Political Quotes

“Please understand what you are about to do if you pass the Feinstein amendment. You will be saying as a Congress, for the first time in American history, an American citizen who allies himself with an enemy force can no longer be held as an enemy combatant. The In Re Quirin decision was about American citizens aiding Nazi saboteurs, and the Supreme Court held then that they could be held as enemy combatants. So as much respect as I have for Senator Durbin, it has been the law of the United States for decades that an American citizen on our soil who collaborates with the enemy has committed an act of war and will be held under the law of war, not domestic criminal law. That is the law back then. That is the law now. Hamdi said that an American citizen--a noncitizen has a habeas right under law of war detention because this is a war without end. The holding of that case was not that you cannot hold an American citizen, it is that you have a habeas right to go to a Federal judge and the Federal judge will determine whether the military has made a proper case. It has nothing to do with an enemy combatant being held as an American citizen. What this amendment would do is it would bar the United States in the future from holding an American citizen who decides to associate with al-Qaida. In World War II it was perfectly proper to hold an American citizen as an enemy combatant who helped the Nazis. But we believe, somehow, in 2011, that is no longer fair. That would be wrong.…”