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Senator Leahy: Wow, you know my office looks right down on you and I knew it was a good
crowd, but it's even bigger I see it. I just want to tell you I'm proud to be an American,
I'm proud of America's constitution, and I yearn for the day when we have an administration
that will start following our constitution again. We have such a brave and proud history
of following the rule of law. That's been taken from us. Lets do everything we can to
take back the rule of law and show the rest of the world what America really is. When
Congress last year committed a [inaudible 01:02] mistake by suspending the great Writ
of Habeas Corpus, not just for those confined at Guantanamo, but for millions of legal residents
here in the United States. We ought to do two things: Restore, restore
the Writ of Habeas Corpus and close Guantanamo. We should do both right away. We would show
the true face of America of a good and great nation if we would close Guantanamo, if we
would restore Habeas Corpus. Go back to the basic roots of America. Today we mark a day
of action to restore law and justice. You want to do that, restoring Habeas Corpus is
the first but the most important step. It was recklessly undermined as just now in the
last year's Military Commissions Activity. For those who say we have to do this to make
us safer, shame on you! Shame on you! For all those who say we have to worry about terrorists,
I go to work every day in a building that was marked for destruction by terrorists.
I go there proudly. I go there happily, but I go there because I hope we an uphold our
laws, not run in fear, but uphold our laws. What we did eliminating Habeas Corpus, that
was an action driven by fear. I'll tell you there was another example of that in World
War II. They thought by locking up tens of thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans, we'd
make ourselves safer. We didn't make ourselves safer. We put a stain on America's reputation
in the world. Let's not do it again. This is a time of testing. Future generations will
look back to examine the choices we made, the choices we made during a time when security
too often is used asa watchword to convince us to slack our defense of liberty and the
rule of law. Habeas Corpus guarantees and opportunity to
every one of you to go to court and challenge the abuse of power by the government. The
Military Commissions Act rolled back these protections by eliminating that right permanently
for any non-citizen labeled an enemy combatant, even someone who "is awaiting that determination."
They could await their determination in Guantanamo for the rest of their lives with no Habeas
Corpus. That is truly un-American. It goes beyond Guantanamo. It affects the 12 million lawful permanent residents in the
United States today. If affects even those people who come as tourists
to our land on a valid visa. It affects people who are working as professors or working as
scientists, people who work and pay taxes, abide by our laws. If they're doing that,
shouldn't they be entitled to the same fair treatment as everybody else? Since last fall,
I was one of the few who voted against this law, but I've been talking about a nightmare
scenario, a hard working legal permanent resident picked up on a tenuous factual basis. He could
be held with no ability to go to court to plead his or her innocence for years or decades.
Last November just after enactment of these provisions, the Department of Justice that's
run by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with a not so subtle hand of the Vice President
behind it. I'll say it again that the Department of Justice
confirmed this sad scenario in a legal brief submitted in Federal Court in Virginia. They
said and I call them the Department of Injustice for saying this, they asserted that the Military
Commissions Act allows the government to detain any non-citizen designated as an enemy combatant,
even someone arrested and held in the United States, without giving that person any ability
to challenge that detention in court. This is wrong! It is unconstitutional! It is un-American!
For those who tell you they have to do this to stand up for America. They're not standing
up for America. They're destroying America by doing that.
Let us stand up. Let us stand up for America and restore America's constitution. That's
standing up for America! This is neither liberal nor conservative. David Keene who's here today,
head of the American Conservative Union, agree this changes the 20th Century's legal tradition
and practice. The most powerful for me at least, and last month's Senate hearings I
held on this, was a testimony of Rear Admiral Donald Godor. He was working in his office
in the Pentagon on September11, 2001. He saw his friends killed in that terrorist attack.
As he said, as we limit the rights of human beings, even those of the enemy, we become
more like the enemy. That makes us weaker, imperils our valiant
troops serving not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but around the world. He was right. Whether
you're a soldier of a great and good nation like ours, it's hard to defend the higher
ground by taking the lower road. You can't do it. The world knows what our enemies stand
for, but the world has to know what this great and good country has tried to stand up for
and live up to in the best of times, but especially in the worst of time. Join me. Join me in
a grass roots crusade restore Habeas rights. The elimination of these rights undermines,
it doesn't strengthen our ability to achieve justice. It is from strength that America
should defend our values and our way of life. It's from the strength of our freedoms, our
constitution, our rule of law that we shall prevail. Work with me on this. Restore America
to America. Thank you.