◆ SpookStack

But having said that, | understand that my assurance to this committee at this point isn't worth a lot. The Inspection Division is conducting the inquiry. They Know that they have to proceed quickly. But I regret I can't tell you when they're going to be done. But | will make sure that the director understands that you want it done as quickly as possible. JACKSON-LEE: And certainty we wish the director well. We would have wanted to have his appearance before this committee, but we do wish him a speedy recovery. CAPRONI: Thank you. I'll Jet hin know that. JACKSON-LEE: Mr. Inspector General, I assume you will say to me that you don’t speculate, but let me quickly ask you a question. And will you be thinking, the general counsel, on this question? The president signed on the Patriot Act a signing statement, which indicated that he was going to interpret or have the act interpreted in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information. Just be thinking about that. And I want to know, did that give you a free ride? That's why I have legislation that indicates that agencies should not be running, I must say, amuck because of the signing slatements. Mr. Inspector General, what you looked at. And you've said it has not been intentional. Help me out, however. Don't you believe there should be restraints put in place, strictures put in place? And might the Patriot Act be entirely too broad to even be a valuable took that would restrain people in balancing both security and, as well, balancing civil liberties? FINE: I do believe that there needs to be controls. J do believe that there needs to be a balance, a balance of effective tools to prevent terrorism, at the same time, effective controls on the use of those tools. And what was most troubling to us was that those controls were not implemented and not followed. And I share the concerns expressed by the members of this committee, and that's why we did the report. FINE: We were not -- we were not restricted or limited in what we did. And I know there was a presidential signing statement, but the department did cooperate with us. We did provide all the information that we had. We provided it in the most unclassified way we could, and the department actually did unclassify a fair amount of this information so that it could be fully aired.