Foreign Policy Debate - Terrorist Threat: What is the lik...

MR. LEHRER: This is last lead question, you have two minutes

each. The question is this, beginning with you, Senator McCain. What

do you think the likelihood is that there would be another 9/11-type

attack on the Continental United States?

SEN. MCCAIN: I think it's much less than it was the day after

9/11. I think it -- that we have a safer nation, but we are a long

way from safe. And I want to tell you that one of the things I'm most

proud of, among others -- because I have worked across the aisle. I

have a long record on that -- on a long series of reforms. But after

9/11, Senator Joe Lieberman and I decided that we needed a commission,

and that was a commission to investigate 9/11 and find out what

happened and fix it.

And we were -- we were opposed by the administration -- another

area where I differed with this administration. And we were stymied

until the families of 9/11 came and they descended on Washington and

we got that legislation passed. And there were a series of

recommendations, as I recall, more than 40. And I'm happy to say that

we've gotten written into law most of those reforms recommended by

that commission. I'm proud of that work, again, bipartisan, reaching

across the aisle, working together, Democrat and Republican alike.

So we have a long way to go in our intelligence services. We

have to do a better job in human intelligence, and we've got to make

sure that we have people who are trained interrogators so that we

don't ever torture a prisoner ever again.

We have to make sure that our technological and intelligence

capabilities are better.

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