[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 84 (Monday, June 8, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6247-S6249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUANTANAMO

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, over the course of the last several 
weeks, the minority leader--the Republican leader, Senator McConnell--
has come to the floor repeatedly to raise the issue of the closing of 
Guantanamo. Day after day after day he raised the question as to 
whether we should close the Guantanamo facility and, if we did close 
such facility, where these detainees would be sent and whether they 
could be securely incarcerated and detained. These questions were 
raised repeatedly, and little was said on this side of the aisle, in 
deference to the President, who was coming forward with his plan and 
dealing with this problem, and it was a problem he inherited.
  When President Obama was sworn into office, he inherited about 240 
Guantanamo detainees, some of whom had been held in Guantanamo for a 
lengthy period of time, some had been interrogated, many had been 
considered for trial or military tribunal, or even released, but 
President Obama inherited these 240 detainees. He made a statement in 
one of his first days in office as President that two things would 
happen under his administration: First, we would not engage in torture 
as a nation; and second, we would close Guantanamo.
  After making that announcement, he made it clear he would have to 
come back with a specific set of proposals, which he did 2 weeks ago, 
in a historic speech at the National Archives. Until that speech was 
made, Senator McConnell, and some other Republicans in support of his 
position, came to the floor and continued to question whether we could 
or should close Guantanamo. Today, earlier this afternoon, the 
assistant minority leader, Senator Kyl of Arizona, came to the floor 
and made remarks about my views on the issue as well as President 
Obama's views on closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
  It is true that I believe, as President Obama does, that closing 
Guantanamo is an important national security priority for America. But 
Senator Kyl did not mention the others who support closing Guantanamo. 
It is not just the President and his former Illinois colleague Senator 
Durbin who support the closing of Guantanamo. Many security and 
military leaders have said that closing Guantanamo will make America 
safer, and here are a few examples. Leading the list of those who agree 
with President Obama in closing Guantanamo, General Colin Powell, the 
former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of 
State under President George W. Bush; Republican Senators John McCain 
of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have both publicly 
stated they favor the closing of Guantanamo; former Republican 
Secretaries of State James Baker, Henry Kissinger, and Condoleezza 
Rice, ADM Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 
GEN David Petraeus.
  So for Senator Kyl to come to the floor and suggest this notion of 
closing Guantanamo is not one shared by military and security leaders 
is not accurate. The list I have given you is not complete. Many others 
agree with the President's position. According to the experts, 
Guantanamo has been a recruiting tool for al-Qaida that is actually 
hurting America's security. In his remarks this afternoon, Senator Kyl 
challenged the notion of closing Guantanamo, saying:

       An idea that's been floated by the President, Senator 
     Durbin, and others.

  But Senator Kyl didn't mention who these nameless ``others'' are who 
agree with the closing of Guantanamo or who agree it is a recruiting 
tool for terrorists. Let's take one for example: Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said:

       The concern I've had about Guantanamo is that it has been a 
     recruiting symbol for those extremists and jihadists who 
     would fight us. That's the heart of the concern for 
     Guantanamo's continued existence.

  That was a quote from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ADM 
Mike Mullen.
  Retired Air Force MAJ Matthew Alexander led the interrogation team 
that tracked down Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. 
Here is what he said:

       I listened time and time again to foreign fighters, and 
     Sunni Iraqis, state that the number one reason they had 
     decided to pick up arms and join Al Qaeda was the abuses at 
     Abu Ghraib and the authorized torture and abuse at Guantanamo 
     Bay. . . . It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of 
     our losses and casualties in that country have come at the 
     hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our 
     program of detainee abuse.

  Alberto Mora, former Navy General Counsel, testified to the Senate 
Armed

[[Page S6248]]

Services Committee about Guantanamo. Here is what he said:

       Serving U.S. flag-rank officers . . . maintain that the 
     first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in 
     Iraq--as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting 
     insurgent fighters into combat--are, respectively the symbols 
     of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

  So it is not accurate to suggest that President Obama and I dreamed 
up the notion that Guantanamo is a recruiting poster. It is our 
military who have told us that, based on their experiences fighting the 
war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  Senator Kyl also claims that no one has been abused at Guantanamo. He 
said:

       This idea that prisoners are treated badly is patently 
     false. The insinuation directly or indirectly that torture 
     has occurred at Guantanamo must stop.

