Is there a separate transcript of the Saturday speech AS GIVEN?

[blm]

The prepared remarks don't include Kerry's defense of Islam in the face of BushInc's push to make it his boogeyman.


Or did Kerry say it during a media appearance?

Geez - this headcold is fogging my brain.

[TayTay]

1. It was in the press copy

It should be right there in the first section.

[blm]

2. It seemed like he added to that thought, though.

Or he added more in a media appearance. That's why I was wondering if there was a transcript to the speech as given.

[TayTay]

3. No transcript of 'as delivered.'

Whome marked up her press copy to note when ad libs were inserted. That is as close as we got. Otherwise, go to the web site and make a transcription. (Just print out the press release and note where it differs.)

[whometense]

4. I did mark up my copy -

unfortunately, it's at home. I promise to take a look at it tonight and let you know what I wrote down. I don't recall any big differences, though, more a word here and a phrase there.

[blm]

5. Thanks for checking -

like I said, it could have been one of his recent media appearances and my brain is just not focusing on which one.

[karynnj]

6. The transcript DD posted in the other thread has it in the 2nd paragraph

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2821909&mesg_id=2821981

The outcome will determine whether our children live in freedom or fear. This is a clash between humanity’s best ideals and the darkness of superstition and oppression. And this is not a clash of faiths: the true Islam is a faith to live by, not a call to terrorize and kill.

[Democrafty]

7. Here, I just checked a copy of the remarks as prepared against the

C-SPAN podcast:

__________________________________

Real Security for All Americans
As transcribed by Democrafty from iTunes.
September 9, 2006
Faneuil Hall, Boston

Thank you so much, all of you, for a wonderful, generous welcome here today. Thank you for taking time to come out on a day that is eerily remindful of September 11 itself.

Thank you. Reverend Spellers (sp?) for your wonderful opening prayer. And Gary, I can't thank you enough. I'm so grateful to Gary Hart, not just for taking time to be here today to introduce me, but I'm really grateful for the quality of his leadership, for his time in the Senate. I was privileged to serve with him for a brief period of time. He was one of the first in our nation to redefine American security interests and needs, and all of us are so grateful for his present contribution, together with Senator Warren Rudman, for a report that he put out before September 11 that should have been heeded. And it still remains one of the best analyses of the challenge ahead of us. We are grateful to Gary Hart for that leadership.

And, obviously, all of us could not be more grateful or impressed by Michael Casey, whom I have come to know well, and Carolyn is here, and little Reilly is here. I remember seeing her in Michael's arms as he held her in front of the altar at that service. It was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. And the war on terror that was brought home to the Casey family on a sunny autumn morning that suddenly turned into midnight five years ago also brought home for all of humanity the stark reality that we are in a fateful contest between forces of evil and hate, and the defenders of progress and hope. The outcome will determine whether our children live in freedom or fear.

This is a clash between humanity's best ideals and the darkness of superstition and oppression. This is not a clash of faiths. The true Islam is a faith to live by, not a call to terrorize and to kill. In this war - the war against terrorism, as its come to be known – there is no substitute for victory. I don't know a single American who needs a politician to remind them that we have to win this fight.

On Monday, as you've heard, and as you know, we do commemorate our largest loss of civilian life on a single day in American history. And as we remember the horror, the shock – the unforgettable shock – and the pride in those who rushed to the rescue, and the ways they did it, it's our duty to take account, as a nation, of where we have come since then, since that terrible moment, and where we must go if we are to keep America safe in these perilous times.

Since the beginning of our nation, at critical moments in our history, Americans have gathered, right here in this hall, to find a better way forward. This is where Americans first agreed on our nation's promise, and where they have gathered ever since then in order to help our country keep it. That's why you and I have convened here four times so far this year to chart a new course for a nation that has been misled on global climate change, misled on health care, mislead on fundamental Constitutional values, and misled into a war that was based on a lie, a war that can and must be brought to a close.

Donald Rumsfeld, the man who should have been fired as Secretary of Defense long ago, Donald Rumsfeld recently gave a low and ugly speech in which he smeared those who dissent from a catastrophic policy. And then, he spoke of moral confusion.

Well, there certainly is a lot of moral confusion around these days. It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a conflict without a strategy that can work, on a mission that has not weakened terrorism, but worsened it. It is immoral to lie about progress in that war in order to get through a news cycle or an election. It is immoral to treat 9-11 as a political pawn, and to continue to excuse the invasion of Iraq by exploiting the 3000 mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who were lost that day. They were attacked and killed, not by Saddam Hussein, but by Osama Bin Laden.
And it is deeply immoral to compare a majority of Americans who oppose a failing policy and seek a winning one to appeasers of Fascism and Nazism.

