[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 83 (Thursday, June 4, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6150-S6151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUANTANAMO

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, if you got up early this morning--like 
about 6 a.m.--and turned on the television, you would have heard a 
historic speech. President Barack Obama is in Cairo, Egypt, this 
morning--our time this morning--giving a speech to an assembled group 
at a university in Cairo about the relationship of the United States 
and Muslims around the world. It is a critically important speech.
  All of us know what happened on 9/11/2001. We know our relationship 
with people in the Middle East has been strained at best, and we have 
been troubled by the threats of Islamic extremism, and so the President 
went and spoke in Cairo. I listened to his speech. Now, I am biased 
because he was my former colleague from Illinois and I think so highly 
of him, but I think it was an excellent speech. I think what he tried 
to do was to explain to them how we can develop a positive relationship 
between people of the Islamic faith and America, and I thought he laid 
out the case very well in terms of our history, our tolerance, the 
diversity of religious belief in our country, and how some elements of 
Islam--extremist elements of Islam--are not even operating in a way 
consistent with their own basic values and principles.
  The reason I refer to that speech is that one of the points that was 
important was when President Obama said to this assembled group--to 
their applause--that the United States was going to change its policies 
under his leadership. He said we are not going to use torture in the 
future, and he received applause from this group. He said we are going 
to close Guantanamo, and they applauded that as well.
  What the President's statement said--and basically the reaction of 
the audience told us--is that regardless of our image of the United 
States, for some people around the world there are things that have 
occurred since 9/11 which have created a tension and a stress between 
us that need to be addressed honestly. President Obama made it clear 
that we are starting a new path, a new way to develop friendships and 
alliances around the world to stop terrorism and stop extremism, and he 
understands that torture--the torture of prisoners held by the United 
States--has, unfortunately, created a tension between the United States 
and other people in the world. They know of it because of Abu Ghraib, 
the graphic photographs that are emblazoned in our memory, and theirs 
as well, of the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq. They know it from 
the photographs that have emerged and the documentary evidence about 
the treatment of some prisoners at Guantanamo.
  It has, unfortunately, become a fact of life that Guantanamo itself 
is a symbol that is used by al-Qaida--the terrorist group responsible 
for 9/11--to recruit new members. They inflame their passions by 
talking about Guantanamo and the unfair treatment of some prisoners at 
Guantanamo. President Obama knew this and said in his first Executive 
order that the United States will not engage in torture and within a 
year or so we will close the Guantanamo corrections facility. I think 
it was the right decision--not an easy decision but the right decision. 
If we are truly going to break with the past and build new strength and 
alliances to protect the United States, then we have to step up with 
this kind of leadership.
  The President inherited a recession, two wars, and over 240 prisoners 
in Guantanamo, some of whom have been held for 6 or 7 years. Many of 
these people are very dangerous individuals who should never, ever be 
released, at least as long as they are a threat to the safety and 
security of the United States or a threat to other people. Some should 
be tried. They can be tried for crimes

[[Page S6151]]

and, if convicted, they can be incarcerated. Others may be sent to 
another country, maybe returned to their own country of origin.
  One of these prisoners I happen to know a little about because he is 
represented by an attorney in Chicago. He is Palestinian. He is from 
Gaza and was captured when he was 19 years old. He has now been held in 
prison for 7 years. He is now 26 years old. Last year, our government 
notified him and his attorney that we have no current charges against 
him. They have been trying to find a place to send him. He stayed 
another year in prison while we are trying to determine where he should 
be sent.
  Each of these 240 cases is a challenge to make sure we come to a just 
conclusion as to each person and never compromise the safety of the 
United States.
  A little over a week ago, the President went to the National Archives 
and gave a speech about Guantanamo and what we are going to do, and he 
made it clear that some of these people will be tried in our courts, 
some of them may end up in prisons in the United States, some of them 
may end up being held as long as they are enemy combatants and a danger 
to the United States, and some may be sent to other countries. They are 
trying to work out 240 different cases. It is not an easy assignment.
  The reason I raise this is because it is clear that as long as 
Guantanamo remains open, it is going to be an irritant to many around 
the world and lead to the recruitment of more people to engage in 
terrorism against the United States. Don't accept my conclusion on 
that. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ADM Mike Mullen, said:

       The concern I've had about Guantanamo in these wars is it 
     has been a symbol, and one which has been a recruiting symbol 
     for those extremists and jihadists who would fight us.