  That is Senator Kyl's opinion. But others have a different view. The 
Senate Armed Services Committee issued a bipartisan report which 
reached a different conclusion. They found:

       Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's authorization of 
     aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay 
     was a direct cause of detainee abuse there.

  Let's take another example. Susan Crawford was the top Bush 
administration official dealing with military commissions at Guantanamo 
Bay. She was general counsel of the Army during the Reagan 
administration and Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was the 
Defense Secretary. She is a lifelong Republican.
  Susan Crawford reached the conclusion that Mohammad Al-Qahtani, the 
so-called 20th hijacker, could not be prosecuted for his role in the 9/
11 attacks because he was tortured at Guantanamo Bay. Here is what she 
said:

       We tortured Qahtani. . . . If we tolerate this and allow 
     it, then how can we object when our servicemen and women, or 
     others in the foreign service, are captured and subjected to 
     the same techniques? How can we complain? Where is our moral 
     authority to complain? Well, we may have lost it.

  This is one reason that President Obama is closing Guantanamo and has 
put an end to the abusive interrogation techniques that were used at 
Guantanamo--because they put our troops at risk of being abused if they 
are captured.
  Senator Kyl also claimed that there is no connection between the 
abuse that took place at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. That is Senator 
Kyl's view.
  But the Senate Armed Services Committee reached a different 
conclusion. Here is what they found:

       The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not 
     simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own. 
     Interrogation techniques such as stripping detainees of their 
     clothes, placing them in stress positions, and using military 
     working dogs to intimidate them appeared in Iraq only after 
     they had been approved for use in Afghanistan and at GITMO.

  Senator Kyl said those of us who advocate closing Guantanamo should 
be thankful for the service of our soldiers and sailors at Guantanamo 
rather than, quote, ``slapping them in the face and insinuating they 
have done something wrong.''
  Let me be very clear. I visited Guantanamo in 2006. I left with a 
feeling of great pride and admiration for the soldiers and sailors who 
are serving in Guantanamo. They are doing a great job, but they are 
being asked to carry a heavy burden created by the previous 
administration's policies. It is no favor to the men and women who 
serve there to have them continue their service if, in fact it is a 
recruiting tool for terrorists who are putting the lives of other 
servicemen and women of America at risk around the world.
  President Obama is closing Guantanamo because it will make America, 
and our troops, safer. What is a slap in the face is to continue 
policies from the previous administration that recruit more terrorists 
and put our troops at greater risk of being abused if they are 
captured.
  Senator Kyl said there are ``serious concerns about the safety of 
Americans'' if Guantanamo is closed and detainees are transferred to 
the United States to be held in supermax prisons.
  But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is a military lawyer said:

