Congressional Record: April 19, 2005 (Senate)
Page S3942-S3956
TEXT OF AMENDMENTS
[...]
SA 559. Mr. ROBERTS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 437 submitted by Mr. Rockefeller and intended to be
proposed to the bill H.R. 1268, making emergency supplemental
appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, to
establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver's license
and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists
from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-
related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, to ensure expeditious
construction of the San Diego border fence, and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted, insert the
following:
sense of senate
Sec. __. (a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following
findings:
(1) On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked and
destroyed four civilian aircraft, crashing two of them into
the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, New York,
and a third into the Pentagon outside Washington, District of
Columbia.
(2) The valor of the passengers and crew on the fourth
aircraft prevented it from also being used as a weapon
against the United States.
(3) The September 11, 2001, attacks stand as the deadliest
terrorist attacks ever perpetrated against the United States.
(4) By targeting symbols of American strength and success,
the attacks clearly were intended to assail the principles,
values, and freedoms of the United States and the American
people, to intimidate the Nation, and to weaken the national
resolve.
(5) On September 14, 2001, Congress, in Public Law 107-40,
authorized the use of ``all necessary and appropriate force''
against those responsible for the terrorist attacks.
(6) The Armed Forces subsequently moved swiftly against Al
Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, whom the
President and Congress had identified as enemies of the
United States.
(7) In doing so, brave servicemembers and intelligence
officers left family and friends in order to defend the
Nation.
(8) More than three years later, many servicemembers and
intelligence officers remain abroad, shielding the Nation
from further terrorist attacks.
(9) Terrorists continue to attack United States
servicemembers and continue to plan attacks against the
United States and its interests.
(10) Terrorists continue to target civilians and military
personnel alike through such insidious and cowardly methods
as kidnappings and bombings.
(11) Intelligence information derived from the
interrogation of captured terrorists is essential to the
protection of servicemembers deployed around world, to the
protection of the homeland, and to the protection of United
States interests.
(12) It is the policy of the President and Congress that
the interrogation of terrorists conform to the Constitution,
laws, and treaty obligations of the United States.
(13) In those rare instances in which individuals have been
alleged to have violated the Constitution, laws, or treaty
obligations of the United States during the course of an
interrogation, the departments and agencies of the United
States Government, and the inspectors general of each
department or agency concerned, have investigated allegations
of such violations.
(14) In the few cases in which officers of the United
States intelligence community are determined to have actually
violated the Constitution, laws, or treaty obligations of the
United States, such officers have been, or should be,
punished.
(15) The Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate was
established, among other things, to provide vigorous
legislative oversight of the intelligence activities of the
United States in order to assure that such activities conform
to the Constitution, laws, and treaty obligations of the
United States.
(16) The Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate was
deliberately structured with a unified staff under the joint
supervision of the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the
Select Committee through a single staff director in order to
avoid, to the maximum extent possible, the politicization of
oversight of the intelligence activities of the United
States. Because of its unique structure and rules, as
currently written, the Select Committee is ideally suited to
continue oversight of United States interrogation, detention,
and rendition operations.
(17) The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Select Committee
on Intelligence of the Senate have directed the staff of the
Select Committee to continue to exercise the oversight
authority of the Select Committee to ensure that intelligence
activities of the United States relating to the detention,
interrogation, and rendition of terrorists conform to the
Constitution, laws, and treaty obligations of the United
States.
(18) As part of its ongoing review, the staff of the Select
Committee on Intelligence of the Senate have interviewed
individuals and reviewed documents relating to the detention,
interrogation, and rendition of terrorists, and have
inspected United States detention and interrogation
operations and facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(19) The staff of the Select Committee on Intelligence of
the Senate continue to interview individuals, receive
information, and review documents relating to the detention,
interrogation, and rendition of terrorists.
(b) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate--
(1) to recognize that terrorists continue to seek to attack
the United States at home and the interests of the United
States abroad;
(2) to stand with the people of the United States in great
debt to the members of the Armed Forces and officers of the
United States intelligence community serving at home and
abroad;
(3) to remain resolved to pursue all those responsible for
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their
sponsors, until they are discovered and punished; and
(4) to reaffirm that Congress will--
(A) honor the memory of those who lost their lives as a
result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; and
(B) bravely defend the citizens of the United States in the
face of all future challenges.
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