[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 44 (Monday, November 5, 2007)]
[Pages 1440-1444]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Heritage Foundation

November 1, 2007

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you. Ed, thanks. Thanks for 
the kind introduction. I'm looking forward to working with you for the 
next 14 months--but you better put on your running shoes because my 
spirits are high, my energy level is good, and I'm sprinting to the 
finish line.
    I congratulate you on your 30th anniversary as the president--
[laughter]. No such thing as term limits here. [Laughter] And rightly 
so, because Ed is a person who has taken the conservative movement from 
one that used to meet in a phone booth here in Washington--[laughter]--
to a robust group of folks who are shaping policy in Washington, DC. As 
a matter of fact, you've got a little bigger phone booth these days than 
you did 30 years ago. [Laughter]
    I appreciate all you've done, and I really want to thank Heritage. 
One of the interesting things about the Heritage legacy is that the 
folks here have been tireless advocates, tireless champions of liberty 
and free enterprise and democracy and religious freedom. These are 
values that came under attack on September the 11th, 2001. Our Nation 
was attacked by a brutal enemy that despises freedom, that rejects 
tolerance, that kills the innocent in the pursuit of a dark vision. 
These folks believe that it's okay to subjugate women and indoctrinate 
children and murder those who oppose their harsh rule. They have stated 
clearly they want to impose this ideology on millions. They're at war 
with America because they hate what they stand for, and they understand 
we stand in their way.
    And so today I've come to talk to you about the war on terror, my 
firm commitment that we'll do everything in our power to protect the 
American people, and my call on the United States Congress to give us 
the tools necessary so we can do the job the American people expect.

[[Page 1441]]

    I too want to thank the members of the Heritage Foundation board of 
trustees who've joined us. Thank you for supporting this important 
organization. I can't tell you how important it is to have good centers 
of thought in Washington, DC--people who are willing to look at today's 
problems and come up with innovative solution based upon sound principle 
to solve those problems. And that's how I view Heritage.
    I thank all the members and guests who've joined us today as well. 
It's a pleasure to be with you.
    It's been now more than 6 years since the enemy attacked us on 
September the 11th, and we are blessed that there has not been another 
attack on our soil. With the passage of time, the memories of the 9/11 
attacks have grown more distant. And for some, there's a temptation to 
think that the threats to our country have grown distant as well. They 
have not.
    The terrorists who struck America that September morning intend to 
strike us again. We know this because the enemy has told us so. Just 
last year, Usama bin Laden warned the American people, quote, 
``Operations are under preparation, and you will see them on your own 
ground once they are finished.'' Seven months later, British authorities 
broke up the most ambitious known Al Qaida plot since the 9/11 attacks, 
a plot to blow up passenger airplanes flying over the Atlantic toward 
the United States. Our intelligence community believes that this plot 
was just 2 or 3 weeks away from execution. If it had been carried out, 
it could have rivaled 9/11 in death and destruction.
    The lesson of this experience is clear. We must take the words of 
the enemy seriously. The terrorists have stated their objectives. They 
intend to build a totalitarian Islamic empire encompassing all current 
and former Muslim lands, stretching from Europe to north Africa, the 
Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In pursuit of their imperial aims, 
these extremists say there can be no compromise or dialog with those 
they call infidels--a category that includes America, the world's free 
nation, Jews, and all Muslims who reject their extreme vision of Islam. 
They reject the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the free world. 
Again, hear the words of Usama bin Laden last year: ``Death is better 
than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us.''
    History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious 
men is a terrible mistake. In the early 1900s, the world ignored the 
words of Lenin as he laid out his plans to launch a Communist revolution 
in Russia, and the world paid a terrible price. The Soviet empire he 
established killed tens of millions and brought the world to the brink 
of thermonuclear war.
    In the 1920s, the world ignored the words of Hitler as he explained 
his intention to build an Aryan super-state in Germany, take revenge on 
Europe, and eradicate the Jews, and the world paid a terrible price. His 
Nazi regime killed millions in the gas chambers and set the world aflame 
in war before it was finally defeated at a terrible cost in lives and 
treasure.
    Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as 
clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we 
listen? America and our coalition partners are listening. We have made 
our choice. We take the words of the enemy seriously. Over the past 6 
years, we have captured or killed hundreds of terrorists. We have 
disrupted their finances. We have prevented new attacks before they 
could be carried out. We removed regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that 
had supported terrorists and threatened our citizens, and in so doing, 
liberated 50 million people from the clutches of tyranny.
    With our allies, we're keeping the pressure on the enemy. We're 
keeping them on the move. We're fighting them everywhere they make their 
stand--from the mountains of Afghanistan to the deserts of Iraq to the 
islands of Southeast Asia and the Horn of Africa. On every battlefront, 
we're on the offense. We're keeping constant pressure. And in this war 
on terror, we will not rest or retreat or withdraw from the fight until 
this threat to civilization has been removed.
    I fully understand that after 6 years, the sense of imminent danger 
has passed for some, and it can be natural for people to forget the 
lessons of 9/11 as they go about their daily lives. I just want to 
assure you that I'll never forget the lessons of September the 11th and 
nor will the people with

