Insider Advantage Georgia
December 9, 2005

Isakson: Patriot Act Helped Prevent Further Attacks After 9/11
By Dick Pettys

DULUTH - U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Friday he understands why renewing the Patriot Act may be an issue for some but declared he has no doubt its enactment helped block further terrorist attacks on the United States after 9/11.

In a strong speech dedicated to a young Marine officer who died in South Vietnam nearly 40 years ago his best friend Isakson also slapped Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean for saying this week "the idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.

Isakson asserted: We are fighting the right war for the right reasons in the right place at the right time, and we are winning the war today by any measurement of any standard which led up to where we are today.

The comments came in a speech to Mercer Universitys Executive Forum during a luncheon at the Gwinnett Civic Center.

Isakson said the Patriot Act must be extended.

I have great respect for those who are speaking against it, who express concern about civil liberties. And we should always be concerned about civil liberties. But I want to tell you, had we not had the Patriot Act and passed it when we did … I do not believe America would have survived without another terrorist attack in the last four years, and we have, he said.

In an interview after the speech, he said his conclusion is based on what I know and what Ive been exposed to. I cant talk about the specifics, obviously.

Congressional Republicans are expected to push next week for passage of a four-year extension of the act, which gives law enforcement additional powers to gain access to a wide array of data. But a filibuster has been threatened by opponents.

There are those who will tell you, we ought to exempt libraries. Let me tell you something: if youre a terrorist and youre in the United States of America, and you want to communicate, you do it by Internet. And where do you have free, unfettered access to the Internet? Libraries, he said.

Any member of the United States Senate who has taken advantage of the same things I have the classified briefings where we are brought up to date on current intelligence, where it was obtained and how it was obtained, could not in any measure that I can possibly understand oppose the extension of the Patriot Act and its application to terrorists.

Isakson called the war against terrorism the ultimate battle between good and evil.

Isakson dedicated the speech to Marine Reserve 2nd Lt. Jack Cox, who was killed in South Vietnam March 25, 1967. Isakson spent a week with the servicemans family during the funeral.

When Mr. Dean said what he did earlier this week, it triggered by memory of that funeral 38 years ago of my good friend Jack Cox. It also triggered in me (the memory of) what was going on in American about the Vietnam War where the country had started to politicize the war, question whether or not we could win.

And I remember when we buried Jack thinking to myself, if theres ever a way that thats going to start and I can help stop it, Im going to take advantage of it, he said.

Referring to Dean, he said, The idea that somebody would say we cant win a war that we are in fact winning by the measurement we established three years ago is disappointing, its disconcerting and its just morally wrong.

Dick Pettys, editor of Insider Advantage Georgia, has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970. He can be reached at dpettys@insideradvantage.com or 404 230 8930