Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), a veteran Member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered a statement on the House floor on closing the Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba.

"Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman.

"I understand that there is an irrational fear of bringing Guantanamo detainees into the United States, even though we would only do so to bring them to justice. In contrast to the military commissions at Guantanamo, which have not reached one verdict other than by plea, the Federal Court system in the United States has been extremely successful at prosecuting terrorists and safely imprisoning them for long periods of time.

"One of the 9/11 terrorists is in a U.S. prison. The shoe bomber is in a U.S. prison. The underwear bomber is in a U.S. prison. The Times Square bomber is in a U.S. prison. One of the Boston Marathon bombers is in a U.S. prison. We have tried and convicted terrorist masterminds in U.S. courts in my own district.

"But others are being held at Guantanamo without any prospect of a trial. Ever since Magna Carta, we have denied the government the power to imprison and punish people on mere accusation. Just because the government labels someone a terrorist doesn't make him one. The government must be asked to prove the accusation in court. That has always been a bedrock American principle until we opened Guantanamo. Now we imprison people indefinitely without trial. By what claim of right do we do this?

"How can we be sure we are punishing actual terrorists and not actual people when we hold no trials? Mr. Wolf said someone may be acquitted. If he is acquitted he should be released. That is our basic principle of justice for the last thousand years.

"Guantanamo should be closed and its inmates either tried or released. It is beyond time to close Guantanamo so it can no longer be used to rally our enemies to recruit terrorists, to undermine our ability to bring terrorist suspects to justice, and to violate bedrock American principles of due process of law.

"I am astonished, frankly, that I would hear on the floor of the United States Congress someone say that people might be acquitted, therefore, they should be held in jail forever because maybe the evidence doesn't exist because someone in the government in the all powerful, almighty, all knowing bureaucracy says that if someone is a terrorist that person must be held in jail indefinitely because maybe we don't have the proof. That is not America."

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