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Hoot said:There is no evidence that our previous civil liberties, before the Patriot Act, posed a barrier to the tracking of potential terrorists.
Instead of throwing the problem back in our face, and asking us whether we've personally experienced discrimination, why don't those of you on the right tell us why we need this act?
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At the Department of Justice, we have taken a comprehensive and concerted approach to this task. The Department has investigated hundreds of bias-motivated incidents involving violence or threats against individuals perceived to be Muslim, or of Arab, Middle Eastern, or South Asian origin - and we’ve obtained a number of important federal convictions. We’ve also assisted local law enforcement in its efforts to do the same, resulting in more than 150 additional bias-related criminal prosecutions.
In addition, we are working closely with leaders of these communities to ensure that we are doing everything we can to promote fairness and respect for all people as we confront our common enemy. Senior officials in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department have held meetings with leaders of Muslim, Sikh, Arab, and South-Asian American organizations in Washington and throughout the country to ensure that community concerns are being heard and addressed. And our Community Relations Service has held town and community meetings around the country aimed at ensuring better understanding among diverse communities.
Combating racism and bias against our Muslim citizens is both a moral imperative and essential to success in the War on Terror. As the President explained in his second inaugural address, “our country must abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.”
Half a world away, we are sowing the seeds of justice in Iraq. One year ago, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq had the capacity to prosecute fewer than 10 trials and investigative hearings per month. In the first two weeks of September 2005 alone, the Court prosecuted more than 50 multi-defendant trials, and conducted 133 investigative hearings. This is progress for the Iraqi people who are desperate for a measure of normalcy and order, who want the lawlessness and brutality to end.
The Court is now expanding its reach throughout Iraq with separate branches in local provinces. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Department of Justice has helped to train hundreds of Iraqi judges. These judges are now busy resolving cases under Iraqi law - more than 20,000 felony cases since 2003. This element of the President’s National Strategy for Victory in Iraq will help diminish the rule of terrorists in Iraq - and I am proud that the Department continues to play a role in helping to bring relief to a population thirsting for justice.
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History shows that our forefathers have remained vigilant and resolute in past conflicts similar to the one we now face.
During the long winters and many losses between the first shot at Lexington and the final victory six years later at Yorktown, even Washington and those most loyal to the revolutionary cause considered giving up their fight. Other good people quit the cause altogether.
Those who fought for union and equality in the Civil War had many dark days after bloody battles like Gettysburg where - as hard as it is for us to imagine now - they doubted the worthiness of their cause.
And there were those during World War II who said that the costs and dangers associated with liberating Europe from the Nazis was too much for this country to bear when it could remain safely ensconced an ocean away from the bloodshed.
Now it is our generation’s turn to write history. We must reaffirm and rededicate ourselves to protecting this country for our children and grandchildren.
If we are to prevail in this struggle, we must show the same resolve and determination our forefathers did in the midst of the most trying conflicts of their day - from Valley Forge to Gettysburg to the Battle of the Bulge. At the same time, we must wage this war in ways that are true to our principles and values. We cannot allow ourselves to fall prey to the same sort of vicious cultural biases that our enemies display.
In November 1942, after a series of Allied victories, Winston Churchill gave an impassioned plea for the British people to be as “equally resolute and active in the face of victory” as they had been in weathering defeat after defeat through the dark days of 1939 and 1940. Churchill knew that the future of the war effort, even in late 1942, remained gravely uncertain, telling his audience: “I promise nothing. I predict nothing.”
Yet Churchill concluded with words asking for endurance and resolve that are critically appropriate for our time. Churchill said, “Do not let us be led away by any fair-seeming appearances of fortune; let us rather put our trust in those deep, slow-moving tides that have borne us thus far already, and will surely bear us forward, if we know how to use them, until we reach the harbour where we would be.”
We have not yet reached that harbour. So I would ask that each of you assume the mantle of Churchill’s firm resolve and stout-heartedness. The terrorists killed nearly 3,000 Americans in our homeland on a single day, and we cannot doubt that they would gladly do so again tomorrow - and again every day thereafter.
To succeed, we must continue to pressure the terrorists on each and every front in this unconventional war and do so with all the tools at our disposal - from the weapons of war to those of the criminal justice system and of the war of ideas and values. It is only by these slow-moving but effective means that we will continue to ensure the safety of our Nation and preserve America as a symbol of political and personal freedom for our children, as our forefathers did for us.
Thank you. May God bless each of you and may He continue to bless America.
I look forward to your questions.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/December/05_opa_641.html
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