[[Page 1442]]

whom I work. I know that when I discuss the war on terror, some here in 
Washington, DC, dismiss it as political rhetoric, an attempt to scare 
people into votes. Given the nature of the enemy and the words of its 
leaders, politicians who deny that we are at war are either being 
disingenuous or naive. Either way, it is dangerous for our country. We 
are at war, and we cannot win this war by wishing it away or pretending 
it does not exist.
    Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as 
if America is not at war. For example, in a time of war, it is vital for 
the President to have a full national security team in place, and a key 
member of that team is the Attorney General. The job of the Attorney 
General is essential to the security of America. The Attorney General is 
the highest ranking official responsible for our law enforcement 
community's efforts to detect and prevent terrorist attacks here at 
home.
    I've selected an outstanding nominee to fill this vital role, Judge 
Michael Mukasey. Judge Mukasey has a long record of accomplishments in 
matter of law and national security. He has been praised by Republicans 
and Democrats alike as a man of honesty, intellect, fairness, and 
independence.
    Judge Mukasey provided nearly 6 hours of testimony. He patiently 
answered more than 200 questions at the hearing. He has responded to 
nearly 500 written questions less than a week after his hearing. Yet the 
Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding up his nomination.
    As a price for his confirmation, some on that committee want Judge 
Mukasey to take a legal position on specific techniques allegedly used 
to interrogate captured terrorists. As Judge Mukasey explained in a 
letter to committee members, he cannot do so for several reasons. First, 
he does not know whether certain methods of questioning are in fact used 
because the program is classified, and therefore, he is in no position 
to provide an informed opinion. He has not been read into the program 
and won't until he is confirmed and sworn in--won't be until he is 
confirmed and sworn in as the Attorney General. Second, he does not want 
an uninformed opinion to be taken by our professional interrogators in 
the field as placing them in legal jeopardy.
    Finally, he does not want any statement of his to give the 
terrorists a window into which techniques we may use and which ones we 
may not use. That could help them train their operatives to resist 
questioning and withhold vital information we need to stop attacks and 
save lives.
    In the war on terror, intelligence is one of the most crucial tools 
for our defense. If a captured terrorist has information about a plot 
against our homeland, we need to know what he knows. And so that's why I 
put in place, under the CIA, a program to question key terrorist 
operatives and its leaders. Last year, Congress passed a law that allows 
the CIA to continue this vital program. The procedures used in this 
program are safe; they are lawful; and they are necessary.
    Senior leaders in the House and the Senate, from both political 
parties, have been briefed on the details of this program. It's wrong 
for congressional leaders to make Judge Mukasey's confirmation dependent 
on his willingness to go on the record about the details of a classified 
program he has not been briefed on. If the Senate Judiciary Committee 
were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new 
standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible 
nominee for Attorney General. And that would guarantee that America 
would have no Attorney General during this time of war.
    By any measure, Judge Mukasey is eminently qualified to be the next 
Attorney General. And now, after allowing his nomination to languish for 
41 days, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for next 
Tuesday. Senate leaders must move this nomination out of committee, 
bring it to the Senate floor, and confirm this good man.
    Congress has also failed to act on intelligence legislation that is 
vital to protect the American people in this war on terror. Stopping new 
attacks on our country requires us to make sure we understand the 
intentions of the enemy. We've got to know what they're thinking and 
what they're planning. And that means we got to have effective measures 
to monitor their communications.

[[Page 1443]]

