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[Sumiko Fagnoni]

President Bush: Information Sharing, Patriot Act Vital to Homeland Security
Remarks by the President in a Conversation on the USA Patriot Act
Kleinshans Music Hall
Buffalo, New York

President's Remarks
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listen 9:49 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. I think you're going to findthis to be a really interesting discussion about how federal, state andlocal authorities are working hard to prevent a terrorist attack.That's what we're here to talk about -- and why it's important forthose of us in positions of authority to give federal, state and localauthorities all the tools necessary to do the job we expect of them.That's what we're here to talk about. But I've got some things I wantto say before we start talking about it. First, I am glad to be at the home of the mighty Buffalo Bills.(Applause.) I traveled today with Congressman Quinn and CongressmanReynolds, two fine members of the United States Congress from thisarea, who assured me this is the year. (Laughter.) I want to thankJack and Tom for coming today. Thank you for your strong leadership.Thanks for caring a lot about the people of the Buffalo, New Yorkarea. Thanks for your steadfast concern about the security of ourcountry. I appreciate your service. I also appreciate the service of the really fine Governor of thestate of New York, George Pataki. Thanks for coming. (Applause.) Iknow we've got state and local authorities who are here. I appreciateyour service. For the local authorities, my only advice is make sureyou fill the potholes. (Laughter.) Empty the garbage. (Laughter.)Answer the phone calls. But thanks for coming today. This message today is aimed as muchat you as it is anybody else. Today, we have got an interesting -- alot of families with us, but one that struck me as worthy of note, andthat's the Conroy family. Where's Peggy Conroy? Somewhere. There sheis. Good. Hi, Peggy. Thanks. The reason I brought up Peggy is Iwant you to know that Peggy's husband is a Staff Sergeant in theNational Guard, the 105th Military Police Unit in Karbala, Iraq. Sherepresents many of the families of this area and the country who aresacrificing to see to it that the world is more free and morepeaceful. I appreciate so very much your steadfast love for your husband.You honor us with your presence today, and I'm really glad you broughtBilly and Jeff and Tyler. Billy and Jeff really represent the greatestspirit of our country. Not only do they love their dad, and pray fortheir dad, but they're collecting school supplies for the Iraqichildren. In other words, they're going to their own schoolmates andsaying, how best can we not only help secure Iraq, so it can become afree country, how best can we show the compassion of America. And Iwant to thank you guys for honoring your dad and honoring our country.(Applause.) I also met a fellow named Frank Brusino. Where are you, Frank?There he is. Frank is an interesting character. (Laughter.) He is aretired brigadier general in the Army Reserves, a paratrooper, who isnow very much involved with the Senior Corps, the Citizen CorpsCouncil. In other words, their job is to help provide law enforcementwith additional volunteers so law enforcement can better do its job.For the first responders who are here, I think you know the valuableaddition that Citizen Corps Councils have made, so you can do your workbetter. The reason I bring up Frank is, a lot of times they talk about thestrength of America as being in our military. That's part of ourstrength and we're going to keep the military strong, by the way, sothe world will be more peaceful. (Applause.) They talk about thestrength of our country being the fact that we're a prosperous nation,and we need to make sure we continue to expand prosperity so people canfind work. But the true strength of the country lies in the hearts andsouls of our citizens. See, Frank represents the strength of Americabecause he volunteers to make the community in which he lives a betterplace. He sets such a great example for other citizens in this area.That's why I wanted to herald Frank's accomplishments. He is a soldierin the army of compassion. He takes time out of his life to see whathe can do to make the Buffalo area more secure. My call to people in this area is see what you can do to makeBuffalo a more compassionate, decent place. See, societies change oneconscience, one soul a time. All it takes is for citizens to hear thatuniversal call to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be lovedyourself, and mentor a child, or feed the hungry, or provide shelterfor the homeless, or love the lonely. And by doing so, you serve ournation, and you really show the world the true compassion of a greatnation. Thank you for your service, sir. I'm proud that you're here.Thanks for coming. (Applause.) September the 11th was a horrible day for our nation, and we