2006 CT Senate Debate: on Homeland Security

Joseph Lieberman: Last thing we want is to release dangerous Gitmo detainees

The Bush administration felt its way and pushed the envelope, and the Supreme Court last week, in what I thought was an extraordinary decision in the best tradition of America, said, Mr. President, no one in this country is above the law, not even the president in a time of war. That was the right decision, and now the president will have to do what he should have done earlier, come to Congress and negotiate a legal way to treat the detainees at Guantanamo.

Please understand that there’s nothing in that court decision that orders us to release those detainees. They are dangerous. And the last thing we want to do is release them.

Ned Lamont: Gitmo, wiretaps, & Haditha have weakened our moral authority

A: We have a president who is acting as if he is above the law right now. Look at what Guantanamo, look at what Haditha, look at what Abu Ghraib has done to the moral authority of the US. We are a much stronger country when we are true to our values, a much stronger country when it comes to the war on terror when we’re true to what we stand for, and we’ve compromised a lot of that over the last few years, and that weakens our country. I look at the illegal wiretaps. I thought that was a time that Democrats should have stood up and held the president accountable [with censure]. I think we should have said that was wrong.