the homeless, volunteer to help our law enforcement do their 
job. Love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself, and 
you're making a big contribution to America. Dianne, thank you for 
coming. Go ahead and stand up.
    My most solemn duty as the President is to protect the American 
people. And I'm honored to share that responsibility with you. We have a 
joint responsibility. As sworn officers of the law, you're devoted to 
defending your fellow citizens. Your vigilance is keeping our 
communities safe, and you're serving on the frontlines of the war on 
terror. It's a different kind of war than a war our Nation was used to. 
You know firsthand the nature of the enemy. We face brutal men who 
celebrate murder, who incite suicide, and who would stop at nothing to 
destroy the liberties we cherish. You know that these enemies cannot be 
deterred by negotiations or concessions or appeals to reason. In this 
war, there's only one option, and that option is victory.
    Since September the 11th, 2001, we have gone on the offensive 
against the terrorists. We have dealt the enemy a series of powerful 
blows. The terrorists are on the run, and we'll keep them on the run. 
Yet they're still active; they're still seeking to do us harm. The 
terrorists are patient and determined, and so are we. They're hoping 
we'll get complacent and forget our responsibilities. Once again, 
they're proving that they don't understand our Nation. The United States 
of America will never let down its guard.
    It's a long war, and we have a comprehensive strategy to win it. 
We're taking the fight to the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face 
them here at home. We're denying our enemies sanctuary by making it 
clear that America will not tolerate regimes that harbor or support 
terrorists. We're stopping the terrorists from achieving ideological 
victories they seek by spreading hope and freedom and reform across the 
broader Middle East. By advancing the cause of liberty, we'll lay the 
foundations for peace for generations to come.
    And one of the great honors as the President is to be the Commander 
in Chief of a fantastic United States military, made fantastic by the 
quality and the character of the men and women who wear the uniform. 
Thank you for serving.
    As we wage the war on terror overseas, we'll remember where the war 
began, right here on American soil. In our free and open society, there 
is no such thing as perfect security. To protect our country, we have to 
be right 100 percent of the time. To hurt us, the terrorists have to be 
right only once. So we're working to answer that challenge every day, 
and we're making good progress toward securing the homeland.
    We've enhanced security at coastlines and borders and ports of 
entry, and we have more work to do. We've strengthened protections at 
our airports and chemical plants and highways and bridges and tunnels. 
And we got more work to do. We've made terrorism the top priority for 
law enforcement, and we've provided unprecedented resources to help 
folks like yourselves do their jobs.
    Since 2001, we've more than tripled spending on homeland security; 
we've increased funding more than tenfold for the first-responders who 
protect our homeland. Law enforcement officers stand between our people 
and great danger, and we're making sure you have the tools necessary to 
do your job.

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    We've also improved our ability to track terrorists inside the 
United States. A vital part of that effort is called the USA PATRIOT 
Act. The PATRIOT Act closed dangerous gaps in America's law enforcement 
and intelligence capabilities, gaps the terrorists exploited when they 
attacked us on September the 11th. Both Houses of Congress passed the 
PATRIOT Act by overwhelming bipartisan majorities. Ninety-eight out of 
100 United States Senators voted for the act. That's what we call 
bipartisanship. The PATRIOT Act was the clear, considered response of a 
nation at war, and I was proud to sign that piece of legislation.
    Over the past 3\1/2\ years, America's law enforcement and 
intelligence personnel have proved that the PATRIOT Act works, that it 
was an important piece of legislation. Since September the 11th, Federal 
terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 
suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted. 
Federal, State, and local law enforcement have used the PATRIOT Act to 
break up terror cells in New York and Oregon and Virginia and in 
Florida. We prosecuted terrorist operatives and supporters in 
California, in Texas, in New Jersey, in Illinois, and North Carolina and 
Ohio. These efforts have not always made the headlines, but they've made 
communities safer. The PATRIOT Act has accomplished exactly what it was 
designed to do: It has protected American liberty and saved American 
lives.
