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Mr. President, America's secrets are not what are at risk with the exposure of thousands and thousands of documents of classified cables. America's friends and allies are at risk and, therefore, America's national security is at risk.
When classified cables identify certain people who have helped us from around the world as we advance the interests of the free world, defend our national security, and the safety of all humankindwhen those people are exposed, there are a lot of bad people out there who want to get rid of those kind of people. When sources of informationI will dress it up and tell you exactly what it is; it is called intelligencewhen sources of intelligence are betrayed by being made public, by the disclosure, indiscriminately, of thousands and thousands of cables that were marked 'Top Secret' or marked 'Secret,' then what we have done is we have started to shackle our arms behind ourselves in our ability to defend ourselves.
Why do I say that? Well, look at all the recent attempts at a terrorist act. We were able to avert the terrorist
striking because we got the information that he was going to strike before he struck. Where did that source of information come? Often that source of information comes from far corners of the globe because we have a relationship with people who are giving us information that we then track down and find that, in fact, it is true and stop the terrorist from doing their dastardly deed upon innocent humans.
Since 2001 and the September 11th bombings and the September 11th crashes of the airliners, over and over again the newspapers of this country have chronicled terrorist plots that have been thwarted for the reasons I have just said. Now along comes someone who, for whatever reasons of being a misfit, wants to disgorge thousands of classified cables that start to betray our sources of information to protect ourselves and protect othersnot even necessarily our alliesbut other innocent victims in other countries with whom we may not even have a relationship.
This is the height of dishonoring our country and our people and all humankind, and it is the height of traitorous activity. It has to stop. We cannot continue to thwart these terrorist acts if we do not have reliable sources of information in order to disrupt the terrorist plots. Do you know what? The newspapers have chronicled, since the attempt, for example, of blowing up FedEx and UPSand, by the way, those packages also were carried on commercial airliners with passengers on themyou know what the newspapers have chronicled? They have pointed out how the terrorist organizations are crowing about how little it costs them and how they will find another way in order to do this. As the newspapers reported, we found out and stopped that plot by long-distance sources of information that came to us.
To betray those sources, to now put their lives in jeopardy by the indiscriminate turning over to an organization called WikiLeaks that suddenly puts all of this up on the Web, is the height of irresponsibility, an act against humanity, and it has to be stopped. |
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Name(s:) |
Bill Nelson of Florida (FL-D) |
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United States Senator |
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United States Senate |
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Url Link
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Title: |
Bill Nelson, US Senator and Representative from Florida |
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Authoring or Creator Agency: |
LittleSis |
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