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McKeon: “America’s Citizens and Troops Continue to Wait for the President’s Plan To Detain and Prosecute Terrorists Captured on the Battlefield”
Washington, D.C. – Following a fact-finding trip yesterday to inspect the terrorist detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) today criticized the President’s decision to delay the deadline for the final recommendations from the Detainee Task Force on the Administration’s terrorist detention policy. McKeon pointed to an Armed Services Committee hearing scheduled for Friday as the first opportunity for Members to question high-ranking Administration officials on the delayed report.
Ranking Member McKeon’s statement follows:
“Six months ago, the President stood before the American people and announced that he would uphold a political promise and close the terrorist detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay within a year. In order to achieve this goal, the President created a Detainee Task Force to review America’s current terrorist detention policies and practices, and also recommend a path forward within six months.
“We received notice late last night from the Administration that it will be unable to meet the President’s self-imposed deadline. Clearly, crafting a comprehensive and coherent strategy to justify a political decision is proving to be more difficult than initially thought.
“Let’s make one thing clear. This waiting game is unacceptable—unacceptable to the American people who continue to wonder if dangerous terrorists will be imported into their communities and unacceptable to the men and women of our military who are operating on battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq without clear guidance from the Commander-in-Chief on detainee matters.
“Without a final report from the Detainee Task Force, the President and his Administration remain unable to answer basic questions, such as:
- Will war crimes prosecution against those responsible for planning the 9/11 attacks, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, continue?
- If the President closes Guantanamo, where does he intend to send detainees?
- During this prolonged vacuum, how will the Administration ensure that federal courts do not release detainees into American communities?
- Where will the Administration detain future high value detainees captured in Afghanistan by our troops?
“Unless the American people receive satisfactory answers to these questions, the Congress cannot support the President's policy to close Guantanamo.
“The Administration did release an interim report from the Detainee Task Force, but it tells us nothing new. It largely rehashes much of the President’s speech in May at the National Archives, including his stated preference for prosecuting terrorists in federal criminal courts instead of a military commission system constructed to prosecute violations of the laws of war.
“This is a misguided policy. The Commander-in-Chief should adopt the recommendations of our top military lawyers and not implement a policy that favors the use of federal criminal courts. An official preference within the Administration to use federal criminal courts would embolden those who claim and perpetuate the perception that military commissions are a second class system or, worse, a kangaroo court. This is an unacceptable outcome and dishonors the uniformed personnel working on military commissions.”