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Rudy Giuliani on Civil Liberties and Domestic Security
This candidate has withdrawn from the election
In response to extension of PATRIOT ACT (Reauthorization): "It is simply false to claim, as some of its critics do, that this bill does not respond to concerns about civil liberties. The four-year extension of the Patriot Act, as passed by the House, would not only reauthorize the expiring provisions, it would also make a number of common-sense clarifications and add dozens of additional civil liberties safeguards. Given these improvements, there is simply no compelling argument for going backward in the fight against terrorism."
NewsMax.com, excerpting NY Times op-ed by Giuliani Dec 18, 2005
"Mr. Giuliani also dives into the politically charged issue of conducting surveillance on Americans, saying that while he generally supports court oversight of such surveillance, the president should be able to make exceptions: "I am real comfortable with that almost as a general rule," he continued. "With the slight exception that a prosecutor and president are different, and there may just be times where a president has to use his own judgment in order to protect the American people and we have to use a little room for that."
"I can never remember anybody coming into my office, knocking on my door, and saying, "I want to tell you about the Gambino crime family". Nobody comes in to tell you about it. You know how we found out about it? We had to intrude into their activities, we had to breach their privacy. We had to have electronic surveillance... This is very very much the same thing we have to do with terrorism. But it requires being on offense. It requires understanding that you need the tools like the patriot act, and legal electronic surveillance."
"...and we need things [to fight terrorism] like the Patriot Act, and electronic surveillance, and interrogation."
"Q: You don't think we should close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. So how long are you prepared to live with the international criticism it's causing? And how long do you think we should hold people there that we feel we can't gain a conviction on, but are too dangerous to set free? A: Well, this reminds me of a period of time in New York when judges would release criminals into the street, or threaten to do it. We can't close Guantanamo because nobody will take the people there. The president is attempting to move those people to other countries, and those countries are intelligent enough to say, "We don't want people as dangerous as this in our country." So what are you proposing? That we release them in New York or in Boston or in Los Angeles? So there's a reality to this that the liberal media and some of the Democratic politicians seem to try to avoid."
2007 GOP debate at UNH, sponsored by Fox News Sep 5, 2007
"Q: If you don't think we should close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, how long are you prepared to live with the international criticism it's causing? And how long do you think we should hold people there that we feel we can't gain a conviction on, but are too dangerous to set free? GIULIANI: Well, this reminds me of a period of time in New York when judges would release criminals into the street, or threaten to do it. We can't close Guantanamo because nobody will take the people there. The president is attempting to move those people to other countries, and those countries are intelligent enough to say, We don't want people as dangerous as this in our country. So what are you proposing? That we release them in New York or in Boston or in Los Angeles? So there's a reality to this that the liberal media and some of the Democratic politicians seem to try to avoid."
"GIULIANI: If we know there's going to be another attack and these people know about it, I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they could think of. It shouldn't be torture, but every method they can think of. Q: Would you support enhanced interrogation techniques like water-boarding? GIULIANI: Well, I'd say every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that. I've seen what can happen when you make a mistake about this, and I don't want to see another 3,000 people dead in New York or any place else."