[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 24, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H5873]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GUANTANAMO HISTORY LESSON
(Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, in light of last week's Supreme Court
decision giving enemy terrorist detainees at Guantanamo habeas corpus
rights, I thought I would offer a brief history lesson as described by
my friend Gary Bauer.
On June 13, 1942, four armed German spies came ashore on the beaches
of Long Island, New York. Four days later, four more spies came ashore
at Jacksonville, Florida. All were sent to sabotage American defense
sites. All eight were quickly captured, tried by military tribunal, not
civilian courts. Less than a month later, their cases began, and by
August 4, all were convicted.
Sixty-six years later, almost to the day, the U.S. Supreme Court in a
5-4 decision declared that foreign terrorists captured on foreign soil
possess more rights under our Constitution than those Nazi spies sent
here to ambush our domestic defenses.
I believe history will no doubt judge that this flawed Supreme Court
decision has left the United States less safe as a result.
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