The US Senate has overwhelmingly approved an anti-terrorism bill - just two days before the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The bill would provide for the death penalty in certain international terrorism cases and for killing a federal em…
The US Senate has overwhelmingly approved an anti-terrorism bill - just two days before the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The bill would provide for the death penalty in certain international terrorism cases and for killing a federal employee because of the employee's work.
It also includes provisions that limit federal appeals by death-row inmates and other prisoners.
The anti-terrorism bill was for the most part a bi-partisan effort.
But some Republicans successfully fought against new powers for the federal government to wire tap potential terrorists.
Democrats had argued that if it was acceptable to tap Mafia leaders, why not terrorists?
SOUNDBITE:
But if an emergency wiretap is good enough for John Gotti, why is it not good enough for the Unabomber? If emergency wiretap is good enough for John Gotti, why is it not good enough for some wacko who blows up or is about to blow up of federal building in Wilmington Delaware, or Washington D-C?
SUPER CAPTION: Senator Joseph Biden, (D) Delaware
Republicans were adamant that procedures for extraditing foreigners suspected of terrorism be streamlined under the bill.
SOUNDBITE:
We've got criminal alien removal procedures when these criminal aliens get convicted, the minute their sentence is over they're out of here. We get them out of this country, so that they can't just walk out of jail and go and start doing further terrorist activities.
SUPER CAPTION: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah
Senate majority leader and presidential hopeful Bob Dole said the bill would honor the victims of the Oklahoma blast.
SOUNDBITE:
In over the past month we've worked in a bipartisan manner to crack what will surely be the toughest anti-terrorism bill ever to become law. This week, to honour the memory of those who suffered in Oklahoma, the Congress will send to President Clinton this landmark bipartisan, anti-terrorism bill. It has the support of the Republican governor of Oklahoma, Frank Kidding, and Oklahoma's Democrat Attorney General, Drew Edmondson.
SUPER CAPTION: Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, (R) Kansas
The Senate passed the bill only days before the first anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing - the legislation must now pass through the House of Representatives.
Lawmakers are hoping to pass the legislation in time for Friday's anniversary.
"Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_Counterterrorism_Act_of_1995
"The Many Occasions Joe Biden Took Credit For Writing The Patriot Act"
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/surveillance-joe
"Joe Biden on Creating a “New World Order” "
https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/15036-joe-biden-on-creating-a-new-world-order
"How I Learned to Love the New World Order", Joe Biden, Wall Street Journal, 1992
http://www.pennsylvaniacrier.com/filemgmt_data/files/Biden-New%20World%20Order.pdf