The leaders of this administration have shown in recent days that they will say anything, do anything, twist any truth, and endanger our nation's character as one America in a desperate ploy to survive a midterm election. But I think, and you think, too, that Americans now see through this charade. They know the truth.

We have a Katrina foreign policy: a succession of blunders, and of failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. Every time this administration is down in the polls, every time their political opponents at home appear to gain, what do they do? They trot out the fear card. And instead of reinforcing in Americans, as a great President did, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself,” they have nothing to offer but fear itself.

The President wants Americans to believe that only one party wants to fight terror. That is a desperately cynical game to try to win an election. I believe we need a game plan to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda – not a few Congressional seats.

I believe we need national leadership capable of raising hopes and inspiring trust, not raising fears and demanding blind faith. We need to marshal all of our resources: military, diplomatic, economic, and moral. And first and foremost, we need to always tell the American people the truth.

That is why, on the eve of this midterm election, we Democrats, and Independents, and, hopefully, thoughtful Republicans have a responsibility into every corner of our nation. Not just to oppose what has failed, but to propose a new direction that can restore a bipartisan foreign policy that can actually defeat jihadist terrorism once and for all.

In order to change course, we must level with the American people about the magnitude of the challenge. We have to face reality in order to be able to change it. This starts by leveling with the American people about Iraq's true position in the overall fight against jihadism. The President pretends again and again that Iraq is the central front on the war on terror. It is not now and never has been.

The truth is, the truth is that his disastrous decisions have made Iraq a fuel depot for terror, fanning the flames of conflict around the world. There is simply no way possible to overstate how Iraq has subverter our efforts to free the world from global terror. It have overstretched our military. It has served as an essential recruitment tool for terrorists. It has divided and pushed away traditional allies. It has diverted critical billions of dollars from the real front lines of the war on terror, and from homeland security. It has unleashed dangerous, pent-up historical forces of radical religious extremism. It has weakened moderate leaders in the Middle East. It has strenghtened and played into Iran's hands. It has diminished our moral authority in the world.

And the demagogic drum beat about fighting terrorists over there instead of here, even though they weren't in Iraq until we went in, and it's now a civil war we're fighting has compromised America's real interests, and it has made us less safe than we ought to be five years after 9-11. And lest any American question that, the true measure of that reality is the stark fact that worldwide terrorist attacks are at an all-time high, and there are now more terrorists in the world who want to kill Americans than there were on 9-11.

After all the tough talk of “Wanted Dead or Alive,” after the administration bragged and boasted, they meekly backed off in the mountains of Tora Bora. Osama Bin laden escaped because this administration consciously held back the best military in the world – ours – and they outsourced the job to local militias. And since then, Al Qaeda has spawned a vast, decentralized network, operating in 65 countries. Only Dick Cheney could call this a success.

The situation in Afghanistan deteriorates steadily, sqandering the sacrifices of our troops and allies in the military campaign of 2002. The Taliban now controls entire portions of southern Afghanistan. And just across the border, Pakistan is only one coup away from becoming a radical jihadist state with a full compliment of nuclear weapons. Only Donald Rumsfeld could proclaim this a victory.

The Middle East is more unstable than it has been in decades. Our stalwart ally, Israel, is surrounded by emboldened enemies who talk of wiping it off the face of the earth. Hezbollah flags fly from rooftops in Shiia slums of Sadr City and Iran is rebuilding Southern Lebanon. Only an Administration trapped in its own falsehoods could say that we are making progress in creating a new Middle East.

North Korea has quadrupled its nuclear weapons capability, and is defiantly testing missiles that could reach our shores. Iran is moving steadily towards membership in the nuclear club; has expanded its terrorist clientele from Hezbollah to Hamas; maintains thousands of agents in Iraq; and is governed by a fanatic who almost daily calls for Israel's destruction. Only George W Bush could declare this 'mission accomplished.'

My friends, the Bush-Cheney policies have actually limited our power to act decisively, and the regime in Tehran knows it. We have over 130,000 American troops in Iraq in the middle of a seething Shiite population that would explode if we moved against Iran. Our troops and our foreign policy are held hostage by the neocon catastrophe in Iraq, and only this White House could call it a plan for victory.

And be forewarned: don't be surprised if they hype the Iranian nuclear crisis come October if all other appeals to fear are failing as the mid-term election approaches.

