Protecting America by Fighting Terrorism and Crime
My most solemn responsibility as a Senator is to help ensure the safety and security of every American. This means working to maintain a strong military, second to none; restoring our alliances and partnerships around the world; and fully equipping and training our law enforcement officers and other first responders to meet the domestic security threats of the 21st century. We face no greater challenge than to wage a smarter fight against Al-Qaeda, which has successfully regrouped, in large part because U.S. military and intelligence assets have been tied down in Iraq. We also need to reestablish our standing in the world, especially our moral leadership, which has been seriously eroded by the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. In today’s world, security is based on both "hard power," a strong military, and "soft power," global respect for America’s democratic values and commitment to human rights.
Ending the Iraq War Responsibly
We are now in the sixth year of the war in Iraq. Our Armed Forces have performed brilliantly and have accomplished their original objectives: Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship has been deposed. We are certain Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction. And the Iraqi people have a constitution and a democratically-elected government.
But, today, our troops find themselves stuck in the middle of a multi-layered Iraqi civil war. Our brave soldiers continue to die, and we continue to spend a staggering $12 billion a month, despite widespread acknowledgement that the civil conflicts in Iraq cannot be solved by U.S. military force. Meanwhile, national security experts agree that the Iraq war has made America less secure. A National Intelligence Estimate concluded that while the U.S. has been bogged down in Iraq, al-Qaeda has regrouped in Afghanistan and established a safe haven in Pakistan. When asked if our mission in Iraq is making us safer, our commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, replied, "I don’t know."
Meanwhile, our huge presence in Iraq is stretching the U.S. military to the breaking point. We continue to have over 150,000 American troops on the ground in Iraq, many on their third, or even fourth, tours of duty. Brigades are not being allowed sufficient time to regroup and retrain, placing enormous strains on our soldiers and their families. Last year, suicides among active-duty soldiers reached their highest level since the Army began keeping records 28 years ago. The number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army - 2,100 last year - has risen sixfold since the Iraq war began.
I firmly believe that we must set a timetable for redeployment from Iraq. In 2006, I introduced a resolution in Congress, Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to accomplishing the mission in Iraq, to responsibly redeploy our troops, and I have supported every other piece of legislation seeking a timeline for redeployment of our troops out of Iraq. Only by setting a timetable for redeployment of U.S. forces will Iraqi leaders have the incentive to resolve their political differences and take responsibility for their own future. And only then can the military begin to wage a smarter, more effective fight against the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and continue to threaten us today.
Read about Senator Harkin's efforts to establish minimum down time for troops between deployments.
Senator Harkin’s floor statement on the Iraq War - July 17, 2007
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Closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility
Closing the prison at Guantanamo as quickly as possible is essential to restoring our standing in the world and improving our national security. Our enemies point to Guantanamo as evidence that the United States has forsaken its commitment to human rights and the rule of law. By holding people at Guantanamo without charge, without judicial review, and without appropriate legal counsel, and having subjected many of them to what amounts to torture, we have allowed Guantanamo to become a propaganda bonanza and recruitment tool for Islamic extremists. As such, it is an impediment to our ability to wage an effective fight against terrorism. Recognizing the damage Guantanamo has done to our national security, both Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have also advocated shutting down this prison.
The situation at Guantanamo is personal for me. As a young congressional aide in the early 1970s, I helped to expose the tiger cages at Con Son Island, where Viet Cong and North Vietnamese prisoners, as well as civilian opponents of the war, were being held incommunicado, tortured and killed with the knowledge and sanction of the U.S. government. There are disturbing parallels between what transpired on Con Son Island and what has happened at Guantanamo Bay. In both cases, prisons were deliberately set up on remote islands to limit scrutiny and restrict access. In both cases, detainees were not classified as prisoners of war, expressly to deny them the protections of the Geneva Conventions. In both cases, detainees were deprived of any right to due process, judicial review, or a fair trial. And in both cases, when the mistreatment of detainees was exposed, the United States was accused of hypocrisy, of betraying its most sacred values and violating international law.
We need to act immediately to transfer Guantanamo prisoners to secure military facilities within the United States, and to require the government to resolve the legal status of these prisoners by charging them with a crime or an offense under the Military Commissions Act, returning them to the custody of their home country, or, where appropriate, returning them to a country where they do not face torture.
Effective Homeland Security
Passage of the Improving America’s Security Act of 2007, implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, marks a change of course after years of inadequate action on critical homeland security needs. The bill makes America more secure by giving our first responders the tools they need to keep us safe; making it more difficult for potential terrorists to enter our country; and authorizing funding to secure port, rail and mass transportation systems, and to screen air cargo.
Perhaps most importantly, the law authorizes critically needed resources to fund the communications systems that allow first responders in law enforcement, emergency response, and health care to talk to each other across jurisdictional lines. I know from meeting with first responders in Iowa that this continues to be the single greatest unmet need to genuinely provide for a safer and more secure homeland. This bill will make critical investment in communications equipment in Iowa and surrounding states that will enable true regional planning and cooperation.
Strengthening State and Local Law Enforcement
In Iowa, we are blessed with an exceptionally capable and effective law enforcement community - one that has produced national leaders, works well across regional and jurisdictional lines, and has provided a national model for fighting meth and other threats.
But, today, we are asking local law enforcement to stop crime and prevent terrorist acts without providing adequate resources. It is not a coincidence that, between 1993 and 2002, when the federal COPS and Byrne Justice Assistance grant programs provided ample funding to local law enforcement agencies, violent crime across America fell by more than 50 percent. By contrast, as that funding was slashed beginning in 2004, violent crime increased more than six percent.
The Byrne grant program, when properly funded, has an exceptional record of success. In 2005 it contributed to 130,000 arrests in 32 states, the seizure of 2.7 million grams of methamphetamine, and the destruction of 5,464 methamphetamine labs. But, in FY 2008, the program is being decimated by budget cuts. After President Bush threatened to veto the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill, which provided $660 million for Byrne grants, only $170 million was provided. This is down from $1 billion in 2003. These cuts have severely damaged programs in Iowa, and could lead to layoffs and the elimination of 15 of our 21 drug task forces. Fighting to restore this money is a key priority for me in 2008. I am encouraged to have received the support of every national law enforcement and criminal justice organization in this fight. It makes no sense to spend more than $6 billion for law enforcement in Iraq, while cutting law enforcement funding here at home.
