Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015
Floor Speech
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I want to thank the gentleman. We visited Guantanamo Bay together. I think any Member who has not been down there, you should go down and see what is there. These are important provisions that have been put in appropriation bills for the last several years. They represent a strong and enduring consensus in Congress.
Striking these provisions would have unknown consequences for U.S. communities. Imagine bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who beheaded Daniel Pearl, and who was the mastermind of the 9/11 attack. About 170 people from my district died in the attack on the Pentagon. Can you imagine, they were initially going to bring him to New York City, and Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer all opposed it because they knew what the impact was going to be and the security requirements. So this would have an unbelievable impact on communities.
Putting detainees in U.S. prisons, as the administration originally proposed, would be disruptive and, I think, disastrous. Former FBI Director Mueller stated: ``To transfer detainees to local jails could affect or infect other prisoners or have the capability of affecting events outside the prison system.''
One of the things I think Members have to understand is this. There was a pirate, if you saw the movie ``Captain Phillips.'' He was arrested. He was arrested and tried. And they said that he would be convicted, and there would be no way that he would ever be released.
You ought to go see ``Captain Phillips.'' It is a fascinating movie.
He was tried and he was acquitted, and now he is seeking asylum. He is in Virginia. He is seeking asylum maybe in Virginia.
There was another case, if you recall, Attorney General Holder said there is no way that this guy will ever get off, and he was only convicted on one count; and had that count not been a conviction, he would have been released.
Lastly, there were Uighurs that were arrested in Tora Bora in a training camp run by Osama bin Laden. They were there to learn how to kill Americans, but also to kill Chinese, if you follow the concerns of the Uighur issue in China. The administration had reserved apartments. They were in Guantanamo Bay. They reserved apartments in northern Virginia at Seven Corners for them to live here.
I know the gentleman is well meaning, but I think to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees here, people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, people like that, and then what if they ever were tried here and were acquitted, and then can you imagine they then apply for asylum, because we are now going to see a case where one pirate acquitted is applying for asylum and now is living in Virginia and may very well want to stay in Virginia.
I urge defeat of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. Chairman, Politico talks about this case and said:
The failed prosecution of an alleged Somali pirate--and the fact that that failure could leave him living freely, and permanently, inside U.S. borders--is highlighting anew the risks of trying terror suspects in American courts.
Just a few weeks ago, Ali Mohamed Ali was facing the possibility of a mandatory life sentence in a 2008 shipjacking off the coast of Yemen--an incident much like the one dramatized in the film `Captain Phillips.' Now, the Somali native is in immigration detention in Virginia and seeking permanent asylum in the United States.
One current Federal terrorism prosecutor said the Ali case and the potential for his eventual release is another reason why foreign al Qaeda suspects picked up overseas should not be brought to the United States but should instead be detained at Guantanamo or some other facility.
I personally would think the very thought of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or some of the people when you go down to Guantanamo Bay and see them, walking the streets here in the United States should they be acquitted--they ought not to be brought to the United States.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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