Political Quotes

“Very quickly, I appreciate the patience of the Senator from Florida and Chairman Warner. Mr. President, this amendment deals with the concept called unlawful enemy combatant, a concept being used to detain about 500 people at Guantanamo Bay who have been captured throughout the world, many of them on battlefields. It is a concept that goes back to World War II where the Supreme Court, during World War II, coined the phrase ``enemy combatant'' to deal with some German saboteurs who were caught coming into America in civilian clothes, with a plan to disrupt American life in the war operations. These individuals--I think there were seven of them--were tried by military tribunals. A couple of them were put to death. Some were given lengthy prison sentences. Then the Court recognized the concept of enemy combatant. Fast forward 60 years. What do we find? We find ourselves in a war with a group of people who are not part of a state or a nation. They do not wear uniforms. They are terrorists. They hide among civilians. They cheat. They do anything one can imagine to have their way. They do not abide by any international regimes. When we capture these people, we have made a decision as a nation to house them at Guantanamo Bay, a place run by the military. It has three functions: To interrogate foreign terrorists to get good information to make sure that we are safer as a nation. Senator McCain has an amendment to standardize the interrogation techniques.…”