Senate Proceeding on May 11th, 2009 :: 0:16:30 to 0:24:55
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0:16:17 to 0:16:30( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: the senate's credibility. a bill that can pass with 377 votes. this is a bipartisan bill. it's something that we need to do.

0:16:30 to 0:24:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

0:16:31 to 0:16:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we need to do it a the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserve. and the senate will proceed to a period of morning business until 3:30 p.m. with senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: mr. president? -- a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, i

0:16:52 to 0:17:13( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: would like to join the majority leader in wishing happy birt birthday is jim i served with senator jeffords when i was education secretary and he was a ranking member of the education committee. we all know his deep concern f education, especially for children with disabilities.

0:17:14 to 0:17:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we wish him the 75th birthday. mr. president, even though president obama has said we should look forward, some in congress insist on looking backward to a investigation of interrogation tractics that were used against 9/11 terrorists to find out whether even more airplanes were on their way to kill even more americans.

0:17:36 to 0:17:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: these interrogation tactics are well known. they had been approved by the national security council. they'd been approved by the department of justice. they were known to senior democratic and republican members of congress whose c.i.a. records show were briefed some 40 times. the c.i.a. is -- has not used

0:17:57 to 0:18:17( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the tactics in question for several years. they're not being used the congress has since enacted laws that make clear that interrogation tactics used by the military are limited to those contained in the army field manual and the president extended those same limitation to intelligence agencies this

0:18:18 to 0:18:38( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: year by executive order. the president is following his own advice about looking forward by asking the national security council to review what tactics would be appropriate when terrorists are captured who might have information about imminent attacks on americans. the senate intelligence committee is conducting its own

0:18:39 to 0:19:01( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: review of tactics. and is considering expanding the briefing process for interrogation tactics. despite these investigations, some still say let's have a -- quote -- "full blown criminal investigation." unquote. that raises these questions: investigation of whom?

0:19:02 to 0:19:22( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: where do we draw the line where is the logical place to stop? on thursday i asked these questions of the attorney general, eric holder, at a senate appropriations committee hearing. the attorney geral found it difficult to give me specific answers. to begin with, the attorney general did not answer my question about what directions

0:19:23 to 0:19:43( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: he had received from the white house concerning interrogations. then he would only answer -- quote -- "hypothetically" when i asked if we're going to investigate lawyers for giving their opinions, shouldn't we also investigate intelligence agents who created the intelligence techniques and ask

0:19:44 to 0:20:05( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: for the opinions or officials who approved the techniques or shouldn't we investigate members of congress who knew about or approved or encouraged the interrogation tactics? and the attorney general could not remember whether he knew or approved of renditions that occurred during the clinton administration when he was

0:20:06 to 0:20:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: deputy attorney general. renditions that took captured tretses to other countries. for example, perhaps to egypt for custody. maybe for interrogation. he did not say what precautions he took to make sure these remedies followed the law. the attorney general's unresponsive answers and poor

0:20:27 to 0:20:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: memo path it will be if the government publicize and expand its investigation of interrogation tactics. is is not a pleasant subject. when we debated it here in the senate in 2005, i was among those senators including senator mccain, who disagreed with the

0:20:48 to 0:21:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: administration. we believed that it was congress's constitutional responsibility to set the rules for dealing with detainees. and we helped enact a law requiring the techniques used by the military should be limited to these on the army field manual. but showing videotapes of even those techniques will not be a

0:21:11 to 0:21:32( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: pretty sight. public officials, of course, should follow the law. but it is not necessary to have a circus to determine whether the law was followed. and if there is to be a broader investigation than currently is under way, it must be fair, it must be even handed, and it must

0:21:33 to 0:21:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: leadherever it may lea perhaps to intelligence officers, perhaps to administration officials, perhaps to members of and the attorney general himself needs to be willing to say what he knew and when he knew it and what he did about renditions during the clinton administration when he was

0:21:57 to 0:22:17( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: deputy attorney general. obsessively looking in the rear-view mirror to consume our nation's every waking moment. there is plenty about americans -- about america's history that in retrospect happened. supreme court decisions barring blacks from public facilities,

0:22:18 to 0:22:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: congress filibustering antilynching laws, excluding jews from major institutions, denying the women the right to vote, incarcerating japanese americans during world war ii. we have dealt with these instances best by acknowledging and correcting them, not wallowing in them.

0:22:40 to 0:23:01( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: by recognizing that the united states has always been a work in progress toward great goals, rarely achieving falling back, but always trying. in fact, the late political scientist samuel huntington has written that most of political debates are about dealing with the disappointments

0:23:02 to 0:23:22( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: about not that we have set for ourselves. then, mr. president, there is the practical question of who will want to serve in public life in washington, d.c., if the first thing a newly elected administrati does is to try to discredit, disbar, or indict all of those with whom it disag in the last administration.

0:23:23 to 0:23:43( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: some of that damage already is done. so for all of tse reasons i would hope that the president will follow his first instinct and insist that we go forward as a country. focus on the economy, on the banks and the auto companies, on health care and energy, on the supreme court justice, and two wars in which our men and women

0:23:44 to 0:24:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: are serving. mr. president, i include in the record the questions i general holder on thursday along with his answers. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, following that, i also ask consent to include the stateme

0:24:05 to 0:24:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: foreign f.shoer, former chief of the c.i.a.'s bin laden unit in which he says -- quote -- "the c.i.a.'s rendition program began in summer 1995. i authored it and then read it and managed it against al qaeda leaders and against other sunni

0:24:30 to 0:24:53( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: lamists from august 1995 until june 1999." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. kyl: mr. president, first, i would like to ask unanimous

0:24:54 to 0:24:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: consent that two op-eds be placed in the congressional