The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is one of several places Pentagon officials are considering as a new home for detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, so President Obama can keep his pledge to close the military prison there.
That’s where Republican Reps. Mike Pompeo and Lynn Jenkins will be Friday, seeking to hear from constituents on the plan, and to convince them that closing Guantanamo is a threat to national security.
“Such a move is a naked attempt, at the eleventh hour, to fulfill a campaign promise to the most radical elements of his liberal base, and is totally divorced from the security threats that necessitated the creation of Guantanamo in the first place,” Pompeo said in a statement. “President Obama needs to stop playing politics and focus on doing what is best for our national security: keeping these terrorists at Guantanamo and out of America.”
The GOP case for keeping Guantanamo open was bolstered Thursday by a House Armed Services Committee report. It found that the administration was so eager to close the prison that it broke the law and misled Congress in the swap last year of five Taliban leaders for captured U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“The Taliban Five transfer became cloaked as a component of an otherwise salutary prisoner recovery effort,” the report said. “Doing so allowed the administration to rid itself of five of the most dangerous and problematic detainees (other than the 9/11 conspirators who are subject to criminal proceedings) who the administration would otherwise have great difficulty relocating because of the administration’s own prior recommendation to keep them in detention.”
The five Taliban leaders were sent to Qatar for a one-year “cooling off” period, during which at least one tried to return to the fight, deepening the controversy over their release.
Meanwhile, a video from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula surfaced this week indicating former Guantanamo inmate Ibrahim al-Qosi had become an al Qaeda leader in Yemen. Al-Qosi, a Sudanese national and veteran jihadi fighter, was released to his home country in 2012 after pleading guilty to conspiracy and providing material support to al Qaeda.
“This news confirms what we’ve known all along: Guantanamo Bay houses some of the world’s deadliest terrorists, and the secure facility at Guantanamo is exactly where they belong,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said of the video. “They do not belong back on the battlefield fighting against us, nor do they belong on U.S. soil. It’s time for the president to recognize that simple fact, which is already enshrined in U.S. law.”
The fight over Guantanamo has heated up over the past year as the administration quickened the pace of releases and transfers and lawmakers pushed legislation to further limit Obama’s options.
The annual defense policy act contains a provision that would effectively bar Obama from closing the prison unless Congress approves a plan to do so. Obama signed the bill into law last month, but not before White House officials threatened he would use executive action to close the prison.
Meanwhile, administration officials are working to get more prisoners out of Guantanamo. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said last week that the Pentagon has signed off on transferring more than 50 of the remaining 107 detainees and negotiations are underway with various countries to take them.
