Political Quotes

“No. 1, we have a fundamental difference. I do not want everyone to have habeas rights. I do not want the enemy combatant al- Qaida terrorist to be able to go in our courts and start to sue our own troops. I don't want it. I don't think people in this body want it. I do not think the American people want it. I want al-Qaida members to be detained in armed conflict. They should not have due process rights beyond what the Geneva Conventions ever envisioned. As to Senator Bingaman's amendment, he talks about they can't base claims on living conditions, but listen to this: Whether the status determination was supported by sufficient evidence and reached in accordance with due process of law, provided that statements obtained through undue coercion, torture, or cruel or inhuman treatment may not be used as a basis for the determination, and consideration of lawfulness of the detention of such alien. You could drive an army of trucks through those legal exceptions. What it would do is legitimize this request by a Canadian detainee, who threw a grenade and killed an American medic, in moving for a preliminary injunction forbidding the interrogation of him or engaging in cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of him. In other words, under this amendment, that claim stands. He could come in and ask a Federal judge: I want you sitting there while they interrogate me. And we are turning the war away from military people to Federal judges. We can't do that.…”