We have an Iraqi Prime Minister sustained in power by our forces, who will not speak against the Hezbollah terrorists, who will not say that Israel has a right to exist, and who will not condemn the Iranian nuclear program. Let me tell you, no American soldier should be asked to stand up for an Iraqi government that won't stand up for freedom and against fear.

And here at home, too many things have not changed in the last five years. We learned on 9/11 painful lessons about the costs of a dysfunctional intelligence system marred by bureaucratic infighting, inadequate resources, and faulty analysis. Yet the 9/11 commission – which the families fight for so hard to get, and this administration opposed – the 9/11 commission gave our own government a failing grade on implementing intelligence reforms. Today, our ability to intercept terrorist communications remains in a legal and constitutional limbo for lack of leadership.

The Dubai port deal only reminded us that a small percentage of cargoes entering U.S. ports are even inspected. Surely if we can inspect cargoes at the Baghdad airport, we can inspect cargoes at the airports in New York and Los Angeles and Boston.

This is the reality of the world today -- a world more dangerous because of the Bush blunders and a challenge far more complicated than the gruff Cheney sound bites. America deserves -- our safety depends -- on a winning strategy to reverse this dangerous course and actually make our country more safe.

There are five principal priorities that demand immediate action: (1) redeploy from Iraq for success, (2) re-commit to Afghanistan, (3) reduce our dependence on foreign oil, (4) reinforce our homeland defense, and (5) restore America's moral leadership in the world. These "5 R's" -- if you want to call them that-- are the bold steps that Democrats will take to strengthen our national security, and that Republicans who have set the agenda today resist, at our national peril.

We must refocus military efforts from the failed occupation of Iraq to what we should have been doing all along: tracking down and killing members of al Qaeda and their clones wherever they are. We must redeploy troops from Iraq -- maintain enough residual force to complete the training and deter foreign intervention, so we can free up resources to actually fight the global war on terror.

Now, Republicans want to wrap this strategy in simple little slogans because they're afraid to debate what it really is: a redeploy-to-succeed strategy -- to succeed in defeating world terror, and to succeed in making Iraqis themselves responsible for Iraq.

This is the opposite of the administration's stand-still-and-lose strategy - -a clear alternative from a broken policy of "more of the same." Every time President Bush tells the Iraqis we will "stay as long as it takes," he is giving squabbling politicians the excuse to take as long as they want. All of us in America want democracy for Iraq. We want it for all countries. But Iraqis must want it for themselves as much as we want it for them. I say this clearly: It is long overdue for the president to realize that no American soldier should be sacrificed because Iraqi factions refuse to resolve their ethnic rivalries and their competing grasp for oil revenues in Iraq. That must change.

At each step along the way, the Iraqi leaders have responded to what? Only to deadlines-a deadline to transfer authority to a provisional government, a deadline to write a Constitution, a deadline for three elections. So we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on its own two feet-- a clear deadline of July, 2007 to redeploy our combat troops. Make Iraqis stand up for Iraq -- and bring our heroes home.

We also desperately need something else that this administration disdains: diplomacy. Real diplomacy -- a Dayton-like summit of Iraq and the countries bordering it, the Arab League, NATO, and the Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council. Our own generals have said Iraq can not be solved militarily. Only through negotiation and diplomacy can you stem the growing civil war, if you can. And only by setting out a deadline to get out can we force Iraq and its neighbors to actually take diplomacy seriously.

"Staying the course" isn't far-sighted; it's blind. Leaving our troops in the middle of a civil war isn't resolute; it's reckless. Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion.

Neither can the Administration pretend that the war in Afghanistan is over or that the peace has been secured. On Thursday the president said we're on the offensive against terrorists in Afghanistan, even as the American NATO commander on the ground showed the opposite is true by making an urgent plea for more troops.

The truth is -- the Bush-Cheney Administration has engaged in a policy of cut and run in that country. This Administration has cut and run while the Taliban-led insurgency is running amok across entire regions of the country. The Administration has cut and run while Osama bin Laden and his henchmen hide and plot in a lawless no-man's land. They cut and run even as we learn from Pakistani intelligence that the mastermind of the most recent attempt to blow up American airliners was an al Qaeda leader operating from Afghanistan -- yes, that's right -- the same killers who attacked us on 9/11 are still plotting attacks against America and they're still holed up in Afghanistan.

To avoid repeating the terrible mistakes of the past, we unfortunately need to send reinforcements to Afghanistan: Start with at least five thousand additional American troops -- more elite Special Forces, the best counter-insurgency units in the world; more civil affairs forces; and more experienced intelligence units. More predator drones to find this real enemy, more helicopters to allow rapid deployments to confront them, and more heavy equipment to make sure you can actually crush the terrorists. And more reconstruction money so that the elected government in Kabul, helped by the United States, not the Taliban, helped by al Qaeda, rebuilds Afghanistan.

