John Culberson: “I want to make sure everyone in the House understands that what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) is attempting…”

“I want to make sure everyone in the House understands that what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) is attempting to do is to give constitutional rights to foreign nationals captured on battlefields overseas who are being held in Guantanamo Bay. Never before in American history have we ever given foreign nationals-- enemy combatants captured overseas on a battlefield--constitutional rights, the most precious rights we have, that were fought for, bled for, died for by our forefathers on so many battlefields all over the world to preserve these precious rights reserved for the people of the United States of America. Mr. Nadler wants to extend the protections of this Constitution to the killers and the psychopaths who have killed so many Americans overseas. I could not disagree more strenuously. I know the House disagrees strenuously. We have voted on this repeatedly. And the House and the Congress have repeatedly affirmed this language, which says very clearly, ``none of the funds appropriated''--this is the language Mr. Nadler seeks to strike: ``None of the funds appropriated . . . in this or any other Act may be used to transfer, release, or assist in the transfer or release to or within the United States . . . Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other detainee who is not a United States citizen or a member of the Armed Forces . . . and is or was held on or after June 24, 2009 . . .…”