Political Quotes

“Under the law as it exists today, an American citizen can be held as an enemy combatant. The question we are debating on the floor--Senator Feinstein is saying that in the future an American citizen who is deemed to have collaborated with al-Qaida or the Taliban or others could no longer be held as an enemy combatant for an indefinite period, which means we cannot gather military intelligence as to what they know about past, present, and future attacks. I argue we would be the first Congress in history to bring about that result and that now would be the worst time in American history to do that. If we cannot hold a citizen who is suspected of assisting al- Qaida under the law of war, the only option is to put them in the criminal justice system. Then we cannot hold them indefinitely, and we cannot ask about present, past or future attacks because now we are investigating a crime, nor should we be allowed to do that under criminal law. The point is that when a person assists the enemy, whether at home or abroad, they have committed an act of war against our citizens, and the Supreme Court has acknowledged that the executive branch has the power to hold them as an enemy combatant.…”