McCain targets Obama’s Gitmo transfers

The hearing comes in the wake of news that at least one of the five Taliban leaders who were released from Guantanamo in March 2014 in exchange for captured Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had tried to return to action as many other former detainees have already done, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s admission in an interview with CNN that White House officials pressured him to agree to an increased pace of detainee transfers.

Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., is co-sponsoring a bill by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., that would bar the release or transfer of any detainees judged to be medium- or high-risk — the vast majority of the 122 who remain — and would require greater justification for any other release or transfer. It also would bar transfers of any Guantanamo prisoner to Yemen, home country of the largest group of remaining detainees and where the recent collapse of the government amid factional fighting has set back U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.

Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., has introduced companion legislation in the House.

McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, was once an ally of Obama’s in efforts to close the prison but now says the president has ignored concerns about the risks posed by freed detainees, especially in light of the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria over the past year and renewed terrorist attacks by extremists such as the ones in Paris last month.

The administration has released or transferred 44 suspected terrorists from the facility over the past 18 months, and officials have promised more to come. The recent flow from the prison comes after a period of more than a year in which no one left.

Though some detainees who recently left Guantanamo have been transferred into rehabilitation programs in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, others have been released to third countries or by their home countries after being repatriated, raising concerns that they could return to the fight.

According to the latest report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued in September, 107 of 620 detainees released from Guantanamo, or 17.3 percent, had been confirmed as returning to terrorism as of July 15, and another 77, or 12.4 percent, were suspected of having done so.

The five Taliban leaders released in the Bergdahl swap were sent to Qatar for a one-year cooling off period during which their activities have been monitored. But Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart admitted Tuesday at a House hearing that there was little officials could do to prevent them from returning to the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Hagel told CNN on Friday that “not everyone at the White House has agreed with me” about detainee releases. Under the process, each detainee’s case is reviewed by the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and State, along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Unanimous agreement is required for a transfer or release.

At the confirmation hearing for Ashton Carter to replace Hagel, Ayotte and other Republican senators extracted a promise from the defense secretary nominee that he would not bow to pressure to release or transfer detainees if the risk was too great.

“I call it straight. I have an obligation under the law with regard to the risk posed by detainees and I intend to discharge that responsibility in a very straight-up way,” Carter said.

He also promised he would abide by the law requiring Congress to be informed of any transfers. The Government Accountability Office has ruled the administration broke the law in the Bergdahl swap by carrying it out without notifying Congress at least 30 days in advance and by using appropriated public funds for a different purpose.

Administration officials have said it was urgent to get Bergdahl out of extremist hands after five years of captivity.