50 Patriot Act supporters warn against Act’s lapse
As a minority of the Senate considers whether to continue to jeopardize reenactment of the Patriot Act, a distinguished group of the legislation’s supporters weighed in. Fifty leaders in the fields of national security, law enforcement, public policy and academia called on the Congress not to allow the expiration of key parts of this "vital tool in our national effort to prevent further terrorist attacks against the United States."
Among the signatories of the attached Open Letter to the congressional leadership were: four former Attorneys General Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh, William Barr and John Ashcroft, former National Security Advisor William P. Clark, former Secretaries of Defense James Schlesinger and Caspar Weinberger, Deputy Attorney General George Terwilliger, former Solicitors General Judge Robert Bork and Theodore B. Olson, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey and actor Ron Silver.
The letter addresses the adverse national security effects that would be associated with allowing the Patriot Act’s "sunsetted" provisions to lapse. These include:
In releasing the Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law’s new letter, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy (which sponsors the Coalition) said: "The distinguished signatories of this letter speak for millions of Americans who understand that the Patriot Act has helped keep the Nation free from attack since 9/11. Its provisions must not be allowed to expire ten days from now. As President Bush and others have observed, the threat against which the Act protects us certainly will not."
In its lead editorial today, the Wall Street Journal observes that, "After 23 congressional hearings with testimony by 60-plus witnesses, both houses passed amended versions of the Patriot Act. The final bill that emerged from the conference committee this month contains more than 30 new civil liberties protections." It goes on to note the irony that the alternative being proposed by opponents of the original act is to perpetuate for the next three months and without these additional protections the legislation they consider to be so defective.
The Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law regards the Patriot Act as a cornerstone of the effort to preserve and protect the American homefront – a critically important battlefield in the War for the Free World. Congress must not allow key elements of that essential building block to be eliminated.
Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law
21 December 2005
The Honorable Dennis Hastert
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable Bill Frist
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable Harry Reid
Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable James Sensenbrenner
Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable John Conyers
House Judiciary Committee
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable Arlen Specter
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Washington, D.C.
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Senate Judiciary Committee
Washington, D.C.
Dear Leaders:
In September 2004, many of us wrote an open letter in support of the reenactment of the Patriot Act before the end of this year. We did so out of a conviction that this legislation represents a vital tool in our national effort to prevent further terrorist attacks against the United States.
Our joint letter noted:
"The government’s success to date in preventing another catastrophic attack on the American homeland since September 11, 2001, would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, without the USA Patriot Act. The authorities Congress provided have substantially enhanced the ability of our law enforcement and intelligence officials to prevent, investigate, and prosecute acts of terror. It is an essential law that provides for checks and balances while enabling the government to fight what will, no doubt, be a challenging and prolonged war against terrorists determined to kill us and destroy our society."
These observations remain as valid today as they did then. Clear majorities in the House and Senate agree. Yet, we find ourselves at a point where thanks to opposition from a minority of the Senate – opposition that seems rooted more in partisan posturing than in legitimate differences on substantive matters – key provisions of the Patriot Act may be allowed to lapse. Among these are the following:
Another sunsetted provision (Sec. 212) affords protection to ISPs from lawsuits if they turn over to the authorities customer records that suggest an immediate risk of death or serious physical injury. Since the Patriot Act’s adoption, this provision has prevented the loss of life and will surely do so in the future – unless it is allowed to lapse.
The cumulative effect of these and other changes in law that would follow from a failure to reenact the Patriot Act will be to put the Nation at greater risk of terrorist attack. Accordingly, we call upon you and your colleagues to complete action on the conference report at once.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mark Albrecht, former Executive Secretary, White House National Space Council
Morris J. Amitay, Esq., Vice Chair, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
John D. Ashcroft, former Attorney General, former United States Senator and former Governor of Missouri
David Ayres, former Chief of Staff to the Attorney General
Dr. Thomas G. Barnes, Professor of History and Law, University of California, Berkeley
William Barr, former Attorney General
William J. Bennett, former Secretary of Education, former Director Office of National Drug Control Policy and Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute
Bradford A. Berenson, former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush and Co-Founder of Citizens for the Common Defense
Robert H. Bork, former acting Attorney General, former Solicitor General and former Circuit Court of Appeals Judge
Dr. Stanley C. Brubaker, Professor of Political Science, Colgate University
William P. Clark, former National Security Advisor, former Secretary of Interior, former California Supreme Court Justice
Robert J. Cleary, former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and Southern District of Illinois
Barbara Comstock, former Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice
Cesar V. Conda, former Assistant for Domestic Policy to Vice President Cheney
Viet Dinh, former Assistant Attorney General
Richard A. Falkenrath, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor
Vincent E. Falter, Major General, USA, (Ret)
Frank Gaffney, former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense and President of the Center for Security Policy
Todd Gaziano, Director, Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, the Heritage Foundation
Fred Gedrich, former State and Defense Department official
Steven J. Greer, Command Sergeant Major, US Army, (Ret)
Peter Heussy, President, National Defense University Foundation
Mark Holman, former Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
Dr. Robert Kaufman, Professor of Political Science, Pepperdine University
Jack Kemp, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Co-Chairman of FreedomWorks
Frederick J. Kroesen, General, USA, (Ret)
Robert S. Khuzami, former Prosecutor, Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Dr. Peter Leitner, GMU National Center for Biodefense, Higgins Counter Terrorism Research Center
Dr. Douglas Macdonald, Professor of Political Science, Colgate University
Heather MacDonald, Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Clifford D. May, President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Andrew C. McCarthy, former Prosecutor, Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Tidal W. McCoy, former Acting Secretary of the Air Force
Edwin Meese, former Attorney General and Counselor to the President
Larry A. Mefford, former FBI Executive Assistant Director, Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence
Theodore B. Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States
Edward L. Rowny, former Ambassador and Lieutenant General USA (Ret.)
James R. Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of Energy and former Director of Central Intelligence
Gary Schmitt, Resident Scholar and Director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Program on Advanced Strategic Studies
Dr. William Schneider, Jr., former Under Secretary of State, Department of State
Dr. Dennis Showalter, Professor of History, Colorado College
Ron Silver, Actor and former president of Actors’ Equity
Dr. Joseph M. Skelly, Professor of History, College of Mount Saint Vincent
George J. Terwilliger III, former Deputy Attorney General
Richard T Thornburgh, former Attorney General and Governor of Pennsylvania
Dr. William R. Van Cleave, Professor Emeritus, Defense & Strategic Studies Department, Southwest Missouri State University
Caspar W. Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and former Director, Office of Management and Budget
William F. Weld, former Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division and Governor of Massachusetts
R. James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence
Dr. John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throughout the country. He is an associate author of highly acclaimed Shariah: The Threat to America and the publisher of over a dozen other books and monographs from the Center for Security Policy Press.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving U.S.-USSR relations, nuclear forces, arms control, missile defense policy and U.S.-European defense ties. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO’s senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by the late Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970’s, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney’s leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council’s Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States’ Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America’s “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003), the Western Conservative Summit’s Stephen H. Long Award (2015), the Council for National Policy’s George Washington Military Leadership Award (2016) and the IMPACT Award from Ginni Thomas and United in Purpose (2017).
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
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