WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a Senior Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, introduced amendment no. 1559 to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2010 (S.1390) to prohibit the transfer of detainees from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GITMO) to any facility in the United States.
"Today, I continued the fight to ensure that terrorist detainees are not transferred to American soil and that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba stays open," said Inhofe. "We detain terrorists and their supporters to prevent them from returning to the battlefield - saving the lives of our service men and women on the front lines and the lives of civilians who are innocent victims of these extremists - extremists that an overwhelming majority of Americans have said they do not want in their home states. We can prevent these detainees from being transferred here, and this amendment is the way to do it. I am pleased that 22 of my Senate colleagues have joined me in this endeavor to safeguard our national security."
Inhofe Full Statement (As Prepared for Delivery)
In any war, and make no mistake...the terrorists are still at war with us, the United States is legally entitled to capture and hold enemy fighters until the end of hostilities. We detain terrorists and their supporters to prevent them from returning to the battlefield - saving the lives of our service men and women on the front lines and the lives of civilians who are innocent victims of these extremists. Nearly 800 suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban terrorists have been sent to Gitmo since 2001. Terrorists such as: an al-Qaida explosives trainer who provide information on the September 2001 assassination of Northern Alliance leader Masood and on the al-Qaida organization's use of mines; an terrorist financer who provided detailed information on Osama bin Laden's front companies and their accounts and on international money movements for financing terror; a Taliban fighter linked to al-Qaida operatives connected to the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings; an al-Qaida explosives trainer who designed a prototype shoe bomb for destroying airplanes as well as a magnetic mine for attacking ships.
To date, over 540 have been transferred or released leaving approximately 230 at Gitmo. These detainees include members of al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations, planners of major terrorist attacks worldwide to include 9/11, terrorist trainers, financiers, bomb makers, potential suicide bombers, recruiters, facilitators, al Qaeda leadership and Taliban leadership. The intelligence gained from detainees at Gitmo has helped the United States and its allies identify, exploit, and disrupt terrorist operations worldwide...saving untold lives.
In 2007, the Senate voted 94-3 on a non-binding resolution to block detainees from being transferred to the UNITED STATES declaring: "detainees housed at Guantanamo should not be released into American society, nor should they be transferred stateside into facilities in American communities and neighborhoods." On 20 May 2009, the Senate voted 90-6 on a bipartisan amendment to prohibit funding for the transfer of Gitmo detainees to the United States. Unfortunately, the Supplemental Appropriations Conference Report deleted that provision allowing detainees to be transported to the United States for trial.The Appropriations committee not only went against the will of the Senate but they went against the will of the majority of the American people.
Recent polls show that a majority of Americans oppose closing the Gitmo and are opposed moving the detainees to the United States. By more than 2-1, those surveyed say Guantanamo shouldn't be closed. By more than 3-1, they oppose moving some of the accused terrorists housed there to prisons in their own states. Twenty-seven states have lined up to oppose having any of the detainees moved to their jurisdiction.
A recent Fox News poll showed the following results: Pres Obama made a mistake when he signed the Executive Order to close Gitmo: 77 % of all Americans (94% Republicans / 81% independents / 61% Democrats); Gitmo should not be closed: 60% of all Americans, up from 53% in Apr and 45% in Jan (82% of Republicans / 40% Democrats / 62% independents); Gitmo prisoners should not be transferred to prisons in the UNITED STATES: 60% of all Americans, up from 55% in May and 52% in January.
