Political Quotes

“Mr. President, off and on and for some time I have come to the floor to speak about an issue that doesn't receive a lot of attention, which is political prisoners in foreign lands--journalists in Cameroon, an AIDS activist in Uzbekistan, and a lot of others. I am pleased that over the years, working with many of my colleagues, we have been able to see many of these innocent political victims released. Former Senator Brownback, as well as Senators Cardin, Casey, Kennedy, Lieberman, and Rubio have all been part of a joint effort to deal with these political prisoners. Sadly, there is no shortage of political prisoners in this world. They languish in horrible prisons in places such as Iran and North Korea. Today I want to focus on a number of them, and I will preface my remarks by apologizing ahead of time for my pronunciation of these names. Some of these are extremely difficult to pronounce for those of us in the States, particularly from the Midwest. I suppose one might start typically with the most outrageous case, but, tragically, all of the cases I speak to fit that definition. Let me start with the heartbreaking case from 6 years ago--that of Gambian journalist Ebrima Manneh. Manneh was a reporter for the Daily Observer newspaper. He was allegedly detained by plainclothes Gambian security officials. He was held incommunicado for years, although he was seen during the initial years of his detention by witnesses in at least one detention facility and one hospital.…”