WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was joined by five of his Senate colleagues today in announcing their support for the administration’s Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Speaking at a U.S. Capitol news conference, Sessions said the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance program “is absolutely necessary to prevent another 9/11 catastrophe.”
Sessions, a member of the Senate Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, was joined by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mel Martinez (R-FL).
The senators’ announcement came on the eve of next Monday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the surveillance program.
Sessions disputed critics who say that the surveillance tramples Americans’ civil liberties and that President Bush exceeded his constitutional powers by authorizing the program.
“This is a reasonable assertion of executive power, and it’s more than an academic discussion,” Sessions said. “There are 3,000 Americans who have no civil rights today because they were killed as a result of communications from foreign terrorist organizations who called in to sleeper cells who then carried out the catastrophic 9/11 attacks. President Bush’s surveillance program authorizes only an intercept of an international call or email in which one of the parties is connected to al Qaeda. I think the terrorist surveillance program is a reasonable response.”
Sen. Cornyn said: “When it comes to fighting terrorists, the President has the authority to kill them, detain them and interrogate them. But if they pick up the phone, some of my colleagues claim, he’d better not listen. We must do everything possible, within the bounds of the law and the Constitution to protect our citizens from those who would do us harm. And this battlefield intelligence is a key part of that effort.”
Sen. Martinez said: “This program is an integral part of the war on terror and it is a part of the battlefield plan that the president is carrying out under his authority as commander in chief. He has constitutional authority to respond in a time of war with timely intelligence so that we can respond to battlefield needs. The fact is that this surveillance is not being done for any purpose other than to be utilized as early warning intelligence for us to be able to respond to potential attacks on the United States.”
Sen. Kyl said: “What the president has done is to rely upon his authorities both under the Constitution and the authority that Congress gave to him to conduct this activity in a totally constitutional way which deals with the international communications of people connected with al Qaeda. We believe that to be totally appropriate under the circumstances.”
Sen. Crapo said: “This program is consistent with the Constitution’s protections of civil liberties. It is important to remember that such terrorist surveillance requires maximum speed and agility so that appropriate law enforcement can move quickly to protect Americans. All the courts that have decided this issue have concluded that the President has the inherent authority under the Constitution to protect Americans from attack.”
Sen. Chambliss said: "As the 9/11 Commission pointed out, two of the terrorist hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon, Nawaf al Hamzi and Khalid al Mihdhar, were communicating - by telephone - with other members of al Qaeda overseas while they were in the United States preparing for their deadly attack. R egrettably, we did not know this until it was too late. In order to ensure this never happens again, it's vitally important that the President of the United States has the power and authority to protect the American people from future acts of terrorism, and both the Constitution and Congress grant the president that authority.”