Since President Obama announced that he intended to close Gitmo, it has become widely circulated that these detainees could be transferred to American prisons for prosecution in UNITED STATES criminal courts and potentially released in to the United States. Moving detainees to prisons in the UNITED STATES would require a significant investment and re-structuring of our existing detention facilities, costing the taxpayer millions of dollars. Currently, the US has only one ‘Supermax' facility and it located in Florence, Colorado. According a Bureau of Prisons (BOP), as of May 21st, "only one bed was not filled at Supermax." Additionally, the rated capacity of all our high-security BOP facilities at the beginning of this month was 13,448 inmates, while the total prisoner population for those facilities was approximately 20,000. Despite claims by Senator Durbin that the ‘supermax' prisons in the UNITED STATES are ready to receive the Gitmo detainees, the ‘supermax' prisons in the UNITED STATES are at or above their max capacities.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said there is the very real possibility that the Gitmo detainees will recruit more terrorists from among the federal inmate population and continue al Qaeda operations from the inside - which is how the New York synagogue bombers were recruited. In 2002, an entire wing of a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, was cleared out for the 9/11 "20th Hijacker", Zacarias Moussaoui, to be housed for his trial - just for one ‘detainee'. Bringing Gitmo detainees to the United States could also place America and its citizens at risk by inevitably creating a new set of targets for jihadist terrorists.
Gitmo, on the other hand is a state of the art facility that provides humane treatment for all detainees, is fully compliant with the Geneva Convention, and provides treatment and oversight that exceed any maximum-security prison in the world - as attested to by human rights organizations, the Red Cross, Attorney General Holder, and an independent commission led Admiral Walsh. It is the only facility of its kind in the world and was specifically designed and built to house and try these types of dangerous terrorists. If President Obama ever decides to visit Gitmo, I'm sure he would be equally impressed as everyone else who has personally visited the detention facility and seen the outstanding resources and capabilities that exist there.
It is a secure location away from population centers, provides the maximum security required to prevent escape, as well as multiple levels of confinement opportunities based on the compliance of the detainee. There are on average two lawyers for every detainee that has been charged or had charges preferred against them at Gitmo.
There are 127 doctors, nurses and medical technicians dedicated to caring for and maintaining the health of each detainee - a ratio of 1:2 (one health care professional for every two detainees). Current treatment and oversight exceeds that of any maximum-security prison in the world. There is also a $12M Expeditionary Legal Complex (ELC) designed specifically to try detainees at Gitmo. The ELC is the only one of its kind in the world and provides a secure location to secure and try detainees charged by the US government, full access to sensitive and classified information, full access to defense lawyers and prosecution, and full media access by the press.
Senator Harry Reid declared, in a press conference after my bipartisan Senate amendment was passed, that "We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States." He went on to say he opposes imprisoning detainees on UNITED STATES soil, saying "We don't want them around the United States...I can't make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States." Senator Durbin said "The feeling was at this point we were defending the unknown. We were being asked to defend a plan that hasn't been announced." Sen. Durbin was correct then and is correct now - there are lots of questions, very few answers and still no plan. Questions such as:
- What is the impact of placing detainees in the United States prison system - pre-trial and post trial?
- Has an assessment been done to determine the risk of escape as well as potentially creating targets in the United States for terrorist attacks?
- Will Guantanamo detainees be segregated from the regular prison population?
- What facilities exist in the United States today that can hold these detainees?
- Where will Military Commissions be held - at Guantanamo or in the United States?
- Assuming Military Commissions are held at Guantanamo, where will detainees who are convicted serve out their sentence - in the United States or somewhere else?
- What additional constitutional rights will a detainee gain if they are tried in the United States versus Guantanamo?
- Are there differences in the rights awarded to detainees tried in a Military Commission versus civilian court? Could location or geography affect the right afforded to detainees (somewhere in the United States versus Guantanamo)?
- How do we handle protection of classified information during trials?
- What are the long term implications on future conflicts of trying these detainees in a civil court versus Military Commissions?
- Why is the Administration reading Miranda Rights to some detainees captured or held in Iraq and Afghanistan? How many are being read Miranda Rights? How many have invoked their rights?
- What is the impact of requiring the reading of Miranda Rights to terrorists captured on the battlefield and advising them they have the "right to remain silent"?
- What if a detainee is found not guilty- where will he be released?
