[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 190 (Tuesday, December 15, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H14886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                GITMO DETAINEES COMING TO THE HEARTLAND

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, this morning, we read reports that the 
administration will announce that a prison in Illinois will be home to 
over 70 al Qaeda core detainees. After spending $275 million on a 
state-of-the-art facility in Cuba, we will walk away from that 
investment.
  The new plan poses an unnecessary risk on the American people. 
Administration briefings revealed that we are not ending Gitmo, just 
moving it to the heartland.
  Members of Congress posed over one dozen questions on this plan 1 
month ago--with no answer. Here is one of the key unanswered issues: In 
his archives speech, the President announced that approximately 75 of 
the detainees are ``too dangerous for trial or release.'' They are to 
be held indefinitely without civil or military trial.
  It is illegal under our Constitution for the executive to hold a 
person inside the United States indefinitely without trial. Question: 
How will the President suspend our Constitution's writ of habeas corpus 
once he brings these 75 detainees to the heartland? Courts will force 
him to answer, and the American people should know right now.

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