    The problem is, at the end of this year, 16 critical provisions of 
the PATRIOT Act are scheduled to expire. Some people call these ``sunset 
provisions.'' That's a good name, because letting that--those provisions 
expire would leave law enforcement in the dark. All 16 provisions are 
practical, important, and they are constitutional. Congress needs to 
renew them all, and this time, Congress needs to make the provisions 
permanent.
    We need to renew the PATRIOT Act because it strengthens our national 
security in four important ways. First, we need to renew the critical 
provisions of the PATRIOT Act that authorize better sharing of 
information between law enforcement and intelligence. Before the PATRIOT 
Act, criminal investigators were separated from intelligence officers by 
a legal and bureaucratic wall. A Federal prosecutor who investigated 
Usama bin Laden in the 1990s explained the challenge this way: ``We 
could talk to citizens, local police officers, foreign police officers; 
we could even talk to Al Qaida members. But there was one group of 
people we were not permitted to talk to the FBI agents across the street 
from us assigned to parallel intelligence investigations of Usama Bin 
Laden and Al Qaida. That was a wall.''
    Finding our enemies in the war on terror is tough enough; law 
enforcement officers should not be denied vital information their own 
colleagues already have. The PATRIOT Act helped tear down this wall, and 
now law enforcement and intelligence officers are sharing information 
and working together and bringing terrorists to justice.
    In many terrorism cases, information sharing has made the difference 
between success and failure. And you have an example right here in 
Columbus, Ohio. Two years ago, a truck driver was charged with providing 
support to Al Qaida. His capture came after an investigation that relied 
on the PATRIOT Act and on contributions from more than a dozen agencies 
in the Southern Ohio Joint Terrorism Task Force. And members of that 
task force are with us today. I want to thank you for your contribution 
to the safety of America, and you'll understand this story I'm about to 
tell.
    For several years, Iman Farris posed as a law-abiding resident of 
Columbus. But in 2000, he traveled to Afghanistan and met Usama bin 
Laden at an Al Qaida training camp. Farris helped the terrorists 
research airplanes and handle cash and purchase supplies. In 2002, he 
met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September the 11th 
attacks, and he agreed to take part in an Al Qaida plot to destroy a New 
York City bridge.
    After Farris returned to the United States, Federal investigators 
used the PATRIOT Act to follow his trail. They used new information-
sharing provisions to piece together details about his time in 
Afghanistan and his plan to launch an attack on the United States. They 
used the PATRIOT Act to discover that Farris had cased possible targets 
in New York

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and that he'd reported his findings to Al Qaida. In the spring of 2003, 
the FBI confronted Farris and presented the case they had built against 
him. The case against him was so strong that Farris chose to cooperate, 
and he spent the next several weeks telling authorities about his Al 
Qaida association. Farris pled guilty to the charges against him. And 
today, instead of planning terror attacks against the American people, 
Iman Farris is sitting in an American prison.
    The agents and prosecutors who used the PATRIOT Act to put Farris 
behind bars did superb work, and they know what a difference information 
sharing made. Here is what one FBI agent said--he said, ``The Farris 
case would not have happened without sharing information.'' That 
information sharing was made possible by the PATRIOT Act. Another 
investigator on the case said, ``We never would have had the lead to 
begin with.'' You have proved that good teamwork is critical in 
protecting America. For the sake of our national security, Congress must 
not rebuild a wall between law enforcement and intelligence.
    Second, we need to renew the critical provisions of the PATRIOT Act 
that allow investigators to use the same tools against terrorists that 
they already use against other criminals. Before the PATRIOT Act, it was 
easier to track the phone contacts of a drug dealer than the phone 
contacts of an enemy operative. Before the PATRIOT Act, it was easier to 
get the credit card receipts of a tax cheat than an Al Qaida bankroller. 
Before the PATRIOT Act, agents could use wiretaps to investigate a 
person committing mail fraud but not to investigate a foreign terrorist. 
The PATRIOT Act corrected all these pointless double standards, and 
America is safer as a result.
