[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11696-H11697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        GITMO VS. FEDERAL PRISON

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, we hear much hype about how bad GITMO prison 
is. That's where we keep prisoners of war, those terrorists that have 
been captured on the battlefield that have tried to kill Americans. The 
uninformed have compared the place to a gulag and a dungeon. I have 
been there and the place is neither.
  Be that as it may, some POWs are treated better there than our Border 
Agents Ramos and Compean, who were sent to Federal prison for shooting 
a

[[Page H11697]]

border drug smuggler. This is the case where our government let a drug 
dealer go free and put border protectors in prison for 11 and 12 years.
  Most POWs at GITMO are not in solitary confinement. But the border 
agents have been in solitary confinement for most of their sentences. 
The POWs get 9 hours a day of exercise, including soccer. The border 
agents spend 23 hours a day in their cells. The POWs watch Arabic TV. 
The border agents watch no TV. The POWs receive the same medical 
treatment as the United States military, but one border agent was 
assaulted in prison and didn't see a doctor for 5 days.
  Madam Speaker, only in America do we treat terrorists and POWs better 
in GITMO than we do border agents who went to prison for protecting the 
border.
  And that's just the way it is.

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