Political Quotes

“I would agree with the Senator from South Carolina that unfortunately there are threats we face within our own country from homegrown radicalism. But also let's not forget, this amendment, in terms of the military custody, applies to members of al-Qaida or associated forces who have planned an attack against our country or our coalition partners and are not U.S. citizens. So in this provision we are talking about foreigners coming to our country who are members of al-Qaida and who want to harm Americans, if we think about what happened on September 11. I would also add, I think it is very important what is in this important provision of the Defense Authorization Act, in response to the Senator from California, who raised the case of Zazi as an example where she thought that case would be impacted by this amendment, that is simply, with all respect to the Senator from California, not the case. Because if one looks at the language in our amendment, we have given flexibility to the executive branch to conduct the interrogations, to have surveillance. So in the Zazi case, there was surveillance undertaken. We put express language in here allowing the executive branch to allow law enforcement to conduct surveillance, to conduct interrogation. I would point out that provision in terms of the amount of flexibility we have actually given the executive branch.…”