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John Ashcroft says PATRIOT Act "honors" liberty and freedom [priv]
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:56:21 -0500
---
Excerpt:
There is a simple reason for this ... the Patriot has not been used to
infringe upon individual liberty.
Many of you have heard the hue and cry from critics of the Patriot Act who
allege that liberty has been eroded. But more telling is what you have not
heard. You have not heard of one single case in which a judge has found an
abuse of the Patriot Act because, again, there have been no abuses.
---
Prepared Remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft
Federalist Society National Convention
Saturday, November 15, 2003
(Please Note: The Attorney General Often Deviates From Prepared Remarks)
Thank you for the invitation to join you here this morning, I would like
to know when the Federalist Society began keeping farmers' hours. I mean,
a speech at 8 AM on a Saturday?
When your friends at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
held their inaugural event, they let Janet Reno speak at a far more
civilized hour. How do you expect me to do this and be fresh for
tonight's John Ashcroft Dance Party?
I do appreciate your invitation to speak to you this morning. The
Federalist Society and its membership have been resolute defenders of our
nation's founding ideals: liberty, the rule of law, limited
government. It is in this capacity that the Federalist Society is so
necessary today.
For the past two years, you have been part of the debate about how best to
preserve and protect our liberty in the face of a very real terrorist
threat.
America has an honored tradition of debate and dissent under the First
Amendment. It is an essential piece of our constitutional and cultural
fabric. As a former politician, I have heard a few dissents in my time,
and even expressed a couple of my own.
The Founders believed debate should enlighten, not just enliven. It
should reveal truth, not obscure it. The future of freedom demands that
our discourse be based on a solid foundation of facts and a sincere desire
for truth. As we consider the direction and destiny of our nation, the
friends of freedom must practice for themselves ... and demand from others
... a debate informed by fact and directed toward truth.
Take away all the bells and whistles ... the rhetorical flourishes and
occasional vitriol ... and the current debate about liberty is about the
rule of law and the role of law.
The notion that the law can enhance, not diminish, freedom is an old
one. John Locke said the end of law is, quote, "... not to abolish or
restrain but to preserve and enlarge freedom." George Washington called
this, "ordered liberty."
There are some voices in this discussion of how best to preserve freedom
that reject the idea that law can enhance freedom. They think that
passage and enforcement of any law is necessarily an infringement of liberty.
Ordered liberty is the reason that we are the most open and the most
secure society in the world. Ordered liberty is a guiding principle, not
a stumbling block to security.
When the first societies passed and enforced the first laws against
murder, theft and rape, the men and women of those societies
unquestionably were made more free.
A test of a law, then, is this: does it honor or degrade liberty? Does
it enhance or diminish freedom?
The Founders provided the mechanism to protect our liberties and preserve
the safety and security of the Republic: the Constitution. It is a
document that safeguards security, but not at the expense of freedom. It
celebrates freedom, but not at the expense of security. It protects us
and our way of life.
Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Justice has fought for,
Congress has created, and the judiciary has upheld, legal tools that honor
the Constitution ... legal tools that are making America safer while
enhancing American freedom.
It is a compliment to all who worked on the Patriot Act to say that it is
not constitutionally innovative. The Act uses court-tested safeguards and
time-honored ideas to aid the war against terrorism, while protecting the
rights and lives of citizens.
Madison noted in 1792 that the greatest threat to our liberty was
centralized power. Such focused power, he wrote, is liable to
abuse. That is why he concluded a distribution of power into separate
departments is a first principle of free governments.
The Patriot Act honors Madison's "first principles" ... giving each branch
of government a role in ensuring both the lives and liberties of our
citizens are protected. The Patriot Act grants the executive branch
critical tools in the war on terrorism. It provides the legislative
branch extensive oversight. It honors the judicial branch with court
supervision over the Act's most important powers.
First, the executive branch.
At the Department of Justice, we are dedicated to detecting, disrupting,
and dismantling the networks of terror before they can strike at our
nation. In the past two years, no major terrorist attack has been
perpetrated on our soil.