       I do believe we can handle 100 or 250 prisoners and protect 
     our national security interests, because we had 450,000 
     German and Japanese prisoners in the United States. So, this 
     idea that they cannot be housed somewhere safely, I disagree.
  People who suggest that we cannot detain terrorists in our prisons 
should show more respect for the brave corrections officers who put 
their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.
  Just the week before last I went to Marion Federal Prison in southern 
Illinois. It was once our maximum security prison in the United States 
before the supermax facility was opened at Florence, CO. It was 
interesting. As I met with the corrections officers in the lockup of 
the Marion Federal Prison, and after a little bit of a tour, I asked 
him: What do you think of this notion that we hear from Senators on the 
floor, such as Senator Kyl and Senator McConnell, that we cannot safely 
incarcerate Guantanamo detainees in the prisons of the United States?
  The one corrections officer said to me: Senator, I am insulted by 
that comment. At this facility we are now incarcerating members of 
Colombian drug terrorist gangs. We have had serial murderers here. We 
have incarcerated John Gotti. We have incarcerated some of the most 
dangerous people convicted, brought into this country from overseas 
where they are posing a threat to America. In the United States, we 
brought them here. We know how to handle these prisoners. We are up to 
this task. We have proven it over and over again.
  The very Senators who are questioning whether we can safely 
incarcerate our prisoners in our maximum and supermax facilities should 
acknowledge one obvious fact: No one, literally no one, has ever 
escaped from a supermax facility in the United States. For those on the 
Republican side to argue that putting these prisoners from Guantanamo 
into a supermax facility endangers us in the community--it is not 
supported by history and experience.
  Senator Kyl said: ``No one has ever escaped from Guantanamo.'' That 
is true. But it is also true no prisoner has ever escaped from a 
Federal supermaximum security facility. I said before, and I will 
repeat because Senator Kyl made reference to it, at the base of this 
argument made by Senator McConnell and Senator Kyl is fear--not just 
fear of extremists and terrorists and violence but fear that this great 
country of America cannot stand by the values which we have honored for 
generations and still be safe; fear that we can't stand for the 
constitutional principles we swear to uphold and still be safe; fear 
that we cannot trust Americans and our court system, the best in the 
world, to, in fact, try these prisoners and, if they are guilty, 
incarcerate them--fear that we cannot do that and be safe; fear that we 
cannot trust the men and women working at prisons around America, the 
supermax facilities, to safely incarcerate Guantanamo detainees.
  That kind of fear, which is what we hear on a regular basis, the 
regular diet fed to us by the Republican Senators, is no basis for a 
sound American foreign policy. If we are going to have a policy which 
protects us abroad and at home, we should recognize threats for what 
they are, understand our strengths and our weaknesses, and be prepared. 
This idea of cowering in fear--which is what the Republican Senators 
offer us as a daily regimen from their speeches on the floor--is not 
what America has ever been about.
  Just this last Saturday we celebrated the 65th anniversary of that 
miraculous invasion of D-day. I got on the phone and called one of my 
great friends in Springfield, IL, Joe Kelly. Joe Kelly came in on the 
seventh day after D-day with the Artillery, spent 18 months with the 
Army, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He is a great fellow. He 
talked about volunteering.
  I want to tell you something. When Joe Kelly and his four brothers 
volunteered in Chicago to fight in World War II, it wasn't because they 
were afraid. They volunteered because they believed they could only 
keep this country safe by being prepared to stand up for it and fight. 
They did it and did it successfully.
  That spirit, that patriotic spirit of D-day, of Joe Kelly and so many 
others, is what will keep America safe, and President Obama knows it. 
Senator McConnell and Senator Kyl can come to the Senate floor and 
express their fears over and over again, the latest fears that they 
have about the safety of this country, but they are not borne

[[Page S6249]]

out by the facts. I will stand by GEN Colin Powell and others, people I 
admire, who have given so many years of their lives in service to this 
country who agree with President Obama to close the Guantanamo 
facility, trust our supermax facilities to hold these detainees if that 
is necessary, and be aware of the fact that if we should ship these 
detainees to some other country to be tried or for some other purpose, 
there is a serious question as to whether they will treat them the way 
they should be treated for the safety of the United States.
  For many years, incidentally, President George W. Bush said he wanted 
to close Guantanamo. There were not any complaints from the Republican 
side of the aisle then. President George W. Bush could not get the job 
done. President Obama has said he will try to finish that job.
  I hope some of these who are critical of President Obama and his 
position will not make a political issue about Guantanamo. If President 
George W. Bush and President Obama agree it should be closed, it is 
pretty clear to me that at the highest level of our government there is 
a bipartisan consensus. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
are criticizing President Obama when it comes to Guantanamo, but the 
fact is, they have no plan but to leave that facility open and continue 
to see it being used around the world against the United States and as 
a recruiting tool for terrorists.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to join with GEN Colin Powell and 
join with those on their side of the aisle who understand that closing 
Guantanamo will make America safer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. KAUFMAN. I ask unanimous consent to proceed as in morning 
business and the time to count against cloture.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Kaufman pertaining to the introduction of S. 1210 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.)''
  Mr. KAUFMAN. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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