That is how you win the hearts and minds of the local population, and that's how you win a war on terror, and that's how you show the world the true face of America.

America needs a national policy that understands we're not just threatened by gun barrels, we're threatened by oil barrels. The great treasury of jihadist terrorism is Mideast oil. We fund both sides in the war on terror every time we fill up our gas tanks. We know how dependent we are on oil, but it's not just us. We have to liberate the Middle East itself from the tyranny of dependence on petroleum so that the region no longer feeds restive and rising populations of unemployed young people a diet of illusions and rationalizations paid for by our oil money.

Nothing will change if autocratic regimes keep pumping prosperity out of the ground to pay off a new generation with petrodollar welfare checks. We cannot change this if our oil money is sustaining the status quo. My friends, we must end the Empire of Oil.

And we can't allow Energy independence to be used as a mere slogan, it has to be a real solution. We need a revolutionary set of new policies to promote alternative fuels on a crash basis. This is essential if we are to reverse the tide towards catastrophic global climate change; it is essential to making the United States a leader in showing the world the vast new opportunities, and market clean energy technologies -- but most importantly, energy independence is essential to defeating jihadist terrorism and liberating our country from our bondage to tyrannical, hostile, and unstable regimes.

In June – right here at Faneuil Hall -- I unveiled a comprehensive strategy to break our oil addiction. It begins with an aggressive goal: reduce U.S. oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels of oil a day by 2015.

I envision an aggressive timeline to immediately expand the availability and production of renewable fuels and a new fleet of energy-efficient cars, trucks and SUVs. This strategy invests heavily in renewable energy and efficiency. And by clearing the pathways to innovation, investing in our workers and our infrastructure, and providing American consumers with broader choices, my energy plan will provide the tools that actually move America forward, toward real energy security for the 21st
Century.

And to really make America safe, it is imperative that we reinforce our homeland security defense-- starting by doing what should have begun two years ago: fully implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. President Bush this week said that Osama bin Laden and the terrorists plan to target America's 'weak points.' Our weak points -- our borders, our chemical plants, our railways-- are weak because this administration has the wrong priorities. The President's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are not only unfair and unaffordable: they are taking from homeland security. What we have today from this White House is a pretense of national security on the cheap -- and it must end.

We must rearm ourselves at home. Hurricane Katrina showed us in the most tragic way that the Department of Homeland Security is woefully unprepared to handle a natural disaster we know is coming a week in advance, let alone a catastrophic terrorist attack that takes America by surprise. In 2004, the 9/11 Commission concluded that the Bush Administration should distribute homeland security funds to cities and states based on risk. Yet the Commission's most recent report card gives the
government an "F" because this Administration has cut homeland security for the states that need it most -- which happen to be blue states -- while distributing funds disproportionately to the red states that need it least. Now let me tell you, what should count here is the terrorist target list, not the Republican National Committees' target list.

To make sure that we make America safe we have to ensure the rapid deployment and development of reliable technologies in order to detect the secret transport of deadly materials across borders. For $1.5 billion dollars -- less than is spent in one week in Iraq -- we could purchase the equipment to scan every single cargo container bound for U.S. ports to ensure that it does not contain any weapons of mass destruction.

At the same time, we have to secure the most dangerous of all weapons at their source -- especially in the former Soviet Union -- where far too much nuclear material still remains dangerously unprotected. We have to enhance FBI counterterrorism capabilities here at home-- an effort that is moving far too slowly because of a lack of urgency from this Administration.

And we must put an end to Washington's continued inaction to secure our border. Border security backed by immigration reform is actually one area where sensible Democrats and sensible Republicans have come together to forge a compromise. Unfortunately, this proposal has been held hostage to narrow right-wing political interests while our security hangs in the balance, and leadership to change it is absent.

We must -- and let me tell you no matter what the White House wants, the Congress will -- reconstitute the Bin Laden unit at the CIA, which the Administration inexplicably disbanded. I don't know why they disbanded it, but knowing the way they think, I presume that they thought that if they weren't looking for Bin Laden, no one would notice that they weren't finding him.

So these are four specific steps that will start us on the right path, but I mentioned a fifth. And that's because they alone will not win the war on terror.

Most important, we need to make America be America again. We must restore our moral authority and global leadership by deploying the full arsenal of our national power with smarter diplomacy, stronger alliances, more effective international institutions -- and fidelity to the values we have always stood for as a nation.

