Two Republicans asked leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday to hold a hearing on the administration’s transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay as the president races to close the prison by the end of the year.
Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte, N.H., and Lindsey Graham, S.C., sent a letter to the chairman and ranking members of the committee urging them to call a hearing “at the earliest possible date” to investigate the administration’s transfer of prisoners they deem high-risk and likely to return to the fight.
“The administration has increased the pace of transfers, citing arguments related to the cost of Guantanamo and the detention facility’s supposed role in terrorist radicalization that do not withstand scrutiny,” the letter says. “Many of the detainees transferred were associated with al Qaeda, engaged in terrorist activity, and/or participated in hostilities against U.S. troops.”
The administration has increased the pace of releases from Gitmo, mostly recently transferring Muhammed Abd Al Rahman Awn Al-Shamrani to Saudi Arabia on Monday morning. Four detainees have been transferred in the first 11 days of 2016 so far, with about a dozen transfers total expected this month.
The current population of the prison is 103, according to a Pentagon release.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has long been a supporter of the administration’s efforts to close Guantanamo Bay, but has emphasized that it must be done in the right way. McCain asked the administration last year for a plan to close the prison, and repeatedly expressed frustration when months passed without any clear proposal.
The administration had said it was close to finalizing its plan last year, but still has yet to deliver it to Capitol Hill. Defense Department officials visited military and federal prisons across the country last year to work on a cost estimate to house Gitmo detainees in the U.S.
Even the administration has acknowledged that every detainee at Gitmo can’t be released. The most dangerous and likely to engage in terrorism must be housed somewhere, but federal law prohibits the transfer of prisoners to the U.S. for any reason.
“That means any action by the administration to close the Guantanamo detention facility would represent a blatant violation of the law,” the two senators wrote in the letter.
The fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act requires the administration to submit a report to Congress this month on high- and medium-risk detainees.
The letter says that holding an oversight hearing on the increase in transfers is urgent, as recent reports suggested that one detainee released by the Obama administration in 2012 now serves as the spokesman for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which sponsored the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.
