mr. chairman , i yield myself the balance of my time .  the greatest responsibility of the intelligence community is to protect our country from attack .  today 's debate should flow from this simple premise which should not be controversial , contentious , or partisan .  the 9/11 attacks have led us to war , to war with an unconventional enemy that hides literally around the globe .  the full energies of the intelligence community are directed to finding and monitoring that enemy abroad , but our most pressing and immediate concern is with those foreign terrorists who may be even closer to home , those within the borders of the united states .  the usa patriot act has provided basic and fundamental tools to investigators to help them find foreign spies and terrorists who may seek to harm our nation .  the continued acts of alleged terrorism in london today should continue to highlight the urgency of these efforts and the critical nature of the patriot act authorities .  within days of the first london bombings , british authorities were able to rapidly identify the bombers and follow their trail to other terrorists .  the patriot act would be essential to do the same in the united states to investigate or prevent an attack .  by now , you have all seen the chilling photograph of the very first group of london bombers to gather in a rail station .  in the united states the authorities of the patriot act likely would have been used to obtain that photograph .  in the london investigation , there has been extensive cooperation between the london metropolitan police and the british intelligence agencies .  in the united states , that cooperation would not be possible without the patriot act .  british investigators then obtained leads from a terrorist phone to tie them to the coconspirators of the first group of bombers .  in the united states , the authorities of the patriot act likely would have been used to obtain those records .  mr. chairman , our counterterrorism investigators in the intelligence community can do truly remarkable work to find terrorists and to piece together the puzzle of their networks , but to do that they need modern legal authorities to deal with modern threats .  behind all the rhetoric , the patriot act is simple , sensible , reasonable and necessary .  i urge all members to support the intelligence community in its effort to fight terrorism .  support this bill and keep america safe .  