We have to remember the great lesson of the Cold War when we led the world to confront a common threat. Genuine global leadership is a strategic imperative for America, not a favor that we do for other countries. Leading the world's most advanced democracies isn't mushy multilateralism -- it amplifies America's voice, it extends our reach. Working through global institutions doesn't tie our hands -- it gives greater strength and legitimacy to our purposes and it dampens the fear and resentment that our
overwhelming power sometimes triggers in others.

We need to strengthen international institutions. We need to build alliances that amplify our power and extend the reach of our influence, and remember: even the most powerful nation on the face of this planet needs to make some friends.

This administration crows about leadership. Let me tell you what real leadership means. Real leadership means talking with countries who aren't our friends. It means engaging directly when our vital national security interests are at stake -- even with countries that we strongly disagree with -- because treating dialogue as a means rather than an end can help us to achieve our goals. As John Kennedy once said, "we must never negotiate out of fear but we must never fear to negotiate." If Richard Nixon could send Henry Kissinger to China, surely George Bush can send a real negotiating team to North Korea. And if Ronald Reagan could talk to the evil empire, surely we can talk with Iran or Syria.

We need to start treating our moral authority as a precious national asset that doesn't limit our power but magnifies our influence. Only this week did the Administration finally recognize that the protections of the Geneva Convention had to be applied to prisoners in order to comply with the law, restore our moral authority, and best protect American troops. Well, let me say it plainly: No American
president should be for torture before he's against it.

Anyone who understood the conflict that we face could never shrug off the imperative of winning the hearts and minds of Muslim moderates.

We have to start leading by example. We should never engage in or excuse violations of basic human rights. We must uphold the rule of law in our own conduct. And we should never accept officials lying in any position at all. No White House should ever bully the Director of the CIA to make a case he knows isn't true -- and no White House should reward it with the Medal of Freedom.

To restore our credibility with the moderates in the Muslim world and to safeguard Israel's place in the world, we must renew the search for a lasting peace in the Middle East. We know from hard lessons of the past that that won't be easy. But we also know from the disasters of the present that it is essential.

So I have outlined five specific steps to make our nation safer which I believe stand in stark contrast to the Republicans' failed policies.

So let's have a real debate. Let's give all of us -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- a real "accountability moment" this November.

Let's stand up for what we believe. It's the only way to win. And it is the only way that we will be worthy of winning.

Let the President give his speeches attacking the patriotism of his fellow Americans. Let him play the politics of fear. As Democrats, we choose to offer a real plan to attack the terrorists and free America from fear.

And then let the American people decide. Thank you, and God Bless.

[blm]

8. Y'know - I like this speech even better.

It doesn't have what I was looking for, but, damn - it really has some great extra cool thoughts in it.

I must have heard him him get into the Islam struggle during one of his recent interviews.

[TayTay]

9. blm: the best speech on Sen. Kerry's thoughts on Islam

is in the Dec 8, 2005 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. That is still one of the best foreign policy speeches I have ever heard. The good Senator laid out what we need to do to have a genuine give and take with the people of the Middle East. He talked about the division on Islam now and how the wrong push from the US gives the extremist factions ammunition in their fight to succeed in the current struggle.

It really was one of the best foreign policy speeches ever. Very complete, extremely well-thought out and wonderfully delivered in a far more relaxed atmosphere than the Faneuil Hall speeches which are formal. (And which I love seeing, btw.) Ahm, oddly enough, I am humbled by listening to these speeches and they make me a bit wistful. I can't help thinking, if only... sigh!

I, ahm, ah, well, ahm, geez, I think I am lucky to have such a good Senator. I think he deserves a promotion. At the same time it is almost surreal to think of him as President because we don't have Presidents anymore who talk about moral imperatives and about how much 'our values' mean to the fundamental core of who we are as a people. Nobody talks like that anymore. It is almost surreal to hear this because it is such a call to the soul to take action now. The most jarring moments on DU are the ones that comment that Kerry talks too well and uses too many words. I always want to ask them just what words should be cut from something. They seem just right to me.

It takes me a while to fully 'hear' these speeches. I know from the past that the speeches contain more than first meets the, ahm, ear. It's just amazing, in this so cynical day and age to hear someone call an action of the US government 'immoral' and to ask that it be opposed because the pursuit of it damages our national soul. That is really something to think about, and really, really rare. I so wish it wasn't rare at all. It makes me wistful.

[blm]

10. I agree with you about the earlier speech.

It absolutely was the best and most COMPREHENSIVE foreign policy speech from ANYONE post 9-11 and Iraq.