Senate Proceeding on Nov 5th, 2009 :: 5:57:45 to 6:22:10
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5:57:38 to 5:58:00( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: levin for allowing me to go. i know we're kind of going back and forth, but i appreciate him. to my friend, senator durbin, it is my honest desire that, as we move forward with what to do with guantanamo bay, we can find some bipartisan hispanic to close the facility -- some bipartisan to close the facility and i'm one of the republicans that expressed that thought because i've listened enough to

5:57:45 to 6:22:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lindsey Graham

5:58:01 to 5:58:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: our commanders to know that guantanamo bay s. has become a symbol for recruitment and propaganda american forces in the war on terror, and it is probably the best-run jail in the world right now. those that have been down there, to the guard force i would like to acknowledge your patriotism and your service. it is a tough place to do duty

5:58:22 to 5:58:44( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: because some pretty tough characters down there. but at the end of the day, i've tried to be helpful where i could and, i'll it will you in a little detail why i'm doing this amendment of but my hope was when president obama waslected that we could find a way to reform guantanamo bay policy,

5:58:45 to 5:59:06( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: detainee policy, because i do understand detainee policy affects the war effort. if you mess it up, if you abuse detainees, you can turn populations against you that would be helpful in winninghe war. one of the great things that happened in world war ii is that we had over 400,000 german prisoners, japanese prisoners housed in the united

5:59:07 to 5:59:28( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we took nazis from the british and put them in american military jails in the united states. so this idea that a place for 200 detainees in america, i don'tgree with. we've done that before. these people are not 10 feet tall. they're dangerous. as a nation, i believe we could

5:59:29 to 5:59:49( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: start over. and by closing guantanamo bay in a logical, rational way, you would be improving our ability to effect the outcome of the war in the mideast because you would be taking away the tool of t enemy. president obama and senator mccain when they were candidates agreed with the idea

5:59:50 to 6:00:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: of closing guantanamo bay and reforming interrogation policy. to mos americans it's kind of why are we worried about what we do with these guys because they'll cut our headsff? you're absolutely right. it's not lost upon me or any other military member out there that the enemy we're dealing with knows no boundaries and they're barbarians and brutal.

6:00:11 to 6:00:32( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the question is not about them, but about us. the fact that we're a seufgzed people not -- civilized people is not a liability, it's an asset. when you capture a member of al qaeda, i've always believed it becomes about us, not they will. we need interrogation techniques that will allow us to get good intelligence and make the country safe.

6:00:33 to 6:00:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we need to understand we're at war and the people we're dealing with are some of the hardest, meanest people known since the nazis. but if you try to say in the same breath anything goes to get that information, it will come back to haunt you. so some of the interrogation techniques we've used that come

6:00:57 to 6:01:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: from the inquisition got us sol information, but i can assure you has created a problem. just ask anybody in the mideast who has to deal with america; they'll tell you this has been a problem. and you don't need to do that to protect this country. you can't have interrogation techniques that get you good

6:01:19 to 6:01:40( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: information but also adhere to your values. -- you can have interrogation techniques that adhere to values. as for the trials, some people are worrying why do we care about this? they wouldn't give us a trial. you're absolutely right. the fact that our country will give the worst terrorist in the world a trial with a defense attorney for free, a judge that's going to base the

6:01:41 to 6:02:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: decision on facts and law and not prejudice, a jury where the press can show up and watch the trial with the ability to appeal th result makes us stronger, not weaker. so count me in for starting over with guantanamo bay, with a legal process that recognizes we made abuses in the past and

6:02:03 to 6:02:24( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we're going to chart a new course. the military commission act that just passed the congress, i want to say publicly that senator levin was a great partner to work with. the military commission system that we have in place been reformed. i think it is a model of justice systemhat i would put up against any in the world,

6:02:25 to 6:02:45( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: including the international criminal court at the hague in terms of due process rights for the detainee. but it also recognizes that we're at war. and this military commission system, while transparent, with the ability to appeal all verdicts to the civilian system, has safeguards built in it to

6:02:46 to 6:03:06( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: recognize that we're at war and how you handle evidence and access to evidence and intelligent sources are built into that military system that are not built into civilian courts. since this country has been founded with historically used

6:03:07 to 6:03:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: military commissions as a venue to try suspected war criminals caught on battlefields. why have i brought this amendment? i have been told by too many people with reliable access that the administration is planning

6:03:30 to 6:03:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: on trying to lead sheikh 9/11, the perpetrator of the attacks against our country in washington, pennsylvania, and new york, and federal court in

6:03:52 to 6:04:13( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the lower district manhattan. if that's true, you've lost me as a partner. why'd i say that? it would be the biggest mistake we could possibly make, in my view, since 9/11. we would be giving constitutional rights to the

6:04:14 to 6:04:38( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: mastermind of 9/11 as if they were any average, everyday criminal american we would be basically saying to the mastermind in 9/11 and to the world at large, 9/11 was a criminal act, not an act of war.

