Having returned from his 18th trip to Iraq earlier this month, 4th District U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays sat down
with the press Thursday, Aug. 23, to voice his opinion on the war, homeland security and dangers of partisan politics.

So far this session, Mr. Shays has voted to increase the national minimum wage, enact recommendations
from the 9/11 Commission, and ease restrictions on intelligence gathering, among other things. All of these were signed into law.

Mr. Shays has voiced a lingering disappointment about President Bush's veto of an embryonic stem cell research bill last year.

"The idea that somehow we are destroying life is really a stretch, because all these
embryos get destroyed anyway," he said. "To see the President veto that bill, for me that's
ideology gone to the extreme. We could be saving lives and we can be extending lives."

Wiretapping and FISA

Mr. Shays said the Cold War strategy of "contain, react and mutually assured destruction" no
longer applies in today's world. Today it is "detect, prevent, pre-empt, and maybe pre-empt unilaterally," he said.

Often requiring breaking into a terrorist cell, that brings up the controversial issue of wiretapping
and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, which secretly deliberates about
requests to wiretap the telephones of suspected terrorists and spies.

The Protect America Act, passed this session and signed by Mr. Bush Aug. 5,
alters the original FISA law of 1978 by permitting phone tapping of U.S. citizens as well as
of foreigners whose calls pass through U.S. soil.

Many supporters of the act, including Mr. Shays, have described it as updating a
law that had lost its relevance because of changing technology.

"We make it harder to get terrorists than we do to get the common criminal," he said, adding that "Unabomber"
Ted Kaczynski was caught through library records. "There's no reason for that, and the stakes are much higher to get the terrorists."

The FISA Court is needed, he added, because "when you're trying to go after terrorists
you don't want to publicize it and have a public hearing in court."

The new law, which is temporary and will be reviewed in six months, now allows an
"instant wiretap" if two parties previously contacted by a known terrorist contact each other.

When asked whether the law could be a slippery slope, Mr. Shays said,
"Everything potentially is a slippery slope. So what you do is you monitor it, you watch it, you see what's happening."

Iraq

Turning to Iraq, Mr. Shays said the troop surge is working but forces are "overtaxed" and should start being "logically" reduced.

The citizens of Iraq and the United States "need to know that we will not be there indefinitely," he said.
The Iraqis also need to know they are not going to be abandoned tomorrow without a stable environment,
competent government or security forces of their own, he said.

In an Aug. 23 letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Mr. Shays outlined several recommendations
stemming from his latest visit to Iraq, including:

• Negotiating a timeline.

• Supporting local elections in stabilized areas.

• Encouraging neighboring countries to publicly state their concern that for
the United States to leave Iraq before it is more secure would be "catastrophic."

• Increasing dialogue with Iran.

• Placing more international pressure on Syria.

• Shutting down the northern Iraq terrorist bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party.

• Making an effort to publicize the positive things happening overseas — "not only focus on every bomb that explodes."

One of the biggest challenges in Iraq, Mr. Shays said, is that the parliament needs 70% of the vote to get anything done.

"What is the Senate able to do with 60%?" he asked.

Mr. Shays said it is a mistake for politicians — especially those who have not visited Iraq — to publicly call for
the removal of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"I think he needs to step down," he added, "but when I go there I'm talking to Sunni, Shias and Kurds.
I'm talking to their politicians."

Arabs want respect, he added, and it is not constructive to be "mouthing off about what al-Maliki needs to do, telling the legislature what they need to do."

Reiterating his support of a timed pullout of troops — a position he opposed until early last summer — Mr. Shays emphasized his opposition to "partisan Democratic deadlines."

He did not support an April 2008 deadline for withdrawal, which Congress approved but Mr. Bush vetoed in May, but attempted to present a compromise to remove "the bulk of troops" by the end of 2008.

A press release sent from his office Aug. 24 said Mr. Shays tried to present this but "has been blocked from bringing a number of his recommendations to the House floor."

"There's going to have to be a time where my Democratic colleagues in Congress decide that they've made enough political hay out of the war and now they're going to try to work with the Republicans to find a common ground," he said. "It's called a compromise, and if people say they don't like compromises then they don't like the Constitution of the United States."

Partisan politics

The only Republican among the five Connecticut representatives, Mr. Shays said he has always tried to do things on a bipartisan basis, whether under a Republican or a Democratic administration.

He said whether in the majority or the minority, "you can be effective either way, when you're in the middle of the political spectrum, if you're not far to the left and you're not far to the right. And my view is that we've got to work together on a bipartisan basis to get things done."

Mr. Shays had a warning for those who cater too much to one side of the aisle, citing the Republicans' loss of six seats after the frenzy to impeach President Clinton.

"I'd like to think I wasn't part of that," he said, "but we paid the penalty in an election and the Democrats will pay the same penalty if they become too partisan."

Mr. Shays would not discuss a congressional race in 2008, but he did pledge his support for Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.