[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 76 (Monday, May 18, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 GITMO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the administration plans to close the 
state-of-the-art Guantanamo Bay detention facility by January. The 
problem is, they have no plan for what to do with the terrorist 
detainees. These are the people who have tried to kill Americans, and 
they want to keep up their sinful ways by trying to kill more 
Americans. These are people picked up off the battlefield, sometimes 
hiding between children and women's skirts in villages. They were not 
wearing uniforms. They were not state sponsored, but they were there 
for a reason, and that was to kill innocent people.
  For example, they use women and children for two purposes: one, to 
hide behind as cover, and the other reason is to murder in the name of 
religion. That's why they're called terrorists. They try to inflict 
terror and fear in all peoples.
  Some of these people have been waterboarded. They gave us vital 
information that saved American lives. Apparently, two plots were 
uncovered by waterboarding. One crime was to crash a plane into a Los 
Angeles skyscraper and another to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.
  I wonder if the would-be victims appreciated the waterboarding?
  What are we supposed to do to get this information?
  But some are now to be more concerned about the treatment of Gitmo 
detainees than they are about potential American victims. Maybe we 
don't have our priorities straight. And by the way, Mr. Speaker, I have 
been to Gitmo, and its facilities are better than many American jails 
where we keep Americans.
  Let's look a little bit at history. General George Washington had a 
very different way of dealing with folks that were captured who weren't 
wearing uniforms. A British spy named Major John Andre, who was a buddy 
of Benedict Arnold, fell into these circumstances. After surveying West 
Point, Benedict Arnold met with Andre and gave him a sheaf of papers 
outlining the state of the garrison and the arrangements that had been 
made for its defense at West Point. Andre removed his uniform as a 
senior British officer, put on a plain coat, stuffed Arnold's secret 
instructions into his silk stockings, and set off for New York and his 
headquarters. Militiamen caught up with him on the road, however, found 
the papers from Arnold in his boots, and turned him over to George 
Washington, who had him hanged. Is that better than being waterboarded?
  So what do we do with these terrorists if we close Gitmo? If we take 
hundreds of hard-core terrorists from an isolated island like Gitmo and 
put them in American prisons, we expose the nearby communities, 
inmates, law enforcement, prison guards, officials and their families 
to the possibility of payback, attacks aimed at breaking them out or 
retaliation against the community for holding them.
  If they go to an American prison, they, in all likelihood, would 
eventually be released into the United States. That's not good news.
  We don't want them brought to Texas, by the way, Mr. Speaker. We have 
enough problems from the Federal Government neglecting our southern 
border.
  Last week, in the Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General 
Holder couldn't name one State that wants these outlaws sent to them. 
So what are we going to do?
  Are we going to reopen Alcatraz and put them there? Who knows?
  Do we bring them here and try them in our Federal courts?
  Mr. Speaker, if we stop and take a look at why we have separate legal 
systems for our citizens and for military purposes, maybe the reasons 
will be crystal clear even to administration lawyers: The American 
domestic legal system wasn't built to deal with enemies in a war. 
Military courts have always handled combatants captured on the 
battlefield.
  Nonuniformed enemies in a time of war do not have the same rights 
under the U.S. Constitution as American citizens, at least that's what 
we have always thought.
  So what's next? Are our soldiers going to have to warn terrorists of 
their Miranda Rights?
  Are the Army Rangers going to need a search warrant from a Federal 
judge to go into an al Qaeda hideout in Afghanistan?
  Will the troops need to consult a Federal lawyer and get permission 
to shoot back when being shot at? Now, wouldn't that be helpful.
  So what is the administration going to do with these terrorists?
  They have set the date of January 22, 2010, to close down Gitmo. 
Let's hope the administration reevaluates its decisions regarding 
letting these terrorists go and keep them locked up.
  And that's just the way it is.

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