[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 184 (Wednesday, December 9, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H14376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              SEALS TRIAL

  (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, President Obama is shifting our strategy to 
fight terrorists from a military model to a legal crime enforcement 
model. Case in point, this week, three Navy SEALs were arraigned on 
charges related to punching terrorist leader Ahmed Abed after he killed 
and mutilated four Americans in Iraq. A punch to the gut has led to the 
prosecution of three of our most highly dedicated and highly trained 
servicemen. Al Qaeda has many weapons and tactics to harm our troops, 
among them the weapon of our judicial system and the tactic of claiming 
abuse by our soldiers.
  The SEALs risked their lives to capture Abed alive, when it may have 
been easier to kill him with a hellfire missile fired from a drone. 
They did not question the necessity of bringing Abed in alive so that 
he could be interrogated and so that valuable intelligence could be 
gathered.
  Why would our soldiers undertake future operations when they too 
could be prosecuted based on the word of a terrorist? The Obama 
administration is taking us down a slippery slope where our legal 
system impedes our ability to fight an enemy that shows no regard for 
innocent lives.

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