State of Montana secondary Archives: on Homeland Security

Mark Perea: Military has been decimated; reinstate fired generals

A: Support; the military has been decimated under the current administration. I would also support the reinstatement of many of the generals whom the current president has fired.

Conrad Burns: Patriot Act merely gives tools like against organized crime

TESTER: The Patriot Act has very little to do with the War on Terrorism and a lot to do with why the terrorists attacked this country, which is to take away our freedoms.

BURNS: The Patriot Act gave the tools to our law enforcement people, the same tools that they had to go after organized crime and drug kingpins. That’s all it is. He wants to go soft on the war on terror -- but I think they’re as dangerous as organized crime. He wants to weaken that. I don’t want to weaken that. On monitoring phone calls -- I want to know what they’re doing. Mr. Tester doesn’t understand this enemy. It is global. How do you deal with someone that will kill themselves just to take the life of someone they don’t agree with? He wants to weaken the Patriot Act, and take away the tools from the people who work for our protection.

TESTER: I don’t want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it. It takes away your freedoms.

Jon Tester: Patriot Act has very little to do with the War on Terrorism

TESTER: The Patriot Act has very little to do with the War on Terrorism and a lot to do with why the terrorists attacked this country, which is to take away our freedoms.

BURNS: The Patriot Act gave our law enforcement people the same tools that they had to go after organized crime and drug kingpins. That’s all it is. Mr. Tester doesn’t understand this enemy. It is global. He wants to weaken the Patriot Act, and take away the tools from the people who work for our protection.

TESTER: Let me be clear--I don’t want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it. It’s two inches think, and it does far more than what Burns said--it takes away your freedoms. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought and died for our freedoms. If we lose our freedoms, the terrorists will have won. We need to be very forceful against the terrorists, and get ‘em. We’re taking away freedoms--first!--and that’s ridiculous.

Jon Tester: Critical of President Bush on Patriot Act