  On the floor of the Senate this morning, shortly after the 
President's speech, the Republican minority leader, Senator McConnell 
of Kentucky--as he has many times before--came to discuss Guantanamo. 
He said explicitly--and he may have said this before, but I just want 
to make it clear that I am reading from the transcript of what he said 
on the floor this morning--``Like most Americans, I'm for keeping 
Guantanamo open.'' So he clearly disagrees with the President. He wants 
Guantanamo to stay open. I certainly hope that it doesn't. I don't want 
this recruiting tool for terrorists to continue.
  Senator McConnell has raised the question repeatedly of whether it is 
safe for us to bring Guantanamo detainees to the United States for a 
trial or for incarceration. I think it is, based on the fact that we 
currently have 347 convicted terrorists serving time in American 
prisons today. Over half of them are international terrorists, and some 
of them are in my State of Illinois at the Marion Federal penitentiary. 
They are being held today. As I traveled around southern Illinois last 
week, I didn't hear one person step up and say: I am worried about the 
terrorists being held at the Marion prison.
  In fact, I went to the Marion prison, met with the corrections 
officers and guards, and asked them this: What do you think about 
Guantanamo detainees?
  Well, they were somewhere between insulted and angry at the notion 
that they couldn't safely incarcerate a Guantanamo detainee. One of the 
guards said to me: Senator, we have more dangerous people than that in 
this prison. We have serial killers, we have sexual predators, we have 
terrorists from Colombia, we had John Gotti--the syndicate kingpin. We 
held these people safely, and we can do it. That is what we do for a 
living. So don't you worry about putting them in this prison. We can 
take care of them. We have not had an escape, and we are not going to.
  So when Senators come to the floor and suggest that these detainees 
cannot even be brought to the United States for trial and held in a 
prison while they are going to trial, that it is somehow unsafe to 
America, defies logic and experience. If there is one strength we have 
in this country--and you can debate it--we know how to incarcerate 
people. We have put more people in prison per capita than any nation on 
Earth. We hold them safely, certainly in the supermax facilities, and 
we must continue to. And this idea that we have to keep Guantanamo open 
because there is not a prison in America where they can be held safely 
is not true. The 347 convicted terrorists being held in America today 
are living proof that is not true.
  This tactic of opposing the closing of Guantanamo is based on fear--
fear that is being pedaled on this Senate floor that these detainees 
cannot be held safely and securely in the United States. It is the same 
fear that led people to conclude that our Constitution wasn't strong 
enough to deal with a war on terrorism, and therefore we had to look 
for ways to go around it when it came to wiretapping and interrogating 
prisoners. These are the same people who had fear that our courts in 
America couldn't handle the cases before them if they dealt with 
terrorism, though, in fact, they have done that many times over. It is 
the same fear that our law enforcement authorities can't do their job 
effectively, when, in fact, they can.
  We cannot as a nation be guided by fear. And those politicians who 
come up and make speeches, whether it is on radio or television or on 
the floor of Congress, and who try to appeal to the fear of the 
American people aren't doing us any favor. We are not a strong nation 
cowering in fear. We are a strong nation of principle, of values, that 
can stand up to the world and say: We will not in any way harbor or 
encourage terrorism and extremism. We are proud of our values. We can 
stand by them even in the toughest of times. And we are proud of the 
institutions of America that we have created and that make us strong.
  I don't think those who come to this argument out of weakness and 
fear have a leg to stand on. And when the argument was made on the 
floor this morning that we should keep Guantanamo open, I would like to 
think that those who heard President Obama in Cairo, Egypt, and across 
the Muslim world today and who were encouraged by his aspirations to 
higher values and a better place for the United States will understand 
that this statement by one Senator on the floor of the Senate doesn't 
represent where America needs to go.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mr. DURBIN. I wish to conclude briefly by saying we have a chance to 
do the right thing, to close Guantanamo in a safe and secure fashion, 
to put these prisoners in supermax facilities, to stop the use of 
Guantanamo as a recruitment device for al-Qaida. Turning them loose in 
countries around the world may mean the release of terrorists and more 
problems to come.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky is recognized.
  Mr. BUNNING. Madam President, we are in morning business, is that 
correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.

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