Patriot Act can keep us free

As the unprovoked attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made clear, extremist terrorists are prepared to attack the United States and threaten the American way of life. To defeat ruthless enemies who target innocent citizens, we must enact and enforce laws strong enough to thwart the terrorists. At the same time, we must not create an environment that undermines our society's precious fundamental freedoms.

As Thomas Jefferson once observed: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." True individual freedom cannot flourish without security and, in turn, our security cannot meaningfully exist without protection of our traditional civil liberties. We must maintain both our civil liberties and national security or, eventually, we will have neither.

Many of the basic legal tools used to prevent terrorism and prosecute terrorists have been on the books for decades, such as court-sanctioned subpoenas and wiretaps as well as mail fraud and anti-hijacking statutes.

Moreover, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress responded by passing the Patriot Act, which strengthened our ability to identify, prevent and apprehend potential terrorists. This legislation had broad bipartisan support as evidenced by the fact that it passed the Senate by an overwhelming 98-1 margin.

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which I chair, will hold a field hearing at the University of Utah to help review the effectiveness of current law in preventing and responding to acts of terrorism on U.S. soil. This is the fourth in a series of bipartisan oversight hearings that the Judiciary Committee is conducting.

Among the important topics that will be discussed at today's hearing are:

A status report on the efforts to disrupt, detain, deport or arrest literally hundreds of potential terrorists.

The effect of lowering the legal "wall" that previously impeded national defense and intelligence officials from sharing important information relating to potential acts of terrorism with the FBI and other federal domestic law enforcement officials.

The effect of permitting, with a court order, so-called "roving" wiretaps of suspected terrorists that essentially enable — in this day of low-cost, hard-to-trace cell phones — specific individuals, rather than specific telephones, to be placed under surveillance.

The effect of allowing judges to issue "delayed notification" search warrants so that potential terrorists are not tipped off.