mustnever forget the lessons of September the 11th. I appreciate so verymuch the Governor's steadfast determination and compassion during thosedifficult times for the citizens of New York City and New York stateand New Jersey and Connecticut. It's a time that really changed ourperspective about the world. See, we never really thought Americawould be a battlefield. We thought oceans would protect us. That waskind of the conventional wisdom of the time. And therefore, ourdefenses were aligned that way, our offenses were aligned that way. As Larry mentioned, there were threats, but most of those threatswere overseas, and they attacked us overseas. But never did we dreamthat they would use our own airplanes as weapons to fly, andmercilessly kill thousands of our citizens. From that day forward, wehave changed our attitude, and we've got to make sure the laws reflectthe realities of the generation -- of the new generation, of thegeneration of those of us involved with being responsible for thesecurity of the country. See, we're now facing the first war of the 21st century. It's adifferent kind of war. Frank was a paratrooper. In those days youcould measure the enemy by the number of battalions and number of tanksand number of airplanes. Now the enemy hides in caves. They lurch(sio) in the shadows of the world. They will strike and kill innocentcitizens without any conscience, because they have no conscience. So the fundamental charge before us all in positions ofresponsibility is, how do we deal with the threat? The first thing wedo is we stay on the offense. The first thing we do is we find killersbefore they kill us. We rally the world, which have done and willcontinue to do, to cut off money, to share intelligence, to put bravetroops and security personnel after these people, to find them, to routthem out. The message should be clear to them, there is no cave orhole deep enough to hide from the justice of the United States ofAmerica and our coalition partners. It's essential -- (applause.) September the 11th -- when the President says something, he bettermean it. See, in order to make the world more peaceful, it's essentialthat those of us in positions of high responsibility speak clearly andmean what we say. And so when I say that if you harbor a terroristyou're just as guilty as a terrorist, I meant it. And we acted uponthat, in order to make the world more peaceful and more secure. TheTaliban found out what we meant. Remember, those were the leaders inAfghanistan that provided safe haven and training camps for al Qaeda.And fortunately, thanks to our coalition, thanks to brave soldiers fromAmerica, and others, the Taliban no longer is in power. We enforcedthe doctrine. The world is more peaceful because the Taliban is gone.And at the same time, please remember, the women and children inAfghanistan have a much brighter future because we removed a barbaricregime that refused to even educate young girls. When the President speaks, he better mean it. And when I went infront of the United Nations Security Council, in the fall of 2002, Isaid, listen, we all have seen a threat. One of the lessons ofSeptember the 11th, was when you see a threat overseas, you must actbefore it materializes. September the 11th said, we can't wait andhope on the good intentions of terrorists who will kill innocent menand women. We've got to act. We can't hope for the best anymore. TheUnited States must use our prestige and influence and diplomatic powerand military power to protect us and others who love freedom. I went in front of the United Nations Security Council, havinglooked at intelligence that said Saddam Hussein was a threat. TheCongress looked at the same intelligence, by the way, and concludedSaddam was a threat. The United Nations Security Council looked at theintelligence and said Saddam was a threat. No wonder we thought he wasa threat; after all, he had used weapons of mass destruction on his ownpeople. Not only the intelligence lead us to believe that, but hisactions led us to believe it. He paid for suiciders; he harboredterrorists; he was paying for terrorists to kill. And so we saw a threat. September the 11th changed the equation.So I was given a choice: Either trust the word of a madman, hope forthe best with somebody who was a tyrant, or take action to defend ourcountry. Given that choice, I will defend America every time.