    One tool that has been especially important to law enforcement is 
called a roving wiretap. Roving wiretaps allow investigators to follow 
suspects who frequently change their means of communications. These 
wiretaps must be approved by a judge, and they have been used for years 
to catch drug dealers and other criminals. Yet, before the PATRIOT Act, 
agents investigating terrorists had to get a separate authorization for 
each phone they wanted to tap. That means terrorists could elude law 
enforcement by simply purchasing a new cell phone. The PATRIOT Act fixed 
the problem by allowing terrorism investigators to use the same wiretaps 
that were already being using against drug kingpins and mob bosses. The 
theory here is straightforward: If we have good tools to fight street 
crime and fraud, law enforcement should have the same tools to fight 
terrorism.
    Third, we need to renew the critical provisions of the PATRIOT Act 
that updated the law to meet high-tech threats like computer espionage 
and cyberterrorism. Before the PATRIOT Act, Internet providers who 
notified Federal authorities about threatening e-mails ran the risk of 
getting sued. The PATRIOT Act modernized the law to protect Internet 
companies who voluntarily disclose information to save lives.
    It's commonsense reform, and it's delivered results. In April 2004, 
a man sent an e-mail to an Islamic center in El Paso and threatened to 
burn the mosque to the ground in 3 days. Before the PATRIOT Act, the FBI 
could have spent a week or more waiting for the information they needed. 
Thanks to the PATRIOT Act, an Internet provider was able to provide the 
information quickly and without fear of a lawsuit, and the FBI arrested 
the man before he could fulfill his threat.
    Terrorists are using every advantage they can to inflict harm. 
Terrorists are using every advantage of 21st century technology, and 
Congress needs to ensure that our law enforcement can use that same 
advantage as well.
    Finally, we need to renew the critical provisions of the PATRIOT Act 
that protect our civil liberties. The PATRIOT Act was written with clear 
safeguards to ensure the law is applied fairly. The judicial branch has 
a strong oversight role. Law enforcement officers need a Federal judge's 
permission to wiretap a foreign terrorist's phone, a Federal judge's 
permission to track his calls, or a Federal judge's permission to search 
his property. Officers must meet strict standards to use any of these 
tools, and these standards are fully consistent with the Constitution of 
the United States.
    Congress also oversees the application of the PATRIOT Act. Congress 
has recently created a Federal board to ensure that the

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PATRIOT Act and other laws respect privacy and civil liberties, and I'll 
soon name five talented Americans to serve on that board. Attorney 
General Gonzales delivers regular reports on the PATRIOT Act to the 
House and the Senate. And the Department of Justice has answered 
hundreds of questions from Members of Congress. One Senator, Dianne 
Feinstein of California, has worked with civil rights groups to monitor 
my administration's use of the PATRIOT Act. Here's what she said, 
``We've scrubbed the area, and I have no reported abuses.'' Remember 
that the next time you hear someone make an unfair criticism of this 
important, good law. The PATRIOT Act has not diminished American 
liberties; the PATRIOT Act has helped to defend American liberties.
    Every day the men and women of law enforcement use the PATRIOT Act 
to keep America safe. It's the nature of your job that many of your most 
important achievements must remain secret. Americans will always be 
grateful for the risks you take and for the determination you bring to 
this high calling--you have done your job. Now those of us in Washington 
have to do our job. The House and Senate are moving forward with the 
process to renew the PATRIOT Act. My message to Congress is clear: The 
terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of the year, and 
neither should the protections of the PATRIOT Act.
    I want to thank you for letting me come and talk about this 
important piece of legislation. I want to thank you for being on the 
frontlines of securing this country. May God bless you and your 
families, and may God continue to bless our Nation. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:22 a.m. at the Ohio State Highway Patrol 
Academy. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio; Kenneth 
L. Morckel, director, Ohio Department of Public Safety; Col. Paul D. 
McClellan, superintendent, Ohio State Highway Patrol; and Usama bin 
Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization.