Political Quotes

“Would the Senator agree that what we have been able to do on the committee is basically say, in law for the first time, that the homeland is part of the battlefield; that military custody is available to hold a suspected al-Qaida operative caught in the United States-- American citizen or not--but we are going to allow the administration-- this administration and all future administrations--to change that model if they believe it is best? To me, we have created a right by our intelligence community, law enforcement community, to do at home what they can do overseas. If we do not do that, that would just not only be absurd, I think it would make us all less safe for no higher purpose. So to my colleagues who believe we are changing something, all we are trying to do is make sure that when the enemy makes it to America, we can hold them and gather intelligence to protect ourselves, no more and no less. We start with the presumption of military custody. But if the experts in the field, this administration or future administrations, believe that model is not best, they can seek a waiver. That, to me, is what we should have been doing for years. Because the battlefield, to those who are listening, is an idea, not a country. We are battling an idea; that is, a terrible idea. Their idea is, if you are a moderate Muslim seeking to worship God a different way, you are not worthy of living.…”