- What does the Administration plan to do when a Federal Judge orders the release of a detainee but the Administration knows he is too dangerous to release or transfer?
- What do you do with a detainee you cannot try or release due to national security concerns?
Despite not having a plan, the Obama Administration continues in its quest to empty Gitmo regardless of the cost or the risk. Obama Administration initially talked with the small South Pacific island of Palau, population 20,000, to accept transfer of the group of 17 Chinese Muslims currently at Gitmo, called Uigers, at the cost of $200 million - that's $11.7 million per individual. The total cost to build Gitmo was only $275 million and it can house over 500 detainees. Ultimately, four Uigers were transferred to and currently living in Bermuda at a cost that has yet to be disclosed.
According to The Wall Street Journal today, a government official has said that well over 50 detainees have been approved for transfer to other countries and that negotiations are continuing with Saudi Arabia to take a large group of Yemeni detainees. Attorney General Eric Holder has estimated that more than 50 detainees may end up on trial by UNITED STATES authorities. This news comes as more and more Americans are growing opposed to the closure of Gitmo, placing them unnecessarily at risk in order to satisfy political goals.
The Obama Administration has also directed the Justice Department to begin reading Miranda Rights, based on the 5th Amendment to the UNITED STATES Constitution, to detainees captured and held at detention facilities. Now, when we capture a terrorist on the battlefield, they will be read their Miranda Rights which of course advices them they have the "right to remain silent". This is the last thing we want to do on the battlefield. It places our forces at additional risk.
On June 9th, the Obama administration again went against the will of Congress and the American people by transferring the first Gitmo detainee to the UNITED STATES for his trial in New York City. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is indicted for the 1998 al-Qaida UNITED STATES Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 224 people, including 12 American citizens. Ghailani was later captured in Pakistan in 2004 while working for al-Qaeda preparing false documents and facilitating the transport of arms and insurgents across the Afghan/Pakistan border. Intelligence shows that Ghailani met both Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Afghanistan and remained a close associate with al Qaeda until his capture in 2004. Now, this bona fide terrorist will have the privilege of a UNITED STATES civilian court trial in the United States. The press reported that Ghailani was smiling when the New York charge read the charges to him. Despite the Obama Administrations' intentions, they will find themselves in a position where they cannot either try or safely transfer or release Gitmo detainees. As of May, 2009, 74 transferred/released detainees have returned to the fight.
Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mullah Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, is leading the fight against US Marines in the Helmand province of Afghanistan...he surrendered in Northern Afghanistan in 2001, was transferred to Gitmo in 2006, and released in late 2007 to Afghan custody. During a Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing last week, Defense Department lawyer Jeh Johnson said, "There will be at the end of the review a category of people that we in the administration believe must be retained for reasons of public safety and national security, and they're not necessarily people that we'll prosecute."
Our focus must be on winning the war, protecting the lives of civilians and military personnel our troops, gaining intelligence, and using that intelligence to defeat our enemy. We cannot make the same mistakes we made before 9/11 by treating this war as a law-enforcement issue. History has proven that the end result could be disastrous. The issue before us is more than legal arguments about trials and process
It is about an on-going war against our country, our beliefs and our values by an enemy that has vowed to destroy it. My concerns are simple and revolve around the greatest trust placed upon Congress by the American people...to provide for their security.
We must ensure we protect our nation and our forces in the field - this includes the ability to gain intelligence from detainees as well as safeguarding our intelligence collection capabilities and information.
We must also have a process to determine what to do with these detainees...try them, release them, or hold them indefinitely.
Finally, we will be fighting extremists around the globe for the foreseeable future; therefore, we must have a secure location to hold them. There is no superior alternative to Gitmo. Our duty, and frankly the President's responsibility is not political posturing, but ensuring the safety and security of the citizens of the United States.
Senator McConnell said it best: "These Terrorists Are Right Where They Belong".
