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I'm delighted that you would say that it's an honor for me to be here, but
the honor is mine. But I'm pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the
people of the United States of America. Washington does its best work when the
will of the people is brought to this great nation and appropriately made
available to and expressed clearly to those of us that have the privilege of
public service. I thank you. I thank you for coming. As Abe said, young and old
and youth, and I looked out and I said, "I don't see anybody old-looking
out there." If that doesn't convince you I'm a politician, nothing will.
I'm delighted to be here. I'm honored to have the job of Attorney General of
the United States.
On the base of the Statue of Liberty are the words, immortal words of Emma
Lazarus. You could probably recite them as I do. Many school children learn
them, and if not in school, many parents like my father impose them. Those
amazing lines that tell us about the nature of America and the scale of
opportunity that this nation represents: "Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your
teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp
beside the golden door." I if I were a scholar could quote the entirety of
the poem. I can't. But I can tell you this much, that
the rest of the poem reinforces and underscores that theme, the there is
something about liberty, there is something about freedom, there is something
about the tolerance of America that makes it possible for those who might have
been wretched refuse, teaming masses, indistinguishable, perhaps not unusual in
other settings, to come here and to be champions.
Throughout the Middle Ages, there was a group of individuals who in some
respects were the forefathers of good scientists, and they may have been the
best at those times. They were called the alchemists. They were the individuals
whose pursuit was to find a process to change base metal into gold. One other
objective of the alchemists was to find the universal cure, a potion that would
cure your ills no matter what it was. When I was a boy, there was one that raced
through the Midwest called Hadecol (sp). I don't know whether anybody remembers
that. And it made everyone feel great until people realized it was 75 percent
alcohol It really wasn't a universal cure, but you did feel better.
So this idea that there would be something so powerful, so pervasive in its
influence and impact that it would change the very nature of things is the idea
of Emma Lazarus' poem, and it's the idea of America, and it is the concept of
freedom. She didn't write, "Give me your top 10 percent, send me your LSAT
or your SAT merit scholars," she said, "Give me your tired, your
poor." She understood that we didn't need to have the "pomp" --
another word she used in the poem -- of great societies to
come here, that we just had to add to humanity this marvelous chemistry of
freedom, and we would move things in the right direction.
That's why my grandfather came here when he was a teenager, and Lady Liberty
was a teenager herself at the time. He told me that he changed his name. He told
me that he jumped ship and came to the United States of America because there
was something unusual about the opportunity and freedom here. This is the place
where we have a respect for the values and rights of individuals and a respect
for people to be what they want to be and can be and will be without
interference.
I'm deeply honored to be the United States attorney general because it is the
business of the Justice Department to protect that frame of freedom. It is the
responsibility and understanding of Justice's mission that the rights of
individuals be understood and protected.
If you go back in history to look at the nuclear cabinets and the officials
that surrounded the national leader in early times in this country, there was a
secretary of State that dealt with foreign powers, there was the secretary of
War -- we didn't need a euphemism in those days. We just called a war a war --
who would make war, if necessary, for the country against those outside the
country, there was a secretary of the Treasury to collect the resources so that
the country could be solvent. And the attorney general grew in that mix as the
fourth individual to be an individual whose responsibility and with the
department of Justice to be that agency, that department with the responsibility
to focus on freedom and to focus on the defense of freedom and the opportunities
for freedom that individuals have in this country. It wasn't to deal with
foreign countries, not necessarily to try and raise the resources. No, it wasn't
to wage war, but it was to focus on these conditions that make America a special
place.
And the department, in my judgment, has this noble responsibility and
endeavor, and it's a noble responsibility and endeavor to which you bring your
judgment, your intensity and your participation, and we hope that all citizens
do similarly. We have a responsibility]y to make sure that people are free --
free from injury -- that their person is to be respected and given the idea of
integrity -- no assault -- that their property is to remain theirs, and that
that property can be used by them in the way that they see fit. Free to protect
their potentials. If we're going to protect the person and the property, we must
remember the potential of American citizens.
America has not always been good at, according to all citizens, equal
potential. And one of the clearest charges of the Department of Justice now is
to make sure that no person stands ahead of another person by virtue of the
structure of government in terms of potential, that regardless of race,
regardless of creed, regardless of religion, individuals in this culture deserve
an equal opportunity, and their potential should be unlimited.
And that's why we have an aggressive effort in the Department of Justice to
make sure that the civil rights of individuals are observed, that tolerance
becomes an aspect of the culture which allows people to be who they are and what
they aspire to be without undue interference from others.
