Political Quotes

“If I may add another layer of process here. Some people on our side say that is way too much. You should throw these people in military--Senator Lieberman, my dear friend, if you left it up to him, everybody caught as an al-Qaida operative would be thrown in military custody and would be held as long as we need to hold them and would be tried by military commissions. At the end of the day that is sort of where I come out, but I am not going to create a 535-commander-in-chief body here because there are times when that may not work. What we have done is what the Senator said. If you capture someone at home, it is as the Senator described. The reason, to my colleagues on this side, I wanted to build in the things the Senator described is because I am very worried about crossing over out of our lane into the executive lane. I think we have created a great process. But here is what happens to that al-Qaida operative. Not only does the executive branch have the flexibility to go one way versus the other, starting with the idea of military custody, but all the things the Senator said are true. What do they have beyond that? If someone is being held as an enemy combatant, there are regulations requiring that they be presented to a combat status review tribunal, now with a military judge, access to counsel--I think it is within 60--I cannot remember the time period. That is done. Then they have the right to take that decision and appeal it to a habeas Federal district court judge.…”