2014 MN Senate debate: on Homeland Security

Al Franken: Worked since 2009 on fighting ISIS recruitment in Minn

Franken counters that he's been on top of the issue for years: "In 2009, we knew that Shabab in Somalia was beginning to recruit from our communities. The first days I was in office I went to the FBI and got a briefing," he said during a debate last week "I have worked with law enforcement. I pressed the secretary of Homeland Security. I pressed the director of the FBI in [Senate Judiciary Committee] hearings on this recruitment."

It is estimated that anywhere between 20 and 40 Minnesotans recruited from the state's sizable Somalian emigre population have left the U.S. and joined the Al Shabab terror network since 2008, and another 10 or 12 have joined ISIS.

Mike McFadden: Combat propaganda & recruiting by the Islamic State

Mike McFadden, the Republican, has accused Democratic incumbent Sen. Al Franken of failing to stop Minnesota from becoming a recruiting ground for extremists, and this week he released his own plan to combat propaganda and recruiting campaigns by the Islamic State, Somalia-based Al Shabab and other Islamist organizations aimed at Minnesota immigrant young people.

Franken, who is finishing his first term, counters that he's been on top of the issue for years. McFadden argues that Franken--and the Obama administration as a whole--have not done enough to stop the trend.

Mike McFadden: We need a national strategy against ISIS, and don't have one

Franken countered that he pressed the FBI and US Justice Department to focus more resources to crack down on terrorist recruitment. Franken said McFadden last year ducked a question on what action to take after Syrian President Bashar Assad was believed to have used chemical weapons on his own people. "He refused to answer because it was a tough call," Franken said. "It is easy to score political points from the bleachers. This is a serious job. You've got to make real choices in real time."

Jim Abeler: Our friends don't trust us; our enemies don't fear us

Abeler: Strongly Agree

Question topic: Briefly list political or legislative issues of most concern to you.

Abeler: Foreign policy: our friends don't trust us and our enemies don't fear us. This places our security in peril.

Al Franken: Let companies reveal how much data NSA has gathered

Documents leaked by now infamous contract employee Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA has been collecting the phone & web records of millions of Americans using secret court orders. "Americans still have no way of knowing whether the government is striking the right balance between privacy & security--or whether their privacy is being violated," Franken said. "There needs to be more transparency."

Google offered support for Franken's legislation, which would lift gag orders on companies & allow them to report information about data requests they get from the government. [An opponent] said that disclosing the requests would give terrorists an advantage; they'd gravitate to companies that receive no requests.