Patrick Leahy Quotes
If you make a mistake, classify it. Then you don’t have to admit the mistake.
He was the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator (Democrat, VT), Interview, C-SPAN Newsmakers, November 17, 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The George W. Bush administration used secrecy and classification to an extreme that few previous administrations ever had in modern times.
First non-Congress Party governor of an Indian State (Communist)
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had released an unclassified Summary of the Committee Report on the CIA using torture and perverse treatment of suspect terrorists in the aftermath of the 9-11 attack on New York. Most Republicans argued vehemently that the Report should be classified and kept secret as the CIA behavior was so egregious, unpalatable, and morally reprehensible that there would be negative consequences including perhaps demonstrations and attacks against Americans in foreign countries. Moreover, Terrorist organizations would use the heinous CIA behavior as a recruiting tool for anti-American terrorists. McCain, who had himself been the victim of North Vietnamese torture cited the moral and ethical reasons to prohibit torture but also explained what has been proven over and over again that torture victims will tell the torturer any nonsense that they think the torturer might believe just to get obtain relief from the agony of the torture.
Patrick Joseph Leahy is an American politician and attorney serving as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate, and as the senior United States senator from Vermont. Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974, and previously served as president pro tempore from 2012 to 2015. He is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
