I just want to let the committee know that you and Doug Stone and others involved with Camp Bucca is probably one of the great, great success stories of Iraq.

Would you support sending Guantanamo Bay detainees to Afghanistan, to Bagram? Is that a good idea?

We're running out of jail space for certain people, and we need to find confinement facilities that work.

We write to express our deep concern about reports that the administration is planning to transfer six Yemeni nationals currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the custody of the government of Yemen. We request an immediate halt…

But, I can't understand letting Afghanistan go back into the abyss again. That's my dilemma.

This is the last best chance America has to get it right in Afghanistan.

One of the reasons they've been able to seize power and influence is they can provide services the Afghan Government is unable to provide.

I believe it would be a 9 or 10, not just because I believe al Qaeda would move back in, but also because I believe regional instability as it would spill over into Pakistan and other areas would be absolutely negative to our interests.

It is sad. It would have been sad to have lost in Iraq. It would have been devastating.

So in the next 18 months, to roll them back we're going to put combat power in that we've never had, right?

I believe that it is.

But under domestic criminal law, the moment the person is in the hands of the U.S. Government, they are entitled to be told they have a right to a lawyer and can remain silent.

Right. And under military law, you can hold somebody without any expectation of trial if they are, in fact, part of the enemy force.

Yes. There are speedy trial rights, which--

With all due respect, every military lawyer that I have talked to is deeply concerned about the fact that if we go down this road, we are criminalizing the war, and we are putting our intelligence gathering at risk.

This is an important point here that, you know, the idea of preventive detention, I do not think Senator Feingold is high on that idea.

I just think when you are at war and the people you have in your capture the commander-in-chief has determined through a rational process are part of the enemy force or may go back to the fight, that America is not a better place for…

We are making history, and we are making bad history, and let me tell you why.

If we are going to use Federal court as a disposition for terrorists, you take everything that comes with being in Federal court.

I am here to tell you that I am sure he will get convicted in Federal court, but not because we are threatening the judge or the jury, but just because of the nature of the case.

I think you have made a fundamental mistake here.

Now, from the protocols that we would institute from the military side, what would you recommend that our military commanders, intelligence officials do at the point of capture?

I think defending the worst among us makes us all better.

What I am afraid of is the war on terror has become a police action, and I think that undermines our National security.

I totally agree with you, and, you know, obviously we parted ways on some of this, but these are not easy decisions.