The Department of Justice, of course, has responsibilities that are
substantial in other areas, because there are those who would displace this
sense of freedom in our culture, those who are unhappy with the concept and
culture of tolerance, those who would impose a narrow set of ideas on others and
make it impossible for them to be what they ought to be or what they aspire to
be.
Our counterterrorism efforts are directed to make sure that we guarantee the
capacity for tolerance in our culture. The Department of Justice funds a wide
array of programs devoted to preventing foreign and domestic terrorism. I was
pleased, in the introduction, when you mentioned the encounters that I had with
those vicious domestic terrorists who wanted to arm themselves with bazookas and
machine guns, and who literally took the lives of troopers of the state of
Missouri, and when you came in to join in helping fashion and shape the
necessary legislative response to say that that's not America; that America
isn't the victim of those who want to impose themselves on others, for the
imposition of one person upon another is the absence of freedom and the
responsibility of government is the protection of freedom.
Our president's budget request maintains a firm commitment to
counterterrorism programs, be they foreign terrorists or domestic terrorists,
setting aside an additional $107.96 million this year to support
counterterrorism, cybercrime and counterintelligence. That budget includes $17.7
million to help the FBI better understand and prevent acts of terrorism
involving chemical, biological or radiological weapons. Another $530,000 and
seven new staff positions will maintain the elevated pace of extradition and
foreign legal assistance work of the Criminal Division.
As we find ourselves involved in a world which is compressed by
transportation, we find ourselves involved in a world which is characterized by
an interrelated and international criminal activity, and we've got to be
prepared to respond, especially to terrorists who would seek, as a result of
their own aspirations, to shape or to curtail liberty in America.
Very unfortunately, very soon we'll see the conclusion to one of the worst
terrorism stories our country has ever witnessed; Timothy McVeigh, 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing. We must protect Americans from radical terrorists, people who have
confused patriotism with terrorism, and that confusion cannot be allowed to be
projected as some sort of truth. It is a confusion and distortion to say that
terrorism is patriotism. A patriot gives his own life for his country. The
terrorist takes the lives of innocent women and
children and says that it's for the country. We must battle this distorted view
of saving America by destroying America, which is what those in this terrorist
community all seek to sell.
And we must battle discrimination vigorously, because it, too, will destroy
our country. That's why racial profiling is an area of special concern to me. It
is totally unacceptable and un-American to think that there would be a problem
of "driving while Hispanic" or "driving while African
American" in America. It simply is unacceptable. I think it violates the
Constitution to say that individuals are treated differentially, based on their
race.
I am pleased that the president of the United States, in his State of the
Union -- I should say, in his address to Congress - made it clear that he finds
racial profiling totally unacceptable, and it's time to work to make sure that
it is not only unacceptable, but it's -- it's no longer in existence.
And it reflects, I think, a philosophy that we must have about the Justice
Department and about America. It's one thing for a government to go around and
find a problem and fix the blame. It's another great opportunity for us not just
to fix the blame, but to fix the problem. Fixing the blame is retrospective.
It's the thing that people can do whether they're free or not. Fixing the
problem is prospective, and it's the problems only a free people -- only with
people who are free to shape the future, can we fix the problem. Those who are
enslaved can always fix the blame, but this is a problem that we ought to fix.
The president charged me immediately with the responsibility of going through
the federal government to find out if there are places where such profiling
exists in our practices, in our training, in our discipline, in our operation,
in our procedures, and to do whatever is necessary to eliminate it. And he
called upon the Congress to help create a study nationally that related to other
governmental entities, state and local units of government, to say that where
this profiling exists and people are treated based on their race, instead of on
just the mere fact that they're Americans, we ought to find a way to help those
situations transition out of that kind of conduct.
And very frankly, I think that's a promising thing that America will soon
look back on as another milestone in our march toward the kind of freedom and
liberty that does in fact offer more opportunity than any other culture in the
world.
I'm pleased to say that in this effort to try and respond constructively,
that the Justice Department wants to be a part of that. We are not just at a
department of prosecution.
I should make it very clear that prosecution is a fundamental component of
what we do, and when there are violations, we will prosecute. But we really
understand that where we can avoid the problem or avoid the infraction, it's
better than to prosecute the infraction.
There was an election to be held in St. Louis, Missouri, shortly after I came
to the attorney general's office, and Lacy Clay, Congressman Clay, a friend of
mine -- he was in the Senate when we passed that legislation you talked about; I
was in the governor's job then in Missouri. Now he's in the House of
Representatives. And he called upon the Justice Department to send some
observers in to watch the election in St. Louis.
