Adam Schiff: “Mr. Speaker, it has taken over 5 years since September 11 for the administration to finally come to Congress and seek…”

“Mr. Speaker, it has taken over 5 years since September 11 for the administration to finally come to Congress and seek legislation establishing military tribunals to try terrorist suspects. For over 4 years now, many of my Democratic colleagues and I have urged this Congress to act in this area. Four-and-a-half years ago I introduced legislation, other of my colleagues did the same, to establish military tribunals, and we introduced that legislation for two reasons: first, because we should detain people who mean to harm our country and mean to injure our citizens; and, second, because the administration's unilateral act in establishing these commissions was on the most dubious of constitutional grounds and we did not want to be where we are today, 5 years hence, with a system that was struck down by the Supreme Court, where people have not been brought to justice. But here we are. It has taken the majority and the administration 5 years to get here, but here we are. Terrorists who seek to harm this country must be captured. They must be tried, detained and punished to protect our country, and there is a way to detain them, to gather valuable intelligence from them, to try and convict them without sacrificing our ideals as a Nation. We are at war with a vicious enemy who seeks to destroy our way of life. It is a military fight; but in a broader sense, it is also a war of ideas.”