As I understand the purpose of this amendment, it is basically to have the Congress on record for the concept that once you are determined to be an enemy combatant, a part of the enemy force, there is no requirement to let you go at any…

So if the Department of Defense somehow intercepted information about an al-Qaida cell, let's say in Connecticut or South Carolina, could they be involved in suppressing that cell?

But our military has the ability to defend us against al- Qaida attacks at home, such as they do abroad.

Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the military cannot be used for domestic law enforcement functions. Does the Senator agree with me that tracking al-Qaida operatives--citizen or not--within the United States is not a law enforcement…

Wouldn't the Senator agree that under domestic criminal law, that indefinite ability to question about enemy activity doesn't exist?

Yes. Mr. McCAIN. So we are at war. We have American citizens who are enemy combatants. Yet the Senator from Illinois, in the most bizarre fashion that I have heard, says, therefore, they are guaranteed the protections of--as he said--a…

But what Senator Feinstein is proposing is that no longer do we have the option of holding the American citizen as an enemy combatant to gather intelligence, and we don't have the ability to hold them for a period of time to interrogate…

So would the Senator agree with me that the current law is very clear that anytime an American citizen joins the enemy force, they can be held as an enemy combatant; that is the law?

Please understand what you are about to do if you pass the Feinstein amendment. You will be saying as a Congress, for the first time in American history, an American citizen who allies himself with an enemy force can no longer be held as…

Does the Senator agree that the government has to prove to an independent judge by a preponderance of the evidence that the person is a member of al-Qaida involved in hostilities?

So everybody held after judicial review for the first time in the history of warfare. Does the Senator agree with me that the annual review process that we have created by this law, this bill, the Defense Authorization Act, is something we…

Every detainee not only gets their day in Federal court, the government must prove they have a solid case to hold them as an enemy combatant, and everyone gets a yearly review as to whether they are a continuing threat?

Does the Senator agree with me that the dangers our Nation faces do not justify changing existing law, denying this country the ability to gather intelligence even against an American citizen joined with al-Qaida, that that would be an…

Let's just logically walk through this. In every war in which America has been involved, American citizens unfortunately have chosen at times to side with the enemy. Our courts say the executive branch can hold them as enemy combatants…

Does the Senator agree that holding an enemy prisoner-- one of the benefits of capturing someone is gathering intelligence?

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 more minute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

That is the point. Why would you say that if you are in Afghanistan, we can blow you up, put you in jail forever, but if you make it here, all of a sudden we cannot even talk to you about being part of al-Qaida. What a perverse outcome, to…

``You are an enemy combatant, and we are going to talk to you about why you joined al-Qaida.'' The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.