Political Quotes

“To Senator Feinstein, I do believe the second provision is where we want to be, at least from my point of view. To my colleagues, I never intended by 1031 to change the law imposing a greater burden on American citizens or more exposure to military detention, nor did I wish to have additional rights beyond what exist today. The problem I have with Senator Feinstein's amendment is it says the authority in this section for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain a person does not include the authority to detain a citizen of the United States without trial until the end of hostilities. Here is my concern. When you tell a judge, as a defense attorney: I want my client's rights preserved regarding a civilian trial guaranteed in this section--and the end of hostilities could be 30 years from now--Your Honor, if these rights mean anything, they need to attach now--if the civilian rights attach immediately upon detention, what I think would be a problem is that the military interrogation is lost. American citizens are not subject to a military commission trial. A lot of people on my side didn't like that. I do want to make sure American citizens go into article III courts, but the law has been since World War II, if a person joins the enemy, even as an American citizen, they are subject to being detained for interrogation purposes. That is my goal and that has always been my goal.…”