News

Recent Press Releases

Days of Remembrance

April 23, 2009

‘Evil exists in the world, and it is the responsibility of free and just nations to protect the innocent by speaking up for all those who cannot speak for themselves’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday in honor of those victimized by the Holocaust:

“Later this morning, President Obama will speak at a Days of Remembrance ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda — an annual event that was established by Congress as a living memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Throughout the week, Louisville, Lexington, and other communities across Kentucky and the Nation have held events to commemorate this solemn occasion.

“As we remember the terrible sufferings of the Jewish people and all others who have suffered and who continue to suffer at the hands of hatred and intolerance, we spread one of the most enduring lessons of the Holocaust: that evil exists in the world, and that it is the responsibility of free and just nations to protect the innocent by speaking up for all those who cannot speak for themselves.

“The theme of the 2009 Days of Remembrance is ‘Never Again: What You Do Matters.’ Those words should serve as a reminder to all of us that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious hatred are as real today as they were in the middle of the last century, and that the best way to honor the victims of the Holocaust is for us to work toward building a more hopeful and a more peaceful world.”

###

TARP Report ‘a major wake-up call’

April 22, 2009

‘Firms that taxpayers helped out last fall want to pay back their loans. Unfortunately, Treasury doesn’t seem to want to take the money’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding TARP funds and protecting the taxpayer:

“Last fall, many of us in Congress weren’t all that excited about rescuing financial firms from problems that many of them brought about themselves. But we decided swift action was needed precisely to protect ordinary Americans from the mistakes these firms had made.

“At the time, Republicans insisted on strong taxpayer protections, and none of us had any doubt that once these banks were healthy again, they’d pay the money back to the taxpayers who gave it to them.

“Now we’re hearing a different story. A number of the firms that taxpayers helped out last fall are now on the road to recovery and want to pay back their loans. Unfortunately, Treasury doesn’t seem to want to take the money. This wasn’t the original plan, and it just doesn’t seem right to most people. If a bank wants to pay the taxpayers back, the government shouldn’t block the door.

“Just as troubling is a new report by the Special Inspector General who’s overseeing all the financial rescue programs. It alleges the same kind of fraud that we warned about back in October, including about 20 preliminary and full criminal investigations for everything ranging from securities fraud, to mortgage fraud, to insider trading, to public corruption related to the $700 billion in rescue funds.

“All of this is a major wake-up call. The Treasury needs to root out the fraud now, particularly at a time when the new Administration is vastly expanding the size and scope of these programs. As these programs expand, so will the potential for abuse. The Treasury Department also needs to let these banks extract themselves from government control as soon as they want to. That was the original plan the American people signed on to. And they have a right to expect that the original plan will be carried out — free from fraud and abuse.”

###

Where do they plan to put Guantanamo detainees?

April 21, 2009

‘The administration needs to tell the American people what it plans to do with these men if they close Guantanamo’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding the possible release of detainees now held in Guantanamo:

“Yesterday I pointed out that the President’s war funding request contains up to $80 million to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The administration says Guantanamo will be closed by next January. What they haven’t told us is what they plan to do with these killers once it closes.

“Well, Americans want some assurances that closing Guantanamo won’t make them less safe — and for good reason. Guantanamo currently houses some of the most dangerous men alive. These are men who are proud of the innocent lives they’ve taken and who want to return to terrorism.

“One person who’s there, and who we don’t know what we’ll do with is Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. We captured him while he was planning follow-up attacks to 9/11, including plots to destroy a West Coast skyscraper and to smuggle explosives into New York. If we hadn’t captured him, he may have succeeded in launching the same kind of attack on the West Coast that he carried out on the East Coast. This is a man who brags about decapitating the American journalist Daniel Pearl, quote, “with my blessed right hand.” How does transferring Khalid Sheikh Muhammad make the country safer?

“Another person at Guantanamo that the administration doesn’t know what it will do with in nine months is Ali Abd al-Azeez Ali, who served as a key lieutenant for KSM during the 9/11 operation. How does transferring or releasing him make the country safer?

“Then there’s Abd Al-Rahim Al Nashiri. He was al-Qaeda’s operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula and the mastermind behind the attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. sailors in 2000. How does transferring or releasing him make the country safer?

“These are just three of the 240 terrorists that the administration doesn’t know what to do with. The one thing they do know is that they claim they’re going to close Guantanamo in nine months, even though they can’t say yet whether the alternative is as safe and secure. All of this, despite the fact that after visiting Guantanamo for the first time recently, Attorney General Eric Holder said he was “impressed by the people who are presently running the camp, and that “the facilities there are good ones."

“The administration needs to tell the American people what it plans to do with these men if they close Guantanamo. Two years ago the Senate voted 94-3 against sending these killers to the United States. Foreign countries have thus far been unwilling to take them in any significant numbers. And even if countries were willing to take them, there’s an increasing probability that some of these murderers would return to the battlefield. The Defense Department recently confirmed that 18 former detainees had returned to the battlefield, and said that at least 40 more are suspected as having done so. And earlier this year, the Saudi government said that nearly a dozen Saudis who were released from Gitmo are believed to have returned to terrorism.

“The administration has made a priority of closing Guantanamo. But its first priority should be to assure the American people that the detainees at Gitmo will never again be able to harm innocent people.”

###
« First < Prev Next > Last »