December 17, 2005

Sen Maj leader Frist (TN) is on at 16:04. He says that some senators are in conference and we'll know more about the schedule for the next couple days when we hear back from those conferees. He said he'd have more information at the close of business today.

Ted Stevens is presiding officer.

Sen. Min Leader Reid (NV) is recognized. Reid is asking whether we know whether Warner and Levin withdrew their signatures from the Defense Approp Bill. Frist said, Well we don't have a House vote on it yet or we might not even know whether the House inserted the ANWR provision.

Frist has said there won't be votes today. What about tomorrow says Reid? Frist says we'll come in late and things will depend on the House between now and then. Likely no roll call votes tomorrow but Frist can't say for sure. Frist says Monday will be the day for roll call votes, a very very full day. Votes Monday morning. 10 am eastern time.

Frist wants to makes a brief statement on an issue that requires action before the senate leaves. Potential pandemic of avian influenza, the so-called bird flu....[14:09] Referencing the so-called Spanish Flu, even though it probably started in Kansas. If past is prologue world is probably overdue for flu pandemic. We are drastically underprepared for that...

[14:25] Sen Cornyn (TX) is talking about the PATRIOT Act and saying we need to go back and look at the replays and news accounts of Sept 11th and then we'd see how talk about how the gov't is Big Brother is just fantasy. Aren't these the kinds of tools that we would want our law enforcement to have, to keep us safe? ...Need to understand what is at stake here.... Clock is ticking...time running out...America potentially endangered... What has changed since that 98-1 vote in the senate, when the PATRIOT Act was passed in the first place? Are there examples of abuses of the PATRIOT Act? No. ...conferees have done dead-level best to strike the right balance between security and liberties...what has changed since October 2001 to lead our colleagues to say some of these provisions are not useful? Has the threat of international terrorism gone away? He then lists suspected al Qaeda attacks around the globe since Sept 2001: Shoe Bomber, Explosion at Tunisian synagogue, Karachi car bombing (11 French dead), bomb explosion outside U.S. consulate in Karachi, boat crashing into oil tanker off yemen, Bali night club bombings (202 dead mostly Australian), Mombassa Kenya suicide attack, May 2003 suicide bombing in Riyadh, May 2003 bombings in Casablanca, suicide car bombings at Marriot in Jakart, Nov 2003 explosion in Riyadh killing 17, Nov 2003 suicide car bombers attacking Istanbul synagogues, Nov 2003 truck bombs in Istanbul near London bank, Nov 2004 bombings in Madrid killing 202 during rush hour, May 2004 attack at oil office in Khobar, June 2004 PaulJohnson executed in Riyadh, Sept. 2004 car bombs outside Aus embassy in jakarta, attacks at US consul in Jedda, July 2005 London attacks killing 52, 22 killed by suicide bombs in Bali, Nov 2005 57 killed in Amman Jordan.

Mr. President I go through this list not to bore my listeners but to recount the threat that still exists. Examples of what could happen on our own soil if we are let our guard down, as we did before Sept 11th. I'll remind my colleagues of what we've been able to do because we have been on guard, because we have been on the offensive, disrupting the ability of terrorists to train, recruit, export...America has not sustained another terrorist attack on our own soil since Sept 2001...some have said it's a matter of if and not when...[14:35]...there've been at least 10 serious Al Qaeda plots interrupted including 3 inside US since Sept 11th...May 2002 plot with plans interrupted...mid 2003 plot interrupted to hit targets on east coast using commercial airplanes...(time expired, he gets 15 more minutes)...then there's the Jose Padilla plot that involved blowing up an apt. building with a dirty bomb...plot on urban target in UK...plot in Karachi...plot at Heathrow...plot with Arabian gulf shipping...tourist site plot by Al Qaeda plot in 2003...disrupted thanks to concerted effort of law enforcement personnel...what could those blocking P-A be thinking?...he notes others on floor who want to speak...wants to note one red herring being raised...the NYT article...Bush auth. use of intercepted messages via NSA...NYT suggesting this was a big secret way to threaten the civ libs of americans...fact it, congress was consulted at least 12 times since Pres has auth these interceptions...not solely in U.S. but from known links to intl terrorism in U.S. and overseas...not coincidence that NYT released this story before right before cloture vote...author of this article had turned in a book three months ago...urgent story tied to a book sale...by james risen...about to be published in coming weeks...endangered in part because newspaper...marketing campaign for selling a book...hysteria over U.S. P-A...people have not focused on hard fought attempts to balance by hammering out thoughtful, useful positions...

Sen Sessions (AL) asks if the senator will yield for questions... Sessions is talking about how the Senate got most of its provisions...[16:47]...Sen Cornyn: I would say to my friend from AL that he's absolutely correct...