6:04:39 to 6:04:59( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: i do believe in prosecutorial discretion and executive branch discretion. i introduce this amendment reluctantly but with all the passion and persuasion i can muster to tell my colleagues act now so that we will get this right later. congress has said we're not going to fund the closing of gitmo.

6:05:00 to 6:05:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: well, is congress meddling in the ability of the commander in chief to run a military jail? hell yeah, because we don't know what the plan is. we have an independent duty as members of congress to make sure there is balance, and this nation is at war. it's okay for us to speak

6:05:22 to 6:05:44( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: as a matter of fact, it's been too much passing, too many passes during the bush administration where congress sort of just sat back and watched things happen. don't watch this happen. get on the record now before it is too late to tell the president that we're not going to sit by as a body and watch

6:05:45 to 6:06:06( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the mastermind of 9/11 go into civilian cou and criminalize this war. if he goes to federal court, here's what awaits: a chaos zoo trial. yes, we've taken people into federal court before for act of terrorism.

6:06:07 to 6:06:27( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: first guy that tried to blow u the world trade center, and put him in civilian court. we treated these people as common criminals. warriors rather than a guy that robbed a liquor store? where would we have been in 2001 if we had had the foresight in

6:06:28 to 6:06:48( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the 1990's to recognize that we're at war, and these people are not some cartel? they're warriors. been on our construction -- bent on our construction, who have been planning for years to attack this country planning as i speak to attack us

6:06:49 to 6:07:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: again. we're not we're fighting a war. and the war is not over. what happened in the blind sheikh trial? because it was built around trying common

6:07:10 to 6:07:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: criminals, the court didn't have the protections military commissions will have to protect this nation's s classified information. as a result of that unindicted coconspirator list was provided to the defense as

6:07:31 to 6:07:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: part of discovery in federal civilian that unindicted coconspirator list was an intelligence coup for the enemy. it to the defendant to the mideast, and al qaeda was able to understand from

6:07:52 to 6:08:15( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we were looking at and who we had our eye on. during the 1990's, we tried to treat these terrorist warriors as just some other form of crime. it was a mistake. don't repeat

6:08:16 to 6:08:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: if you take khalid sheikh mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, and put him in federal civilian court, you will have learned nothing from the 1990's. you will have sent the wrong signal to the terrorist and to our own people.

6:08:37 to 6:08:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: judge mukasey whoresided over the blind sheikh trial, wrote an mistake it would be to put the 9/11 coconspirators into fedal cour he went into great detail about the problems you would have trying these people in civilian court. and he became our attorney general. so if u don't

6:08:59 to 6:09:20( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: list be to the judge who presided over the trial in the 1990's. on what they're going to do -- i don't know what they're going to do in the obama administration. if i believed they were going to

6:09:21 to 6:09:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: do something other than take khalid sheikh mohammed to federal court in new york, i wouldn't introduce the amendment. i know this is not a cavalier thing i've taken some grief for trying to help the president form new policies with guantanamo bay and reject the arguments made by

6:09:42 to 6:10:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: some of my dear friends that these people are too dangerous to bring to the united states. we can find a way to bring them to the united states; we've just got to be smart about it. to our military men and women who will be administering the commissions, my biggest fear has always b

6:10:04 to 6:10:24( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: commission system will become a second-class justice system. nothing could be further from the truth. e men and women who administer justice in the military commission system are the same judge affects and jurors -- advocates and jurors that

6:10:25 to 6:10:45( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: administer justice to our own troops. the judge advocate general of the navy said the military system is such that he would not hesitate to have one of our own tried in it. ladies and gentlemen, we will gain improving our image by sending the mastermind of 9/11 to a new york civilian court, giving him

6:10:46 to 6:11:06( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the same constitutional rights as anybody listening to me in america who's a citizen in terms of image. the military commission system will be transparent. he will have his he will have the ability to appeal a conviction to our civilian judges. he will be defended by a

6:11:07 to 6:11:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: military lawyer or attorney if he wants to he will be presumed innocent until found and it will be required by beyond a reasonable doubt standard for him to be so for those who are wondering about military commissions, i

6:11:30 to 6:11:52( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: can tell you the bill we have produced i'll put up against any system in the world. and to those who think it's no big deal to mohammed to couldn't disagree with you more. what you will have done is set in motion the dynamic that led

6:11:53 to 6:12:15( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: to criminalizing the war in the 1990's. you will have lost focus yet again. you will have been lured into the sense that we're really not at war. these are just a bunch of bad people committing crimes. the day that we take the mastermind of 9/11 and put him in federal court, whohe hell are you going to try in the military commission?

6:12:16 to 6:12:38( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: how can you tell that "well, you're an enemy combatant. you're a bad guy, you're at war." but the guy who planned the whole thing is just a common criminal. what a mistake we would make. it is imperative that this

6:12:39 to 6:13:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: nation have a legal system recognizes we're at war and that we have rules to protect this country's national security balanced against the interest of the right of the accused detainee. the military commission forum has created that balance. it is a system built

6:13:04 to 6:13:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: a system built around the rules of military law, a system that recognizes the difference between a common criminal and a warrior, a system that understands military intelligence is different than common evidence.

