Alan Grayson: “The amendment at the desk is simple. It reads as you just read it. As you know, Guantanamo was opened for business, so…”

“The amendment at the desk is simple. It reads as you just read it. As you know, Guantanamo was opened for business, so to speak, in January of 2002. It is now June of 2014. My amendment seems to give some kind of clue as to how long we, a free people who respect freedom, are willing to incarcerate and imprison people who have been accused of no crime, have faced no judge, no jury, and have never been subject to the American system of justice. My amendment has no immediate effect during this fiscal year. As it says, it is limited to persons who have served for 15 years or more at Guantanamo Bay. The facility itself is only 12 years old. What this amendment does do is ensure that no funds will be made available by this bill that are carried over to future fiscal years and are then used to imprison anyone for 15 years or longer if they haven't been accused, much less convicted of any crime. I would hope that we, as a free people, would understand that principle and agree that this is reasonable. Nobody, nobody, foreign or American, should be subject to imprisonment for more than 15 years without ever even facing his accusers, much less being convicted of a crime. That is particularly true under the auspices of the U.S. Government because we are a people of laws, not a people of people.…”