Detainees Quotes:

This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed, were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees.

- Rudolf Hoss

topic: Men, Hands, People, Deputies, Detention

The United States government does not authorise or condone torture of detainees. Torture, and conspiracy to commit torture, are crimes under US law, wherever they may occur in the world.

- Condoleezza Rice

topic: Law, Government, World, State Government, Detainees

Guantanamo allows us to secure dangerous detainees without the risk of escape, while at the same time providing us with valuable intelligence information on how best to proceed in the war against terror and prevent future attacks.

- Jim Ryun

topic: War, Risk, Information, Detainees, Guantanamo

The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody has severely undermined our Nation's position in the world.

- Diane Watson

topic: Abuse, World, Custody, Joint Custody, Detainees

I think we need to understand what we mean when we talk about closure, we don't mean transfer or prosecute which is what many of the critics of Guantanamo would like to see happen. When the US government talks about closing Guantanamo, they talk about moving some set of detainees to some other place where they continue to be detained without charge.

- Jennifer Daskal

topic: Moving, Mean, Thinking, Detainees

I can tell you categorically that any mal-treatment of any detainees by U.S. forces or coalition forces is totally unacceptable - that our orders have and will continue to be that we will treat everyone in our charge with - humanely and with respect.

- Peter Pace

topic: Order, Force, Coalitions, Detainees

The Democrats in the Senate adopted a resolution, an amendment, saying that there should be no Guantanamo detainees brought into this country. So, more and more, we're finding the American people on one side, the ACLU and the troglodytes from the New York Times on the other, where they belong.

- Peter King

topic: Country, New York, Finding The One, Detainees

The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people. I mean, these are terrorists for the most part.

- Dick Cheney

topic: Mean, People, Important, Detainees, Guantanamo

The basic gamut of civil and political rights in terms of disappearances, detainees, people who are surrendered, what happened the missing. Any talk about allegations of war crimes. Those are the kind of thing that lead to a great deal of fear and uncertainty.

- Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

topic: War, Rights, People, War Crimes, Detainees

Subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence, because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop. Second, mistreatment of our prisoners endangers U.S. troops who might be captured by the enemy – if not in this war, then in the next. And third, prisoner abuses exact on us a terrible toll in the war of ideas, because inevitably these abuses become public.

- John McCain

source: "Fog Facts #2" by Larry Beinhart, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 13, 2005.

topic: Pain, War, Ideas, Mistreatment, Detainees

North Korea has certainly, in the past, used detainees to initiate diplomatic exchanges with the United States.

- Elise Hu

source: "North Korea Claims It Has U.S. Student In Custody". "Morning Edition" with Renee Montagne, www.npr.org. January 22, 2016.

topic: Past, Korea, United States, Detainees

After 9-11, the President had a historic opportunity to unite Americans and the world in common cause. Instead, by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests, President Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world.

- Joe Biden

topic: War, Opportunity, Iraq, Detainees

I would like you to understand completely, also emotionally, that I'm a political detainee and will be a political prisoner, that I have nothing now or in the future to be ashamed of in this situation. That, at bottom, I myself have in a certain sense asked for this detention and this sentence, because I've always refused to change my opinion, for which I would be willing to give my life and not just remain in prison. That therefore I can only be tranquil and content with myself.

- Antonio Gramsci

topic: Giving, Political, Would Be, Detention, Detainees

We spend millions of dollars per year supplying more than adequate meals and a Koran to every detainee along with a prayer rug that meets their religious standards.

- Bill Shuster

topic: Religious, Prayer, Years, Detainees

Regrettably, it has become clear that torture of detainees in United States custody is not limited to Abu Ghraib or even Iraq. Since Abu Ghraib, there have been increasing reports of torture.

- Marty Meehan

topic: Iraq, United States, Custody, Joint Custody, Abu Ghraib

I mean, the people who run Guantanamo, the military, pretty much dismiss complaints by the detainees because they say that they're all created as part of a political process to sort of fake complaints and get public support.

- Jane Mayer

topic: Running, Military, Mean, Detainees, Guantanamo

There is no room for legal hair-splitting when it comes to the humane treatment of detainees - not in a nation founded on the rule of law and respect for human rights.

- Dick Durbin

topic: Rights, Hair, Law, Detainees

I mean, The New York Times actually had an interesting case recently where they described a detainee who was afraid of the dark, and so he was purposely kept very much in the dark.

- Jane Mayer

source: "Psychological Warfare? A Debate on the Role of Mental Health Professionals in Military Interrogations at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Beyond". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. August 11, 2005.

topic: New York, Mean, Dark, Detainees

I apologize to coalition forces and all the families, detainees, the families, America and all the soldiers.

- Lynndie England

topic: Apology, America, Soldier, Detainees

We have over a hundred political detainees, men against whom we are unable to prove anything in a court of law. Nearly 50 of them are men who gave us a great deal of anxiety during the years of Confrontation because they were Malay extremists. Your life and this dinner would not be what it is if my colleagues and I had decided to play it according to the rules of the game.

- Lee Kuan Yew

topic: Men, Years, Law, Detainees, Singapore

Obviously this prison has been controversial ever since the first detainees arrived in Guantanamo more than 14 years ago.

- Audie Cornish

source: "Obama Proposes Plan To Close Guantanamo Bay Detention Center". "All Things Considered" with David Welna, www.npr.org. February 23, 2016.

topic: Years, Firsts, Prison, Detainees