(Applause.) It's hard work to go from a system where there was torture and raperooms and mass graves to freedom. That's hard work. But it isnecessary work. That's why I want to herald the work and sacrifice ofyour husband. It's important work for our future. Free societies arepeaceful societies. The way to defeat terror in the long run is toprovide hope, to provide hope for families, to provide hope forchildren, to say that there's a bright future for you. That won'thappen, so long as there's tyranny in a part of the world that tends tobreed hatred. It will happen when societies become democratic andfree. And so what we're doing right now is we're defeating the enemythere so we won't have to fight them here. But, as well, we're workingfor freedom in the heart of a part of the world that needs freedom.You know, I can't tell you how strongly I believe that -- about thepower of freedom. After all, it's been a part of our national soul.We have proven how powerful freedom can be. We bring people fromdiverse backgrounds together under the mantel of a free society. We'resuch a beacon. I believe freedom is not America's gift to the world; I believefreedom is the almighty God's gift to each man and women in thisworld. And therefore, as we work to not only make the homeland moresecure, we work to spread freedom, which will make the world morepeaceful. The enemy can't stand the thought of free societies. That'swhy they attacked us, see. And we're not going to change. That's whatthey don't understand. There's nothing they can do to intimidate, tomake us change our deepest belief. They're trying to kill to shake our will; we're too tough, toostrong, too resolute, and too determined to ever have our will shakenby thugs and terrorists. (Applause.) We live in historic times. We face a different kind of war. Andone of the key victories in this battle against terror is going to bethe spread of freedom throughout the greater Middle East. And we'llsucceed. We'll succeed because, deep in the heart of every human beingis the deep desire to be free. At home, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of work todo. We're a freedom nation, we're a big nation, people come and go.And we needed to change the whole attitude about how we protect thehomeland. We'll do everything we can to stay on the offensive. Butjust remember, we've got to be right 100 percent of the time; and theenemy has only got to be right once. And so we've got a tough job. It means we've got to coordinate between the federal government andthe state government and the local government like never before. We'vegot to share information on a real-time basis, so first responders andpolice chiefs can move as quickly as possible. We're going to talkabout that communication today. We created the Department of Homeland Security which would allow usto better coordinate between agencies. It's kind of -- what happens inbureaucracies is you get what they call stovepipes -- in other words,people don't talk to each other, they kind of stay in their own lane,and they don't share information across the lanes, and therefore, vitalinformation may show up, but it's not widely disseminated so there'snot real-time action on, say, a threat. Part of the problem we face was that there was laws andbureaucratic mind-sets that prevented the sharing of information. Andso, besides setting up the Homeland Security Department and beefing upour air travel security, and making sure that we now fingerprint at theborders and take those fingerprints, by the way, and compare to amaster log of fingerprints of terrorists and known criminals, to makesure people coming into our country are the right people coming intoour country. I mean, we do a lot of things. But we change law, aswell, to allow the FBI and -- to be able to share information withinthe FBI. Incredibly enough, because of -- which Larry and others willdiscuss -- see, I'm not a lawyer, so it's kind of hard for me to kindof get bogged down in the law. (Applause.) I'm not going to play likeone, either. (Laughter.) The way I viewed it, if I can just put it insimple terms, is that one part of the FBI couldn't tell the other partof the FBI vital information because of law. And the CIA and the FBIcouldn't talk. Now, these are people charged with gatheringinformation about threats to the country; yet they couldn't share theinformation. And right after September the 11th, the Congress wiselyacted, said, this doesn't make any sense. If we can't get peopletalking, how can we act? We're charged with the security of thecountry, first responders are charged with the security of the country,and if we can't share information between vital agencies, we're notgoing to be able to do our job. And they acted. So the first thing I want you to think about is, when you hearPatriot Act, is that we changed the law and the bureaucratic mind-setto allow for the sharing of information. It's vital. And others willdescribe what that means. Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by theway, any time you hear the United States government talking aboutwiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing haschanged, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It'simportant for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think PatriotAct, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing whatis necessary to protect our homeland, because we value theConstitution. But a roving wiretap means -- it was primarily used for druglords. A guy, a pretty intelligence drug lord would have a phone, andin old days they could just get a tap on that phone. So guess whathe'd do? He'd get him another phone, particularly with the advent ofthe cell phones. And so he'd start changing cell phones, which made ithard for our DEA types to listen, to run down these guys polluting ourstreets. And that changed, the law changed on -- roving wiretaps wereavailable for chasing down drug lords. They weren't available forchasing down terrorists, see? And that didn't make any sense in thepost-9/11 era. If we couldn't use a tool that we're using againstmobsters on terrorists, something needed to happen. The Patriot Act changed that. So with court order, law enforcementofficials can now use what's called roving wiretaps, which will preventa terrorist from switching cell phones in order to get a message out toone of his buddies. Thirdly, to give you an example of what we're talking about,there's something called delayed notification warrants. Those are veryimportant. I see some people, first responders nodding their headsabout what they mean. These are a common tool used to catch mobsters.In other words, it allows people to collect data before everybody isaware of what's going on. It requires a court order. It requiresprotection under the law. We couldn't use these against terrorists,but we could use against gangs. We had real problems chasing paper -- following paper trails ofpeople. The law was just such that we could run down a problem for acrooked businessman; we couldn't use the same tools necessary to chasedown a terrorist. That doesn't make any sense. And sometimes the useof paper trails and paper will lead local first responders and localofficials to a potential terrorist. We're going to have every tool, iswhat I'm telling you, available for our people who I expect to do theirjob, and you expect to do their jobs. We had tough penalties for drug traffickers; we didn't have astough a penalty for terrorists. That didn't make any sense. The truethreat to the 21st century is the fact somebody is trying to come backinto our country and hurt us. And we ought to be able to at least senda signal through law that says we're going to treat you equally astough as we do mobsters and drug lords. There's other things we need to do. We need administrativesubpoenas in the law. This was not a part of the recent Patriot Act.By the way, the reason I bring up the Patriot Act, it's set to expirenext year. I'm starting a campaign to make it clear to members ofCongress it shouldn't expire. It shouldn't expire, for the security ofour country. (Applause.) Administrative subpoenas mean it is -- speeds up the processwhereby people can gain information to go after terrorists.Administrative subpoenas I guess is kind of an ominous sounding word,but it is, to put everybody's mind at ease about administrativesubpoenas -- we use them to catch crooked doctors today. It's a toolfor people to chase down medical fraud. And it certainly makes senseto me that if we're using it as a tool to chase medical fraud cases, wecertainly ought to use it as a tool to chase potential terrorists. I'll tell you another interesting part of the law that needs to bechanged. Judges need greater authority to deny bail to terrorists.Judges have that authority in many cases like -- again, I keep citingdrug offenses, but the Congress got tough on drug offenders a while agoand gave judges leeway to deny bail. They don't have that sameauthority to deny bail to terrorists now. I've got to tell you, itdoesn't make any sense to me that it is very conceivable that we haulin somebody who is dangerous to America and then they are able tospring bail and out they go. It's hard to assure the American people that we've given tools tolaw enforcement that they need if somebody has gone through all thework to chase down a potential terrorist, and they haul them in frontof a court and they pay bail, and it adios. It just doesn't make anysense. The Patriot Act needs to be renewed and the Patriot Act needs to beenhanced. That's what we're talking about. And it's better for othersto explain to you how this Patriot Act works. After all, they'recharged with protecting our citizens. They're on the front line. Yousee, I try to pick the best I can at the federal government and say,here's our mission -- our mission is to protect our country. I saythat to the Defense Department -- our mission is to protect thecountry. I say it to the Justice Department, and to the FBI. After9/11, I said to the Justice Department and the FBI, your job, yourprimary focus now is to prevent attack. Listen, I still want youchasing down the criminals; that's what's expected of you. But there'sa new mind-set, and that is, because of what happened on 9/11, we'vegot to change the way we think, and therefore, your job now is toprevent attack. And one of the first persons I told that to was Thompson. See,when they say, Deputy Attorney General, it means he's the number twoguy at the Justice Department. He's the chief -- he was the chiefoperating officer of the Justice