The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing next week on President Obama’s release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay after the administration allegedly ignored questions from Congress.
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., who chairs the committee, announced the hearing would take place July 7, and said its intention is to “set the record straight” on contradictions in past testimony.
“President Obama’s special envoys for Guantanamo Bay closure made statements to the committee about detainee releases that contradict administration assessments. Rather than explain or correct its testimony, the administration chose to ignore our formal inquiry. That’s unacceptable,” Royce said in a statement.
Royce’s committee has argued since May that the administration has knowingly released detainees to countries that aren’t in a position to stop them from returning to the battlefield against the U.S. and its allies.
Lee Wolosky and Paul Lewis, the special envoys for Guantanamo closure at the State and Defense Departments, respectively, are expected to testify at the hearing.
The administration is expected to release about two dozen detainees in the next month.
Seventy-nine detainees remain the the prison, which Obama is working to close before leaving office early next year.
