Chris Dodd for President

Remarks of Senator Christopher J. Dodd

Candidates @ Google

Google HQ, Mountain View, California

Monday, December 10, 2007

Thank you. My friends, not far from here stands a building located at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco.

I am sure that address is familiar to some of you. In fact, it is precisely 35.7 miles from the spot on which I am standing.

"Google Maps."

A few years ago, an Internet technician in that building named Mark Klein received an email that informed him someone from the National Security Agency would be visiting.

Indeed, it was Mark Klein who opened the door to let the gentleman in when that day came a short while later.

Not long after, he and a co-worker discovered something unprecedented - a switch that channeled Internet traffic culled from millions of living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and offices across the nation to secret room operated by the NSA. There, that information was collected and processed ostensibly for the purposes of defending the nation.

Was the handover of this information necessary for national security? We have no idea - with very few exceptions, Congress is as much in the dark as the public.

And I believe one would be hard-pressed to understand why our government would need a copy of all Internet traffic to keep us safe.

That we know this happened is not because the government told us - they say the matter is classified.

Not because AT&T told us - they say they are forbidden by law from doing so.

Indeed, we may not have known any of this at all were it not for Mr. Klein, a 22-year veteran of AT&T who was old enough to remember when a law was passed to prevent this very sort of thing from happening in the first place. A law that was expressly written to give the government the tools it needed to defend the country.

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There's one more piece that I want to share with you from this morning's Cuba policy speech and press conference. Dodd was introduced by Alfredo Duran - a lawyer, former chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, and a veteran of the Bay of Pigs. I'm printing his speech below in full - it was a great account of Senator Dodd's tenure of leadership towards reversing the failed policy towards Cuba.

Thank you all for coming out for what I believe is a historic moment for our country and truly for all those in our hemisphere.

Today it is my privilege to introduce one of the true champions of democracy here at home and abroad – someone who has spent many years fighting to open doors around the world, through diplomacy, dialog and strength, from Latin America to Northern Ireland to the Middle East.

He comes to Miami today to change the debate regarding a policy that for nearly a half-century has failed – failed to loosen Castro’s hold over the Cuba and bring democracy to that country, failed the Cuban people, and failed the American people.

Only one Presidential candidate has the courage to not run away from this issue – but to take it head on. That candidate is none other than Connecticut’s senior Senator, Chris Dodd.

Having spent many of his 26 years in the Senate fighting to end this failed policy, Chris Dodd does not come to this issue because it is politically expedient. Indeed, 15 years ago, Chris Dodd led the fight in the Senate against the expansion and tightening of the Cuba embargo. He led the opposition to Helms-Burton which codified the embargo in U.S. law. And he spearheaded efforts to ease restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba so that the Cuban people could benefit from American ingenuity and hard work.

I just posted the text Senator Dodd's Cuba policy speech from this morning. You can read the whole thing here. Here's a small piece of it:

Today, United States policy toward Cuba has been essentially the same for almost fifty years.

I believe the time has come to say publicly what many Americans believe including many Cuban-Americans – our Cuba policy has neither served America’s interests nor brought democracy to Cuba. It has been an abject failure.

I have the deepest respect for the Cuban American community and the pain, hardship and suffering the entire community has been through. I harbor no illusion about the current state of affairs in Cuba and the extreme difficulties Cubans live under.

But, today I believe that we are at a critical moment in Cuba’s changing political landscape, with Fidel Castro having recently turned over day-to-day authority of running Cuba to Raoul Castro and a small number of loyalists.

I believe we must make a choice – the United States can either be players in helping to shape the Cuba landscape for the next fifty years, or remain on the sidelines while the future of Cuba is determined by others.

Read the whole thing, it's a great speech conveying Dodd's bold vision for changing America's Cuba policy.

For more on the Utah convention, check out this post.

Senator Dodd spoke at the Utah Democratic Party Convention Saturday morning in Salt Lake City. With a crowd of over 900 delegates -- and almost 1500 people in all -- the Utah Party demonstrated it's strong resurgence statewide. Jackie Dodd, a Utah native, introduced her husband. She recounted how they met in Utah, skiing in Park City and what it's been like to have her family with Chris, Grace, and Christina grow real ties to Utah as a second home. Senator Dodd's remarks added to the living history of his relationship with Utah, particularly winning over Jackie's largely Republican family. Dodd spoke about why he's running for president and his plan to end the war in Iraq, along with providing the leadership, experience, and hope that America needs to meet the challenges facing us today. The crowd of Utah Dems repeatedly rose in ovation for Dodd's Iraq plan -- showing their support for Senator Dodd's bold leadership to start withdrawing our troops immediately and having a time certain to get out of Iraq. One moment that will stay with me from this speech was when Senator Dodd told the story of conversations he had with Brian Freeman, an American serving in Iraq. Freeman candidly shared his experiences helping the Iraqi people with Senator Dodd on a trip to Iraq this past December. He told Dodd about the challenges we faced, but also the good work that he and his men were doing. Tragically, on the same day that Freeman helped secure a visa for an Iraqi child to come to America to receive medical care, he and four of his men were killed in Iraq. That was this past January. Today, Charlotte Freeman - Brian's widow - as well as Gunner and Ingrid, Brian's children, and his mother Kathy were all in attendance. Kathy is a Utah native. As Senator Dodd told Brian's story, the audience rose and paid respects for his service, thanking his family and remembering his heroic work. I'm glad that I can say that Senator Dodd is working to safely redeploy our troops home so more American families won't have to suffer the loss of their husbands and wives, sons and daughters, neighbors and friends. He has the conviction needed to bring the war to an end and I'm proud to help him in that endeavor. I'll have pictures and videos up as soon as possible