Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is not about closing Guantanamo. As was said before, it does not demand the closing of Guantanamo. It does say that detainees, whether they're held at Guantanamo or held somewhere else, can come to the United States if the administration decides that they should be tried in a regular court or can be tried in the military court at Guantanamo or presumably even in a military court somewhere else. We keep talking about terrorists. Some of these people are terrorists. Some are accused of being terrorists and are not. Some were simply picked up by some rival group in Afghanistan and sold for $5,000 for a bounty to American troops and labeled as terrorists. And it may be that the prosecuting authorities, that the military authorities decide that it will be better justice or for the convenience of the Armed Forces to have this person tried in a regular court. Now, we know that the regular courts have convicted 470, I think, terrorists; whereas, the military courts have convicted all of five or six. We also know that the statutory underpinnings of the military courts are under challenge and will be under challenge in front of the courts and that anyone convicted there is probably going to go for years before that conviction is affirmed by the Supreme Court.…”