Congressional Record: April 28, 2004 (Senate)
Page S4615-S4616


 
                           TEXT OF AMENDMENTS

 
  SA 3074. Mr. GRAHAM of Florida submitted an amendment intended to be 
proposed to amendment SA 3048 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill S. 
150, to make permanent the moratorium on taxes on Internet access and 
multiple and discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce imposed by the 
Internet Tax Freedom Act; which was ordered to lie on the table; as 
follows:

       At the appropriate place, add the following:
       Whereas the United States, its people and its armed forces, 
     are committed to winning the war on terrorism;
       Whereas winning this global war will require a sustained 
     sacrifice from our troops, an expensive commitment of U.S. 
     resources, and effective and credible intelligence community, 
     and considerable cooperation of the international community;
       Whereas winning this global war will also require that our 
     leaders correctly prioritize the national security threats 
     facing this nation, develop a plan for defeating those 
     threats, and urgently implement the measures required to 
     defeat those threats;
       Whereas senior Bush Administration officials have 
     acknowledged that terrorism was not their top priority prior 
     to September 11, 2001, their strategy to counter this threat 
     took eight months to develop, and this strategy was not 
     implemented until after September 11, 2001.
       Whereas Richard Clarke, President Bush's former senior 
     counter-terrorism advisor, has testified under oath that the 
     Bush Administration did not consider terrorism the top 
     priority and reports indicate that terrorism was discussed at 
     only two of the 100 meetings of the Bush Administration's 
     National Security Council prior to September 11, 2001;
       Whereas Richard Clarke also testified that he provided Bush 
     Administration officials a memo on January 25, 2001 outlining 
     a counter-terrorism strategy and in September, 2001 the 
     Administration approved a counter-terrorism strategy that, 
     according to Clarke, was virtually identical to the strategy 
     outlined in his January memo;
       Whereas the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were 
     the deadliest ever directed against the United States and 
     there have been more terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and 
     related groups in the 30 months since September 11, 2001 than 
     there were in the 30 months before September 11;
       Whereas the Administration's policies have generated 
     growing hostility and resentment of the United States 
     throughout the Middle East and the world and majorities in 
     key Muslim countries have a more favorable opinion of Osama 
     Bin Laden than they do the United States;
       Whereas the assessment by David Kay, the Administration's 
     chief weapons inspector, that there are no weapons of mass 
     destruction in Iraq has eroded the confidence of the American 
     people and the world in the assessment of our intelligence 
     community and our policymakers;
       Whereas the bipartisan, bicameral joint congressional 
     inquiry into the intelligence

[[Page S4616]]

     community's activities before and after September 11, 2001, 
     discovered many strengths and weaknesses within the community 
     pertaining to counter-terrorism;
       Whereas many of the joint inquiry's testimony and documents 
     remain classified and inaccessible, including June 11, 2002 
     testimony by Richard Clarke and a twenty-eight page section 
     that addresses the involvement of a foreign government in 
     supporting several of the hijackers who carried out the 
     September 11 attacks;
       Whereas Richard Clarke and the Majority and Minority 
     Leaders of the United States Senate have requested that 
     Clarke's June 11, 2002, testimony before the Joint Inquiry be 
     declassified; and
       Whereas an Administration decision to selectively 
     declassify parts of documents or of individual documents will 
     not present to our troops and the American people the 
     complete information they need and deserve;
       Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, that it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the June 11, 2002 testimony of Richard Clarke before 
     the joint inquiry should immediately be declassified and 
     publicly released in its entirety;
       (2) the twenty-eight pages of the joint inquiry report 
     discussing foreign government involvement in the September 11 
     terrorist plot should be immediately declassified and 
     publicly released in their entirety, as well as any other 
     joint inquiry documents and testimony whose classification 
     can no longer be justified;
       (3) the January 25, 2001 memorandum prepared by Richard 
     Clarke outlining a plan of action against the al-Qaeda 
     terrorist organization and the Bush Administration's 
     September 4, 2001 National Security Directive addressing 
     terrorism should be immediately declassified and publicly 
     released in their entirety; and
       (4) the Bush Administration should immediately prepare and 
     publicly release a list of the dates and topics of all 
     National Security Council meetings that took place before 
     September 11, 2001.
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