Political Quotes

“This amendment would prohibit the Department of Defense from even reviewing locations in the U.S. to hold Guantanamo detainees. It would obviously make it much more difficult to close the prison, which is obviously its purpose, which experts agree that it is the prison that harms U.S. national security. Major General Michael Lehnert, the first commander charged with constructing and operating the Guantanamo detention facility after 9/ 11, recently submitted a statement for the record to the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security, calling Guantanamo ``inconsistent with our values as Americans,'' and recommending the prison be closed. As General Lehnert stated: ``Guantanamo's continued existence hurts us in our prosecution of the fight against terrorists. It feeds into the narrative that the United States is not a Nation of laws nor one that respect human rights.'' Former Secretary of State Colin Powell recently said that closing Guantanamo is in the United States ``best interest.'' Powell also stressed the effectiveness of U.S. Federal courts to prosecute terrorism offenses, which have convicted over 67 individuals of such charges since 9/11, including Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Federal courts have been vastly more successful than the Guantanamo military commissions, where four of the eight detainees convicted have had their convictions completely overturned. Prohibiting the Department of Defense from assessing U.S.…”