[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 10, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6395-S6396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUANTANAMO

  Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, as we are confronted with the news this 
week of the first of what may be many deadly terrorists being 
transferred to American soil, I am still left to wonder what the 
administration's plan is for the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
  I recently had the privilege of visiting Guantanamo Bay. I traveled 
down there with Senators Brownback, Barrasso, and Johanns. I would like 
to start out by saying how proud I am of the job our men and women in 
uniform who are stationed down there are doing. ADM Dave Thomas and his 
staff are doing an outstanding job, and their efforts need to be 
recognized. These are the kinds of individuals who make America great 
and who keep us safe.
  This is the type of facility where you do not have a true 
understanding of how well run it is until you go down there and see it 
in person for yourself. I would actually encourage our President to go 
down and see firsthand what Guantanamo Bay is like, what the facility 
is like, how the prisoners are treated down there, and how well our 
service men and women in uniform are preforming.
  As we are all aware, 6 months ago, President Obama set an arbitrary 
timeline of January 2010 to close Gitmo. It is now mid-June, and it 
appears he is no closer now than he was back in January of this year in 
identifying what his plan is. We still have seen little more than 
political rhetoric and no concrete plan of how to deal with the 
prisoners currently being housed at Gitmo.
  My question to the administration is: Why are we rushing to close 
this world-class facility without first having a plan in place? The 
administration should work with Congress on a bipartisan basis to first 
come up with a plan, if a plan is even possible, and then proceed from 
there.
  Included in this population are critical figures involved in the 9/11 
attacks on the United States and the bombings of a U.S. warship, the 
USS Cole, and also terrorists captured from the battlefield in 
Afghanistan. As I stated earlier, one of the most deadly terrorists who 
was formerly at Gitmo and is directly responsible for the deaths of 224 
individuals is now in the United States.
  On our trip, we were able to see the security measures that have been 
put in place to keep these evil individuals from escaping or doing 
harm. These individuals do not view this war we are in as over. A 
document that was found in an apartment of an al-Qaida operative in 
Manchester, England, appropriately entitled the ``Manchester 
Document,'' lays out how terrorists should act if captured.
  According to the Manchester Document, if an individual is detained, 
he should ``insist on proving that torture was inflicted on him. . . 
.'' Whether it was or not, they want to use the press. They want to try 
to show that torture was used on them.
  According to this document, they want to ``take advantage of visits 
from outsiders to communicate with brothers outside the prison and 
exchange information that may be helpful to them in their work outside 
the prison. . . .'' They are to ``master the art of hiding messages . . 
. and provide information about the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, 
movements of the enemy and its members.''
  The terrorists practice this doctrine on a daily basis. In addition, 
on a regular basis, they abuse our troops down at Guantanamo Bay. It is 
not the other way around.
  A spokesman for the Pentagon stated that 14 percent of the over 500 
who were released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to some sort of 
terrorist activity--14 percent. Some people say: Boy, that is a very 
low recidivism rate. But if we think about it, these are mass murderers 
and evil individuals. These are people who want to set out to destroy 
our country, our way of life, and kill as many Americans as they can. 
Do we want to transfer or release some of these individuals even if 
only 14 percent of them return? The lives of American troops are at 
stake.
  By the way, the people who were released early, the over 500, those 
are the people we actually thought were safe. The people who are still 
there are the most dangerous and deadly.
  One of the people who was transferred detonated a car bomb in Iraq.

[[Page S6396]]

Another is now a leading al-Qaida operative in Yemen. As I said before, 
these were supposedly the safe ones.
  What would happen if those currently at Gitmo returned to the 
battlefield?
  This document and the actions of those detained at Guantanamo Bay 
illustrate what some in this Congress seem to have forgotten. We, as a 
nation, are still at war. They are trying to kill Americans and destroy 
our very way of life. The prisoners at Gitmo realize this. Our troops 
realize this. It is time that we in Washington, DC, wake up and realize 
it as well.
  The facilities at Gitmo are state of the art and are some of the most 
impressive I have ever seen. After touring the facilities down there, I 
believe it would be next to if not impossible to recreate those 
facilities in the United States, partially because of the physical 
location of the facility.
  Guantanamo Bay is also the appropriate place to conduct military 
commissions. The privacy and seclusion of the unique courtroom 
facilities that have already been built there allow classified 
information to be protected and allow privacy for the 9/11 families who 
are grieving and have chosen to watch the proceedings down there. Too 
often, we forget about those individuals, the families of the 9/11/01 
victims.
  Transferring these hardened terrorists to facilities in the United 
States would make each of the facilities where they are transferred to, 
and the communities in which they are situated, terrorist targets. Let 
me repeat that.
  Transferring these hardened terrorists to facilities in the United 
States would make each one of the facilities they are transferred to 
and the communities in which they are situated terrorist targets.
  Would you like to own a small business, a gas station or a 
convenience store around one of these prisons that house terrorists? I 
know I wouldn't.
  Another observation that struck me while I was down at Guantanamo Bay 
was the care and treatment of the detainees. Every--every--effort is 
made to ensure their religious rights are respected. During my visit to 
the facility, we even paused as part of our tour out of respect for 
prayer time of the detainees.
  In addition, there are various programs and resources to provide 
detainees with instructional training and social recreation. Listen to 
these statistics.
  Available to the detainees are over 13,000 books for them to read, 
910 magazines, and various newspapers in different languages that are 
distributed weekly. They have access to a vast collection of DVDs for 
the detainees. It is almost like they have Netflix down there. They 
also have satellite television, including Al-Jazeera. Detainees are 
permitted quarterly phone calls to family members and have received or 
sent over 22,000 pieces of mail, including privileged attorney-client 
mail. Finally, we offer literacy classes, second language classes, and 
art classes for the detainees. These detainees are provided better 
health care than a lot of Americans are.
  Does any of this sound like abuse? Does any of it sound like abuse?
  In his first 6 months, President Obama has had to make some tough 
decisions. Some of these decisions, such as his Afghan policy, I 
publicly supported. He needs to realize, though, that on this issue of 
transferring these hardened terrorists to the United States there is 
strong bipartisan opposition. If the President were to go down to 
Gitmo, tour the facilities, and to be completely honest with himself, I 
believe he would come to the same conclusion I did. In the end, there 
are no superior alternatives to Guantanamo Bay.
  The administration must answer this question: How does closing 
Guantanamo, especially without a plan, make the American people safer?
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Udall of Colorado). The Senator from 
Arizona.

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