Consider the bloodshed by terrorism elsewhere in that time:
* Women and children slaughtered in Jerusalem;
* Innocent, young lives snuffed out in Indonesia;
* Saudi citizens savaged in Riyadh;
* Churchgoers in Pakistan murdered by the hands of hate.
We are using the tough tools provided in the USA Patriot Act to defend
American lives and liberty from those who have shed blood and decimated
lives in other parts of the world.
The Patriot Act does three things:
First, it closes the gaping holes in law enforcement's ability to collect
vital intelligence information on terrorist enterprises. It allows law
enforcement to use proven tactics long used in the fight against organized
crime and drug dealers.
Second, the Patriot Act updates our anti-terrorism laws to meet the
challenges of new technology and new threats.
Third, with these critical new investigative tools provided by the Patriot
Act, law enforcement can share information and cooperate better with each
other. From prosecutors to intelligence agents, the Act allows law
enforcement to "connect the dots" and uncover terrorist plots before they
are launched.
Here is an example of how we use the Act. Some of you are familiar with
the Iyman Faris case. He is a naturalized American citizen who worked as
a truck driver out of Columbus, Ohio.
Using information sharing allowed under the Patriot Act, law enforcement
pieced together Faris's activities:
* How Faris met senior Al Qaeda operatives in a training camp in
Afghanistan.
* How he was asked to procure equipment that might cause train
derailments and sever suspension systems of bridges.
* How he traveled to New York to scout a potential terrorist target.
Faris pleaded guilty on May 1, 2003, and on October 28, he was sentenced
under the Patriot Act's tough sentences. He will serve 20 years in prison
for providing material support to Al Qaeda and conspiracy for providing
the terrorist organization with information about possible U.S. targets
for attack.
The Faris case illustrates what the Patriot Act does. One thing the
Patriot Act does not do is allow the investigation of individuals, quote,
"... solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment
to the Constitution of the United States."
Even if the law did not prohibit it, the Justice Department has neither
the time nor the inclination to delve into the reading habits or other
First Amendment activities of our citizens.
Despite all the hoopla to the contrary, for example, the Patriot Act ...
which allows for court-approved requests for business records, including
library records ... has never been used to obtain records from a
library. Not once.
Senator Dianne Feinstein recently said, quote, "I have never had a single
abuse of the Patriot Act reported to me. My staff e-mailed the ACLU and
asked them for instances of actual abuses. They e-mailed back and said
they had none."
The Patriot Act has enabled us to make quiet, steady progress in the war
on terror.
Since September 11, we have dismantled terrorist cells in Detroit,
Seattle, Portland, Tampa, Northern Virginia, and Buffalo.
We have disrupted weapons procurement plots in Miami, San Diego, Newark,
and Houston.
We have shut down terrorist-affiliated charities in Chicago, Dallas and
Syracuse.
We have brought criminal charges against 286 individuals. We have secured
convictions or guilty pleas from 155 people.
Terrorists who are incarcerated, deported or otherwise neutralized
threaten fewer American lives. For two years, our citizens have been
safe. There have been no major terrorist attacks on our soil. American
freedom has been enhanced, not diminished. The Constitution has been
honored, not degraded.
Second, the role Congress plays.
In six weeks of debate in September and October of 2001, both the House of
Representatives and the Senate examined studiously and debated vigorously
the merits of the Patriot Act. In the end, both houses supported
overwhelmingly its passage.
Congress built into the Patriot Act strict and structured oversight of the
Executive Branch. Every six months, the Justice Department provides
Congress with reports of its activities under the Patriot Act.
Since September 24, 2001, Justice Department officials, myself included,
have testified on the Patriot Act and other homeland security issues more
than 115 times. We have responded to hundreds of written and oral
questions and provided reams of written responses.
To date, no congressional committee has found any evidence that law
enforcement has abused the powers provided by the Patriot Act.
Legislative oversight of the executive branch is critical to "ordered
liberty." It ensures that laws and those who administer them respect the
rights and liberties of the citizens.
There has not been a major terrorist attack within our borders in the past
two years. Time and again, Congress has found the Patriot Act to be
effective against terrorist threats, and respectful and protective of
citizens' liberties. The Constitution has been honored, not degraded.
Finally, the judiciary.
The Patriot Act provides for close judicial supervision of the executive
branch's use of Patriot Act authorities.
