Kelly Ayotte: “I rise in support of amendment No. 2255. Let me just say what we cannot afford. What we cannot afford is to read…”

“I rise in support of amendment No. 2255. Let me just say what we cannot afford. What we cannot afford is to read terrorists Miranda rights and tell them they have the right to remain silent. Why can't we afford that? Because if we lose the opportunity to gather valuable information to protect our Nation, then we cannot prevent future attacks against the country. Here is the problem we face. Here, shown in this picture I have in the Chamber, is the current head of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. If we capture him tomorrow, I ask my colleagues this: Do you want to send him to a secure detention facility where he can be fully interrogated under the laws of war and held there in detention under law of war authority or do you want to send him to a prison in the United States where we cannot know--the legal questions are many--where there is a real risk that he will not be able to be held in law of war detention and will be told you have the right to remain silent, and we will lose opportunities to gather intelligence to protect our country. My colleague from Illinois talked about the worst criminals whom we put in prison. I am a former murder prosecutor, and I put some of the worst murderers in prison. There is a difference. We are not dealing with criminals; we are dealing with terrorists. The priority has to be to gather information and protect our country.…”