    This summer, Congress passed the Protect America Act, which 
strengthened our ability to collect foreign intelligence on terrorists 
overseas. And this good law closed a dangerous gap in our intelligence. 
Unfortunately, they made this law effective for only 6 months. The 
problem is that Al Qaida doesn't operate on a 6-month timetable. 
[Laughter] And if Congress doesn't act soon, the law will expire, and 
the gap in our intelligence will reopen, and the United States of 
America will be at risk.
    We must keep the intelligence gap firmly closed. If the terrorists 
are communicating with each other and are plotting new attacks, we need 
to know what they're planning. We must ensure that the protections 
intended for the American people are not extended to terrorists overseas 
who are plotting to harm us. And we must grant liability protection to 
companies who are facing multibillion-dollar lawsuits only because they 
are believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend our Nation 
following the 9/11 attacks.
    The Senate Intel Committee has approved a bipartisan bill that 
contains provisions to preserve our ability to collect intelligence on 
terrorists overseas, while protecting the civil liberties of Americans 
here at home. This bill still needs some improving, but it's an 
important step in the right direction. Time is of the essence, and the 
full Senate and the House of Representatives need to pass a good bill 
and get it to my desk promptly so our intelligence professionals can 
continue to use the vital tools of the Protect America Act to keep us 
safe.
    Congress is also stalling on the emergency war supplemental to fund 
our troops on the frontlines in Afghanistan and Iraq. This crucial bill 
includes funds for bullets and body armor, protection against IEDs and 
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. Congress should be able to 
move the supplemental quickly. There's no reason why they're not moving 
the supplemental; after all, it had more than 8 months to study most of 
its provisions. In fact, nearly 75 percent of the funding request in the 
supplemental was submitted along with my annual budget in February of 
this year. The supplemental is critical for our troops, and Congress 
should not go home for the holidays while our men and women in uniform 
are waiting for the funds they need.
    Congress also needs to pass the Department of Defense spending bill 
as well as the funding bill for our Nation's veterans. There are reports 
that congressional leaders may be considering combining the funding 
bills for our military and our veterans together with a bloated labor, 
health, and education spending bill. It's hard to imagine a more cynical 
ploy than holding funding for our troops and our wounded warriors 
hostage in order to extract $11 billion in wasteful Washington spending. 
If the reports of this strategy are true, I will veto such a three-bill 
pileup.
    I ask Congress to send me a clean veterans funding bill by Veterans 
Day and to pass a clean defense spending bill. Congress needs to put the 
needs of those who put on the uniform ahead of their desire to spend 
more money. When it comes to funding our troops, some in Washington 
should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like 
Usama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground and 
less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and CODEPINK 
protesters.
    Here's the bottom line. This is no time for Congress to weaken the 
Department of Justice by denying it a strong and effective leader. It's 
no time for Congress to weaken our ability to gather vital intelligence 
from captured terrorists. It's no time for Congress to weaken our 
ability to intercept information from terrorists about potential attacks 
on the United States of America. And this is no time for Congress to 
hold back vital funding for our troops as they fight Al Qaida terrorists 
and radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq.
    In the struggle against the terrorists and extremists, I hope I made 
my strategy clear today: that we will keep constant pressure on the 
enemy in order to defend the American people; we will fight them 
overseas so we do not have to fight them here at home. At the same time, 
we'll use every available tool of law and intelligence to protect the 
people here. That's our most solemn duty. It's a duty I think about 
every day.
    In the long run, the only way to defeat the terrorists is to advance 
freedom as the great alternative to radicalism and repression.

[[Page 1444]]

We can have confidence in this cause because we have seen the power of 
liberty to transform nations and secure peace before. Here at the 
Heritage Foundation, you understand this better than most. During the 
cold war, there were loud voices in Washington who argued for 
accommodation of the Soviet Union because they believed the watchword of 
our policy should be ``stability.'' At Heritage, you knew that when it 
came to the Soviet Union, the watchword of our policy should be 
``freedom.''
    Together with a great President named Ronald Reagan, you championed 
a policy of rolling back communism oppression and bringing freedom to 
nations enslaved by Communist tyranny. And by taking the side of 
dissidents, who helped millions across the world throw off the shackles 
of communism, you helped build the free and peaceful societies that are 
the true sources of stability and peace in the world.
    And now we're at the start of a new century, and the same debate is 
once again unfolding--this time regarding my policy in the Middle East. 
Once again, voices in Washington are arguing that the watchword of the 
policy should be ``stability.'' And once again, they're wrong. In Kabul, 
in Baghdad, in Beirut, and other cities across the broader Middle East, 
brave men and women are risking their lives every day for the same 
freedoms we enjoy. And like the citizens of Prague and Warsaw and 
Budapest in the century gone by, they are looking to the United States 
to stand up for them, speak out for them, and champion their cause. And 
we are doing just that.
    We are standing with those who yearn for the liberty--who yearn for 
liberty in the Middle East because we understand that the desire for 
freedom is universal, written by the Almighty into the hearts of every 
man, woman, and child on this Earth.
    We are standing with those who yearn for liberty in the Middle East 
because we know that the terrorists fear freedom even more than they 
fear our firepower. They know that given a choice, no one will choose to 
live under their dark ideology of violence and death.
    We're standing with those who yearn for liberty in the Middle East 
because we know that when free societies take root in that part of the 
world, they will yield the peace we all desire. See, the only way the 
terrorists can recruit operatives and suicide bombers is by feeding on 
the hopelessness of societies mired in despair. And by bringing freedom 
to these societies, we replace hatred with hope, and this will help us 
to marginalize the extremists and eliminate the conditions that feed 
radicalism and make the American people more secure.
    The lessons of the past have taught us that liberty is 
transformative. And I believe 50 years from now, an American President 
will be speaking to Heritage and say, thank God that generation that 
wrote the first chapter in the 21st century understood the power of 
freedom to bring the peace we want.
    Thank you for coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 12:47 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Edwin J. Feulner, president, the Heritage Foundation; and Usama bin 
Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization. He also referred 
to S. 2248.