Political Quotes

“I have offered an amendment that clarifies--although that is not exactly the right word--the fact that an unlawful combatant or a combatant who is held by the U.S. military for being an enemy of the United States, a combatant against the United States, or an unlawful combatant, is not therefore entitled to be released if the U.S. military or the civilian courts choose to prosecute him and he is acquitted or after he serves his sentence but before hostilities have ended. These are entirely different matters. There are two questions: Are you an enemy combatant of the United States? These are the kinds of prisoners of war in World War II, Germans, for example, who were kept in Aliceville, AL. They stayed in a prisoner-of-war camp until the war was over, and they went home. They didn't violate the rules of war; they weren't prosecuted for any crimes. They simply were not released so that they could go and rejoin the battle in an attempt to kill more American service men and women. But they were lawful. They wore uniforms, they complied with the rules of war, and they were not able to be prosecuted. But when a person sneaks into the country with an intent to murder women and children and innocent noncombatants, does not wear a uniform, and violates other provisions of the rules of war, then they can be not only held as a combatant but they can be held and tried for commission of crimes against the United States. That is the classic standard of the law of war.…”