Take Back America 2007 Conference: on Homeland Security
Hillary Clinton:
Administration secrecy shreds the Constitution
Our Constitution is being shredded. We know about the secret wiretaps, the secret military tribunals, the secret White House e-mail accounts. We’ve seen U.S. attorneys fired to silence them because they didn’t bring bogus lawsuits against Democrats
during election years. We’ve seen information taken off of government websites. It is a stunning record of secrecy and corruption, of cronyism run amok. It is everything our founders were afraid of, everything our Constitution was designed to prevent.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
Jun 20, 2007
Barack Obama:
Close Guantanamo and restore the right of habeas corpus
Why don’t we close Guantanamo and restore the right of habeas corpus, because that’s how we lead, not with the might of our military, but the power of our ideals and the power of our values. It’s time to show the world we’re not a country that ships
prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off countries. We’re not a country that runs prisons which locks people away without ever telling them why they’re there or what they’re charged with. We’re not a country which preaches compassion to
others while we allow bodies to float down the streets of major American cities. That’s not who we are.We’re America. We’re a nation that liberated a continent from a mad man, that lifted ourselves from the depths of depression,
that won civil rights and women’s rights and voting rights for all our people. We’re the beacon that has led generations of weary travelers to find opportunity and liberty and hope on our doorstep. That’s who we are.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
Jun 19, 2007
John Edwards:
Close Guantanamo; end torture; comply with Geneva
It is time for us to show the leadership that America and the world needs from us. And there is so much work to do. And it’s not just ending the war in Iraq. You know, the first thing we have to do is we have to establish
America as a force for good in the world again. You look at what’s happened: the war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, torture, the illegal spy on the American people, and by the way, on the first day that I’m sworn in as president of the United States,
I will close Guantanamo.But it’s about first stopping the damage, stopping the damage that this president and this administration have done, and we need to do those things.
We need to make it absolutely clear that we’re leaving Iraq, we need to close Guantanamo, we need the president of the United States to say to the world, America will neither condone or engage in torture, that we will comply with Geneva.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
Jun 19, 2007
John Edwards:
President is not above law; no spying on Americans
We need the president to say to the American people, that the president is not above the law. The president will not spy on you illegally. The president himself will follow the law. But it’s about more than stopping the damage. It’s also about
America meeting its responsibility to humanity. We have an enormous responsibility. We’re the most powerful, richest nation on the planet, and we know what the world thinks about us now, right? They think we’re a bully. They think we’re selfish.
They think the only thing that America cares about is the expansion of American power. This has to change. The president has to travel the world and speak to the people of the world about the things that we really are, that we are a country that
embraces equality. We are a country that embraces diversity: ethnic diversity, cultural diversity, faith diversity, because the world believes that we’re at war with the Muslim world, and that has got to change. It has got to end.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
Jun 19, 2007
Page last updated: Feb 25, 2019