I wanted to share with you my floor statement on President Obama's Decision to Close Guantanamo Bay and other CIA Prisons.

Mr. President, I once again come to the floor to discuss an issue that goes directly to who we are as a country and what we stand for.

Specifically, I want to comment on the executive orders President Obama signed today to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility within a year, close secret prisons operated by the CIA, and review the procedures for detaining and trying accused terrorists.  In so doing, he sends a long-overdue message not only to the world, but also to the American people here at home, reaffirming our values as Americans and our commitment to the rule of law.

Mr. President, as we speak, some 245 individuals are still being held as enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay, and about 100 in secret prisons around the world, though we do not even know for sure. Several independent sources have alleged that these detainees have suffered from abuse.

All of the information we have, Mr. President, indicates that most, if not all, of these people have engaged in a host of violent actions directed the United States.  They are not misguided innocents, but rather men committed to harming us.  I rise today not to defend them and their actions in any way; they must be punished to the full extent of the law. 

Rather, Mr. President, I rise to urge exactly that – the application of our great body of law for dealing with dangerous people intent on harming us.  Indeed, some in our government have failed to apply the law and failed to obey it.

According to a Red Cross report, prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were subjected to “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment that is “tantamount to torture.”  FBI agents have reported that many of those held at Guantánamo Bay were chained to the floor in a fetal position for 18 hours or more, and were subject to 100-degree heat and freezing cold.  The CIA’s secret facilities have never been inspected, so we don’t know how prisoners have been treated in them.

These abuses are not just morally wrong—they are violations of American and international law.  They weaken respect for the rule of law abroad and subject American citizens to greater risks of unlawful detention and torture in foreign countries.  And they weaken our security even as they undermine our democratic ideals. 

Mr. President, Guantánamo and the CIA’s secret prisons has been an international embarrassment – a symbol of abuse and the breakdown of law, which is why I and others have come to this floor so often to discuss our moral responsibility to close them.

To be absolutely clear, I repeat that those who are a threat to America, who are guilty of crimes, must and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.  They must be tried and prosecuted.  This decision is not about protecting those who wish to harm us.

Rather, this decision says, as President Obama did in his inaugural address this week, that the choice between security and liberty is a false choice, and we reject it.

As General George Washington answered when his soldiers asked him for permission to beat their prisoners, “Treat them with humanity.  Let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example” of our enemies. 

And so, Mr. President, I am grateful and relieved that President Obama has acted so quickly to remedy this very damaging policy. 

This is, of course, only the first step.  We must remain vigilant in working with the Administration to implement these orders.  And there remain many issues to be decided – from when and how Guantánamo and other detention facilities are closed to ensuring the interrogation methods employed by US personnel never again cross the line into torture. 

But this is a critical first step, Mr. President, toward restoring not only the rule of law and our Constitution but also our moral authority.  Today, we remind the world and ourselves that everyone is subject to the law and no one—not you, not I—stands above it.

I am convinced that today’s orders will better secure our nation and allow us to more effectively prevent, detain, and prosecute those who would seek to harm us. 

I applaud President Obama for his decision to act without delay on these most important issues.

And with that, I yield the floor.