[November 19, 2009] BOND: ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER TAKING DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE BACK TO PRE-9/11 Tweet Nov 19, 2009 (Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- WEDNESDAY, November 18, 2009 Media Contact: Shana Marchio 202.224.0309 BOND: ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER TAKING DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE BACK TO PRE-9/11 WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today criticized Attorney General Holder for ignoring the vital role intelligence interrogations play in protecting Americans and for taking the Department of Justice back to a pre-9-11 mentality. "Unfortunately, the Attorney General's testimony shows a complete lack of understanding that the purpose of intelligence interrogations is to stop planned attacks and to take down terrorist networks, not to elicit confessions for use in a criminal trial," said Bond. During a hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Holder summarily dismissed concerns that the decision to bring 9/11 co-conspirators into the federal justice system would preclude an Intelligence Community interrogation of Usama bin Laden if he were captured. Holder refused to say whether bin Laden would be given Miranda warnings upon capture, and claimed "the case against him is so overwhelming" that there would be no need for any statements he might make after capture. Holder called the concerns about not being able to interrogate bin Laden "a red herring." In reaction to Holder's comments, Bond said, "It's stunning that the Attorney General seems to have no interest in obtaining valuable intelligence from bin Laden, who as the leader of al Qaeda, clearly has considerable knowledge of the network, its members, methods, and potential plots to kill more Americans." Bond stressed it is regrettable that the Obama administration is taking our Justice Department and with it, the Intelligence Community, back to a pre-9/11 mentality where terrorists and their networks are treated as common criminals. Bond pointed out that during the 1990's, we treated terrorist attacks as merely law enforcement matters, which led to the tragic intelligence failures that ultimately cost the lives of more than 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11th. "If we don't allow our Intelligence Community to gather timely intelligence from future detainees, we will be forcing our operators to fight terrorism with both hands tied behind their backs. What the Attorney General calls a red herring, I call a red flag," said Bond. ### [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]