6:13:27 to 6:13:48( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: if we do not use that system for the guy who planned 9/11, we will all regret it. so, my amendment is limited in scope. it is a chance for you as a member of the united states senate to

6:13:49 to 6:14:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: you would like to see happen as this nation moves forward in our desire to correct past mistakes and defend this nation who still is at war it is a chance for you to have a say on behalf of your constituents as to how they

6:14:10 to 6:14:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: would like to see this nation defend itself. i would argue that americans, not just the 9/11 families, would be very concerned to learn that the man who planned the attacks that

6:14:31 to 6:14:52( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: killed 3,000 of our fellow citizens, who would do it again tomorrow, is going to be treated the same as any other criminal. no good will come from that. you will have compromised this military commission system beyond repair. you will have adopted the law

6:14:53 to 6:15:13( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: enforcement model that failed u before. and we will not be a better people. i, along with senator levin, at guantanamo bay the day that sheikh mohammed appeared before

6:15:14 to 6:15:34( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the combat tribunal. we could listen to him on a monitor and you could see him and hear the chains rattle next door when he the went through great detail of 9/11 and all the other acts of terrorism that he planned against our i never will forget when he told the military judge that he was a high-ranking commander in the al

6:15:35 to 6:15:57( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: qaeda military organization. and he really appreciated being referred to as a military commander. some would say, well, you know, you don't want to guy. what i would say is you want to understand who he is. if you think he's a common criminal, no different than any other person who wants to hurt

6:15:58 to 6:16:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: people, you've made a mistake. khalid sheikh mohammed has been on our destruction. he did not attack us for financial gain. he attacked us because he hates us. he's every bit as dangerous as the nazis. these people that we're fighting

6:16:19 to 6:16:40( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: are very, very dangerous people. and i am insistent that they get a trial consistent with our values, that they don't get railroaded, that they get a chance to defend themselves and the media will see how the trial unfolds and you can see most of it, if not all of it. but i'm also insistent that we

6:16:41 to 6:17:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: not take our eye off the ball here. it's been a long time since we've been attacked for many -- for a lot of people they relive it every night. those who are on frontlines of 9/11, it

6:17:03 to 6:17:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: over again every nht of their lives. for the rest of us, please do not lose this country is engaged in an armed conflict with an enemy that knows no boundaries, has no allegiance to anything beyond

6:17:26 to 6:17:48( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: their radical religion, and are conspiring to attack us as i speak. when we try them, we need to understand that the trial itself is part of the war effort. how we do the trial can make us safer or it can make us weaker.

6:17:49 to 6:18:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: if we criminalize this war if we take the man who plan and the attacks of 9/1 and put him in civilian court, it's going to be impossible with a straight face to take somebody under him and put him in military court. and the day you put him back in civilian kowrt, you're going to -- court, you're going to create the problems that judge mukasey

6:18:10 to 6:18:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: warned us against, you're going to have evidence compromised and you're going to regret it. i hope to continue to work with the administration to find a way to close guantanamo bay to create the a transparent legal system that will allow every detainee their day in court, due procs rights they deserve

6:18:31 to 6:18:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: based on our law, not based on wh they've done, butased on who we are as a people. and the 21st hijacker -- the 20th hijacker said this in federal court, they had a -- victims were allowed to testify

6:18:52 to 6:19:13( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: about the impact of 9/11. they had a u.s. navy officer talking about being at the pentagon and the impact on his life and on his friends. and during the testimony, the officer started to cry. and here's what the

6:19:14 to 6:19:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: said, moussaoui, the 20th hijacker, "i think it was disgusting for a military person to pretend that they should not be killed as an act of war. she is military." it was a navy female officer. "she should expect the people at

6:19:38 to 6:19:59( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: war with her will kill her. " this is the 20th hijacker in court. "i will never cry because american bombed my camp." if you've got any doubt that we're at war, the one thing you ought to be certain of, they have no doubt that they're at war with us.

6:20:00 to 6:20:20( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the one thing that the men and women who go off to fight this war should expect of their government and of their congress is to watch their back the best we can. we would be doing those men and women a great disservice if we

6:20:21 to 6:20:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: put the mastermind of 9/11, who killed the friends of this navy officer in a civilian court that could lead to compromising events that would make their job harder. disservice to act on

6:20:42 to 6:21:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: if we're not at war. so, ladies and gentlemen of the senate, you have a chance to speak. you have a chance to be on record for your constituents to send a signal that needs to be sent before it's too late. and here's what i would ask you

6:21:05 to 6:21:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we're at war and that the legal system that we're going t to try country and kill 3,000 american citizens should be a military legal system consistent with it being at war. i will not, with m back to the law enforcement model that jeopardized our

6:21:27 to 6:21:49( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: national security back in the 1990's. i will insist that these detainees have a full, fair trial, and they be treated appropriately. but i will not, with my vote, take the mastermind of 9/11, the man who planned the would do it tomorrow, and give

6:21:50 to 6:22:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: him the same constitutional rights as an average, every day american in a legal system that's not built around being at war. if you'll say that, we will get a good outcome. if you equivocate we're slowly,