Senate Proceeding on May 11th, 2009 :: 0:22:05 to 0:34:10
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0:16:30 to 0:24:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

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

0:24:56 to 0:25:16( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: record at this point. let me identify them both. the first is a piece in "the washington post" todayy robert samuelson dated "tax dodge myths," he is one of columnis

0:25:05 to 0:39:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jon Kyl

0:25:17 to 0:25:37( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: always has something use full to say. his column today that it would be folly for the united states to add a tax burden on american corporations like coca-cola, i.b.m., microsoft, cat pillar, companies like that who are multinational here and do business in other

0:25:38 to 0:26:00( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: countries. it makes no sense to add a tax burden on them as if they're doing something unpatriotic by selling our prod nucts other countries -- products in other countries as well as in the u.s. the other is the chrysler power grab, it was written b -- i think the finest columnist in

0:26:01 to 0:26:24( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: arizona, his name is bob robb. and in had column he notes the irony of the fact that the united states has been bailing out two american companies, chrysler and general the purpose of saving american jobs when in point of looks like a lot of the result of this action is going to be create jobs in other countries or transfer jobs it other

0:26:25 to 0:26:45( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: countries and ironically with companies that maybe owned abroad like toyota but have a lot of american workers. he talks about the fact that fiat, an italian company is hard to distinguish from toyota, a japanese company, but we're apparently saving the jobs for

0:26:46 to 0:27:06( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: fiat, but not those for toyota. but are tr interestingolumns and ask for their inclusion at tht point. the presiding officer: without objection. president. let me commend my colleague from i thought his rarks were right on the spot. when one starts looking backward instead of forward, you want to be careful what you askor

0:27:07 to 0:27:27( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: because you just might get it and it might be more than you bargained f. there have been a lot of mistakes that the united states has made. a lot that we're not very proud of. my colleague mentioned a couple of those. there are slings in the last -- things in the last democratic administration that if officials had to do it do it over.

0:27:28 to 0:27:48( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: there were things that the republican administration succeeded the clinton -- clinton administration undoubtedly disagreed with. but it seems to me that president bush has acquitted himself as a former president not criticizing the administration a not

0:27:49 to 0:28:09( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: suggesting that those disagreements ould take the form of political criminal trials and if it would be very unseamly for that to occur with respect to the bush administration now that we a new obama administration. those who served in the clinton administration, those who served in the congress and knew

0:28:10 to 0:28:33( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: something about what went on would certainly have to be prepared to defend themselves under these circumstances well and it is just an unseamly way, it seems to me, and i agree with my colleague from tennessee with the united states government to be conducting its business. so i commend my colleague, senator alexander, for statement.

0:28:34 to 0:28:54( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: mr. president, on a related matter,he guantan detention facility and what we do about that. as everyone knows, our president fulfilled a campaign promise when he issued an executive order to close the guantanamo bay detention president bush and secretary gates wanted to close it, but they were confronted with a

0:28:55 to 0:29:15( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: difficult question, what to do with the prisoners at the facility. president obama now faces that same dilemma. campaign rhetoric it turns out is one thing, governing is quite another. there are far more questions than answers about what the administration will do with the prisoners at guantanamo. will it hold them? where will it hold them?

0:29:16 to 0:29:38( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: will they be sent to the united states? will they be kept in military facilities? or in federal p the united states? how will it guarantee that those who are released do not return to the battlefield? we don't have answers, of yet the administration has asked

0:29:39 to 0:30:00( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: congress for $80 million, some of which, as is quite clearly stated in the language of the request could be used transfer these detainees to the united states. last week during the house appropriation committee's markup of the president's supplemental appropriation request, the chairman struck the $80 million

0:30:01 to 0:30:21( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: noting that he could not defend the reque administration does not have a plan for closure. as the senate committee plans to mark up the supplemental request, i urge the committee to follow the example of the house of majority leader reid has just informed us that the senate committee would -- quote -- "fence the $80 million

0:30:22 to 0:30:44( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: that it would release it only when there's a plan. but the plan could be almost anything. nor is thereny assurance in the statement that no prisoners could comeo the united states until october 1 that's not the kind of assurance that will get the senate to support this request. as the majority leader said, it

0:30:45 to 0:31:09( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: is classic -- in his classically understated way, he said, "that looks l cause a little bit of debate." and, mr. president, i'm sure he is that. surely we can all agree that congress should not approve significant funding requests when we have no idea how the administration will use the funding.

0:31:10 to 0:31:30( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: the terrorist population of guantanamo is dangerous. these are the worst of the worst, some of the most dangerous people in the world. the 241 terrorists at guantanamo include 27 members of al qaeda's leadership, 95 al qaeda operatives, nine members of the taliban's leadership, 12

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

Jon Kyl: 92 foreign fighters. among their ranks are khalid sheikh mohammed, who is the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and who in the aftermath of those attacks was planning a follow-up skyscraper. another is ali abdel aziz ali,

0:31:52 to 0:32:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: who served as a key lieutenant for k.s.m., khalid sheikh mohammed, during the planning for 9/11, and he, in fact, transferred money for the united states-based operative for that plan ramsey binal shabli helped to organize the 9/11 attacks and he was a lead operative in t post-9/11 attack to hijack

0:32:13 to 0:32:36( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: aircraft and crash them into heathrow airport. there is also a terrorist named hamali, 2002bali bombings that killed -- 2002 ba bombings that people and who financed the jakarta marriott hotel attack in 2003.

0:32:37 to 0:32:58( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: abdel ahim nad masterminded the attack on the u.s. cole which claimed the lives of u.s. sailors in 2000. the prior administration stated that 110 of these detainees should never be release because of the danger to the united states what about those who are considered safe for release? we've been undergoing a review

0:32:59 to 0:33:20( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: of the prisoners from the time they've been taken, and occasionally we release some because we think that no longer represent a threat the department of def in january that 61 former guantanamo detainees who we had released returned to the battlefield against the united states and allied forces in afghanistan, iraq, and elsewher

0:33:21 to 0:33:42( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: this represents, in our criminal term and who knows how many of the rest of them may also be engaged in acts of terror? one of these ali al-hari, who was returned to his home in saudi arabia after went to yemen and he's now the

0:33:43 to 0:34:04( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: number two in yemen's al qaeda branch. so what are we to do with these people? more than a hundred days into the ad know what the administration's plan is. according to press reports, part of the plan may be to allow one group of these from china, to have residence in the united states.

0:34:05 to 0:34:26( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: as the senator from alabama, senator sessions, noted in letters to the attorney general, such an action appears to be prohibited under united states law. senator sessions stated in his letter to mr. holder -- and i quote -- "just four years ago, congress enacted into law a prohibition on the admission of foreign terrorists and trained militants into this country accordingly, congress is