Ted Poe: “it is about supper time here in the United States. I wonder what is on the plates across our dinner tables. Perhaps…”

“it is about supper time here in the United States. I wonder what is on the plates across our dinner tables. Perhaps lemon baked fish, broccoli, steamed carrots, fresh fruit. Sounds healthy to me, maybe delicious to some. This menu could be on any menu of any home or restaurant in the United States tonight. But, Mr. Speaker, this menu is also what is being served in Guantanamo Bay prison on any given night. Mr. Speaker, we have a purpose in Guantanamo Bay. It is to house outlaws, criminals, radical terrorists; they are locked up there. These detainees are people that have killed Americans and want to keep killing Americans. These are people picked up off the battlefield. They were not wearing uniforms. They were not state sponsored, but there were there for a reason, and that was to execute innocent people on the battlefield. The Geneva Convention, Mr. Speaker, protects those people who are at war, who have a chain of command. They wear a uniform. They do not have concealed weapons and they do not kill the innocents. Mr. Speaker, terrorists do just the opposite. They kill innocents. They have concealed weapons. They certainly do not wear uniforms, and there is no chain of command. They are not protected, Mr. Speaker, by the Geneva Convention. International law allows any nation the right to detain any combatants for a conflict's duration to prevent them from killing and to gather further useful information. The detainees at Guantanamo are enemy combatants.…”