Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from New York is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Moran-Smith-Nadler amendment.

We are told by some in the majority that enemy soldiers should not have constitutional rights. But, Mr. Chairman, a majority, concededly, of those at Guantanamo, were never involved in a hostile act against the United States, and 86 percent were turned in for bounties.

We don't know whether these people are enemy soldiers. Some of them may be and some of them are probably not. And we don't know that they are terrorists.

Those facts must be determined in a fair proceeding of some sort, but at Guantanamo there are no proceedings. They haven't managed to hold military trials. And we can't hold civilian trials there.

So we are holding people for no purpose, with no proceedings, no hearings, no opportunity, for essentially forever.

The time to close Guantanamo is now. Guantanamo is a stain on our national honor. Never mind all the foreign policy reasons why it is poisoning our relations with foreign countries and instigating terrorism against it. The fact is, it is wrong.

We are holding 154 people at Guantanamo, 77 of whom have been cleared for release. That is to say, they have been found guilty of nothing, are thought to be guilty of nothing, and have been judged not to pose any danger. Nonetheless, they are not released.

There is no reason and there is no right for us to hold them further. The others should be brought to the United States and tried for their offenses.

Mr. Chairman, I wonder which of our colleagues does not believe in the American system of justice. I wonder which one of us does not trust our own American courts. I wonder who among us does not believe in the Bill of Rights, who does not believe in the right to counsel or that people should have an opportunity to have their guilt or innocence established in court.

What we have at Guantanamo is a system that is an affront to those beliefs and to the United States.

In the last decade, we have begun to let go of our freedoms bit by bit with each new executive order, each new court decision, and yes, each new act of Congress. We have begun giving away our rights to privacy, our right to our day in court when the government harms us, and with this legislation we are continuing down the path of destroying the right to be free from imprisonment without due process of law.

Indeed, I wonder if some of the people in Guantanamo broke out of jail, inflicted injuries on American personnel in so doing, and were caught, how we would defend ourselves when they said, We were just victims of kidnapping. The United States Government kidnapped us, with no claim of right. We had every right to use force to escape an illegal kidnapping by a government acting, essentially, under no law.

I want to commend the gentleman from Virginia and the gentleman from Washington for fighting to close the detention facility at Guantanamo.

The language in this bill, without our amendment, prohibits moving any detainees into the United States and guarantees that we will continue holding people indefinitely--people who may not be terrorists, some of whom we may suspect to be terrorists, none of whom have had a day in court to prove they are or are not terrorists. We will continue to hold them indefinitely without charge, contrary to every tradition this country stands for, contrary to any notion of due process.

Because of this momentous challenge to the founding principles of the United States that no person may be deprived of liberty without due process of law--and certainly may not be deprived of liberty indefinitely without due process of law--we must close the detention facility at Guantanamo now in order to restore our national honor. This will afford the detainees no additional constitutional rights. The Supreme Court has already ruled detainees at Guantanamo have the same constitutional rights as they would if they were brought here.

We must close this facility, try these people or let them go, and restore our national honor. Support this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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