Legislation passed by the House Intelligence Committee would require the feds to disclose records on the Guantanamo Bay detainees who President Obama is seeking to release, including information on who they’ve killed.
The provision, contained in a budget authorization the committee passed on Friday, would require the director of national intelligence to conduct a declassification review of intelligence reports on “past terrorist activities” of Guantanamo detainees.
Those activities would include terrorist organizations the detainees affiliated with, training they received and details on “direct responsibility, if any, for the death of [U.S.] citizens … or members of the Armed Forces.”
The provision is primarily a response to an effort by the White House to transfer the facility’s 80 remaining detainees to U.S. soil before the end of Obama’s term in office. However, it would apply to any who have been held there since the president signed a 2009 executive order mandating the base’s eventual closure.
The administration has successfully transferred detainees to foreign soil, including nine most recently sent to Saudi Arabia, but has faced greater scrutiny over an effort to move the remaining prisoners to prisons in Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina, where state officials have voiced opposition to the plan.
Though information about the terrorists is largely classified, defense officials have provided hints in the past. Paul Lewis, the Pentagon’s special envoy for Guantanamo’s closure, drew headlines for one applicable acknowledgement in March.
“What I can tell you is, unfortunately, there have been Americans that have died because of detainees,” Lewis remarked to a panel of House members.
If the budget authorization passed by the Intelligence Committee becomes law, officials will have 120 days to declassify the details behind that statement.
