answers on those questions. I hope we can turn the lights on in this room. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Nineteen seconds left of her 5 min utes. Mr. ZOGBY. I would like to submit my testimony in full for the record to those questions for my part. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Without objection. MS. TAPIA RUANO. And I will just say one comment. The concern is, when you abuse noncitizens' due process rights, it is not going to take much more to abuse citizens' rights. Ms. PEARLSTEIN. If I could just also submit for the record the recent report of the Human Rights First called Behind the WireChairman SENSENBRENNER. Without objection. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix.] MS. PEARLSTEIN. And also a recent report called Getting to Ground Truth, which responds, I think, to the questionsChairman SENSENBRENNER. Without objection. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix.] Mr. PITTS. And I will submit our report on the specifics of Guantanamo. But I want to point out briefly that not just Amnesty, but academic institutions, Rand, International Institute for Strategic Studies, our own State Department have noted that terrorism is on the rise. And I think that's more than just correlation, it's causation. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Without objection. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix.] Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I would ask that the gentlelady from Texas be given enough time to have brief remarks from any of the witnesses before we close down. She is the last Chairman SENSENBRENNER. How much time does the gentleman from Michigan request that the gentlewoman from Texas be granted? Mr. CONYERS. Four minutes, 1 minute for each of the witnesses. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Michigan to give each-an objection is heard. Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I have a list of documents that I ask unanimous consent to submit to the record. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. Without objection. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix.] Chairman SENSENBRENNER. The Chair now recognizes himself. First, the Chair would like to thank all the witnesses for coming and appearing, and particularly preparing your testimony on short notice. Let me say that the purpose for which this hearing was called and the scope of the hearing was stated in a letter that was submitted to me, signed by the Democratic Members, which was the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act. I have sat here listening very patiently to the testimony and the answers to the questions, and much of what has been stated is not relevant to the 16 sections of the USA PATRIOT Act which were sunsetted when the law was enacted in October of 2001. One of the things that people who are opposed to the PATRIOT Act have been doing is stating that the PATRIOT Act was respon policy. This hearing confirmed that fact, that the PATRIOT Act is being used as a buzzword for people who have very broad-brush objections. I think that when Congress debates the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, we ought to stick to the subject, and that subject is the 16 provisions of the PATRIOT Act which we must consider and decide whether to reauthorize, whether to lapse or whether to amend. The PATRIOT Act has nothing to do with Guantanamo; the PATRIOT Act has nothing to do with enemy combatants; the PATRIOT Act has nothing to do with indefinite detentions. Those were provisions of other sections of the law, many of which occurred prior to the enactment of the PATRIOT Act in October of 2001. The so-called Creppy memorandum, which had a blanket closure of immigration proceedings, was issued before the PATRIOT Act was enacted, and the Deputy Attorney General testified earlier this week that it's no longer being followed. And some of the testimony related to provisions of the PATRIOT Act that were not sunsetted, and this Committee put the sunset on provisions of the law which actually increased the powers of law enforcement, but did not put the sunset on those provisions of the law which restated the powers that law enforcement had had prior to October of 2001. I think particularly irresponsible and indicative of the broadbrush accusations of the PATRIOT Act was what I just heard, saying the PATRIOT Act has resulted in Minutemen being on the border. That's not true, and that's irresponsible, and I think anybody who knows what is going on Ms. JACKSON LEE. Will the gentleman yield? Chairman SENSENBRENNER. No, I will not yield-will see that fact. Let me say that I think this hearing very, very clearly shows what the opponents of the PATRIOT Act are doing. They will talk about practically everything but what's in the PATRIOT Act and what this Committee is considering. The only really relevant testimony that I heard was from Mr. Pitts, relative to section 215 of the PATRIOT Act that said that librarians have been receiving all kinds of questions from law enforcement. I'd like to ask you, Mr. Pitts, to submit for the record the names of the librarians that have received actual section 215 orders from the FISA Court to produce business records, and we will give you a week to put that in the record. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix.] Chairman SENSENBRENNER. So thank you all for coming today. I thank the Members Ms. JACKSON LEE. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman. Ms. JACKSON LEE. Will the gentleman yield? Chairman SENSENBRENNER. And the Committee is adjourned. APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN CONYERS, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, AND RANKING MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY There are few issues that are more important to this Committee or this Congress than the PATRIOT Act and the war against terror. This not only affects the rights and privacy of every American, but impacts the extent to which our nation is able to hold itself out as a beacon of liberty as we advocate for democracy around the world. For many of us, this process of hearings is not merely about whether we should extend 16 expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act; it is about the manner in which our government uses its legal authority to prosecute the war against terror, both domestically and abroad. As we will hear from our witnesses today, those authorities have been abused. We will learn from Amnesty International about the routine torture and degradation of detainees in American-run prisons that clearly violate American and international law. Both then-White House Counsel Gonzales and the Department of Justice conspired to create an end-run around the international and U.S. laws that criminalize that sort of behavior. While the Justice Department has supposedly reversed those opinions, it still refuses to charge those in its jurisdiction. We will also receive testimony concerning the illegal detention and mistreatment of individuals at Guantanamo Bay. A federal court has found their detention and denial of legal process to be unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment and illegal. And after the recent confirmation that jailers there desecrated the Koran, it's clearly time for the military to shut the Guantanamo facility down. We will also learn about the abuse of the immigration system to unjustifiably detain and harass men of Middle Eastern descent. Our Justice Department held over 1,000 people in the wake of 9/11, and the Inspector General has found the detentions to violate the law. But no one has been punished, and nothing has been done to ensure it doesn't happen again. Finally, we will receive testimony concerning the failure of our Administration's racial profiling tactics. Not only are tactics like these immoral, they have been proven to be completely useless in the war on terror. For example, our government's registration of 80,000 Middle Eastern men did nothing but create a deportation nightmare for families who had long been upstanding members of our communities. And not a single terrorist was found. Let me repeat that-not a single terrorist was found. Yesterday, the president announced with much fanfare that we need to not only reauthorize but expand the PATRIOT Act. But rather than making us safer, the abuses and excesses of our war against terrorism are actually tarnishing our nation's reputation and making us less safe. The testimony we are receiving today— and introducing into the record—will make that point abundantly clear. PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SHEILA JACKSON LEE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Continued Oversight Hearing on the Reauthorization of the June 10, 2005 2141 RHOB, 8:30 a.m. Judge Learned Hand is cited to have stated that "The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right. . . .' Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ranking Member, as you well know, the legislation that we discuss today, the "Uniting and Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" Act, or the "USA PATRIOT Act" expanded law enforcement powers in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Sixteen (16) provisions that are due to sunset at the end of 2005 are set for reauthorization. These provisions include Section 213 that allows delayed notification search warrants, Section 209's emergency disclosure of e-mails without a court order, and the provision that allows access to business records. I commend the Chairman for his disposition to hold the 10 oversight hearings that have been held on these controversial provisions. However, if my colleagues on this side of the hearing room were to file an action based on the common law principle of forum non conveniens, we would likely be justified based on the fact that this hearing has been called for 8:30 a.m. on the day following the end of votes for the week! |