The Act allows the government to utilize many long-standing, well-accepted
law enforcement tools in the fight against terror. These tools include
delayed notification, judicially-supervised searches, and so-called roving
wiretaps, which have long been used in combating organized crime and in
the war on drugs.
In using these tactics to fight terrorism, the Patriot Act includes an
additional layer of protection for individual liberty. A federal judge
supervises the use of each of these tactics.
Were we to seek an order to request business records, that order would
need the approval of a federal judge. Grand jury subpoenas issued for
similar requests by police in standard criminal investigations are issued
without judicial oversight.
Throughout the Patriot Act, tools provided to fight terrorism require that
the same predication be established before a federal judge as with similar
tools provided to fight other crime.
In addition, the Patriot Act includes yet another layer of judicial
scrutiny by providing a civil remedy in the event of abuse. Section 223
of the Patriot Act allows citizens to seek monetary damages for willful
violations of the Patriot Act. This civil remedy serves as a further
deterrent against infringement upon individual liberties.
Given our overly litigious society, you are probably wondering how many
such civil cases have been filed to date. It is a figure as astronomical
as the library searches. Zero.
There is a simple reason for this ... the Patriot has not been used to
infringe upon individual liberty.
Many of you have heard the hue and cry from critics of the Patriot Act who
allege that liberty has been eroded. But more telling is what you have
not heard. You have not heard of one single case in which a judge has
found an abuse of the Patriot Act because, again, there have been no abuses.
It is also important to consider what we have not seen ... no major
terrorist attacks on our soil over the past two years.
The Patriot Act's record demonstrates that we are protecting the American
people while honoring the Constitution and preserving the liberties we
hold dear.
While we are discussing the judiciary, allow me to add one more point. To
be at its best, the judiciary requires a full bench. This is not like
football or basketball, where the bench consists of reserves who might not
see action. The judicial bench, to operate best for the people, must be
at full strength.
Let me say this ... President Bush has performed his duties admirably in
selecting and nominating highly qualified jurists to serve.
The language in a judge's commission reads, and I quote, "George W. Bush,
President of the United States of America ... to all who shall see this,
presents greeting: Know ye that reposing special confidence and trust in
the wisdom, uprightness and learning, I have nominated ...", you can fill
in the blank, with the name Janice Rogers Brown, or Bill Pryor, or
Priscilla Owen, or Carolyn Kuhl [Cool].
The commission's language may seem anachronistic. The ideals the men and
women of the bench must uphold are not: Wisdom. Uprightness. Learning.
The president's nominees personify those noble ideals. They are proven
defenders of the rule of law. They should be treated fairly. They
deserve to be treated with the dignity that befits the position to which
they seek to serve our country and its citizens.
You may think that some of the best of the president's nominees are being
treated unfairly. In that case, you may want to exercise your right to
dissent. The future of freedom and the rule of law depend on citizens
informed by fact and directed toward truth.
To be sure, the law depends on the integrity of those who make it, enforce
it, and apply it. It depends on the moral courage of lawyers like you ...
and our citizens ... to insist on being heard, whether in town hall
meetings, county council meetings, or the Senate.
There is nothing more noble than fighting to preserve our God-given
rights. Our proven tactics against the terrorist threat are helping to do
just that.
For more than two years, we have protected the lives of our citizens here
at home. Again and again, Congress has determined and the courts have
determined that our citizens' rights have been respected.
Twenty-six months ago, terrorists attacked our nation thinking our
liberties were our weakness. They were wrong. The American people have
fulfilled the destiny shaped by our forefathers and founders, and revealed
the power of freedom.
Time and again, the spirit of our nation has been renewed and our
greatness as a people has been strengthened by our dedication to the cause
of liberty, the rule of law and the primacy and dignity of the individual.
I know we will keep alive these noble aspirations that lie in the hearts
of all our fellow citizens, and for which our young men and women are at
this moment fighting and making the ultimate sacrifice.
What we are defending is what generations before us fought for and
defended: a nation that is a standard, a beacon, to all who desire a land
that promises to uphold the best hopes of all mankind. A land of
justice. A land of liberty.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
# # #
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