And those with a pretty sharply focused understanding of the law came to me
and said, "Well, Missouri's not part of the Voting Rights Act states
coverage. It's not one of the targeted states, so you can't send voting rights
observers into Missouri."
And I thought to myself, "Well, shoot, I'm from Missouri, and I want
honest elections, just like the other people do. We'll not call them 'voting
rights observers,' we'll call them 'monitors.' And we'll send them into the
state, and we'll just tell everybody that they're coming."
And some of the voices in the department said, "Well, don't tell them
you're coming; you won't catch them doing anything wrong."
And I said, "Bingo!"
We're not interested in prosecuting an election which has been corrupted,
we're interested in promoting an election which has integrity. And to the extent
possible, we want to do more than just prosecute. Yes, our department is capable
of prosecution. We'll demonstrate that over and over and over again.
But we also want to be a part of shaping an environment in which the
infraction is avoided rather then the infraction be prosecuted. Now, that's
really -- justice is the absence of infraction, and prosecution is a necessary
component of remedying an infraction that is likely to enhance justice in the
future. But to the extent we can promote justice, that ought to be one of our
objectives as well.
We went to Cincinnati a few weeks ago. Some of you watched -- all of you,
perhaps -- that story unfold. And it was not one of those chapters in our
history for which we are particularly grateful. But I'd have to say that we sent
the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice early to that city,
trying to help heal the racial tensions. And I talked to President Mfume of the
NAACP, and when he called me, we had had our people on the ground for a couple
of days in Cincinnati working, and to cooperate together. But we want to try and
fix the problem, not just fix the blame.
And I think that one of the things that's been so important about the way the
ADL has cooperated with the Justice Department over and over again, because when
you get lots of activity between the law enforcement agencies and the
communities generally, you can anticipate problems, sometimes you can avoid the
infraction instead of prosecute the infraction, and that when there is a problem
that you need to work to prosecute, it can be done effectively and efficiently.
More than 20 years ago, the ADL helped to lead the campaign to bring an end
to decades of U.S. government inattention to cases relating to victims of the
Nazi Holocaust. And that bringing of that responsibility, and elevating it in
the Department of Justice was a favor to the American people and to free people
all around the world. I share that commitment fully.
That campaign resulted, in 1979, in the creation of the Office of Special
Investigations in the Justice Department's Criminal Division. In the 21 years
since then, that office has built an unparalleled record of success in these
uniquely challenging cases, winning more Nazi war crime cases than have all of
the other governments of the world combined.
The unit also led the way in investigating the Nazis' widespread looting of
gold, art works, books, other property of Holocaust victims so that some measure
of compensation, however inadequate, may be paid, even at this late date.
Just last week the Office of Special Investigations worked to help gain the
release of thousands of pages of formerly classified CIA documents pertaining to
major Nazi criminals.
I want to express personally my gratitude, my gratitude to the ADL for its
assistance that it provides to us, particularly in the worldwide search for
survivor witnesses in these respects. And frankly, I note with special
appreciation the fact that in 1997 the ADL presented its inaugural International
Human Rights Award to the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation.
Our nation is home to thousands of survivors of Hitler's grotesque genocidal
ambitions, and one of those survivors is your national director Abe Foxman.
American families sacrificed 200,000 of their precious sons in the battle to
bring an end to the Nazi reign of terror, and seeking justice in these
heart-rending cases is both a moral imperative, a solemn legal obligation, and a
debt we owe to those who gave all. I want to pledge to you that the Department
of Justice will continue to leave no stone unturned in seeking to bring justice
to those who took part in the monstrous crimes of the Nazi regime.
Freedom is the special characteristic that allows humanity to be humane. It
is the alchemy that eluded those scientists of the Middle Ages. It changes base
metal into gold. It allows the huddled masses to breathe free, it takes the
wretched refuse and makes world-beaters of us. And it is something we must
always work together to protect.
Someone has wisely said that law enforcement is too important a
responsibility to expect it to be carried out by the law enforcement
professionals alone, and they are profoundly correct. The defense of freedom,
the observance of tolerance and respect, the maintenance of opportunity is
something that compels the attention and participation of every American. When
you come to Washington to demonstrate your commitment to it and to remind those
of us who serve you in this city of the necessity for our conscientious
observation of our duties, you do America a favor.
I'm grateful to you. Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
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