[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GUANTANAMO DETAINEES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we understand that in just a few 
minutes the President is set to make an announcement on the secure 
facility in Guantanamo. In light of that, colleagues should consider 
the following things we have heard in recent weeks.
  General Dunford has spoken of the need for our military to take more 
aggressive action against the ISIL group that is operating inside 
Libya.
  General Campbell has spoken of the need to retain a sizable enough 
force in Afghanistan to accomplish the dual missions of both conducting 
counterterrorism operations and training and advising the Afghan 
security forces.
  Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has issued a budget request that 
seeks funding for the weapons systems and programs we will need to 
balance against the regional ambitions of China and Russia.
  In other words, some of the most senior national security officials 
within this administration are already working to better position the 
next President for the national security challenges we will face in 
2017 and beyond. Yet President Obama seems to remain captured on one 
matter by a campaign promise he made in 2008--his ill-considered 
crusade to close the secure detention facility at Guantanamo.
  Today we received the descriptions of where the President would like 
to detain terrorists within the United States--though not any actual 
proposed locations--despite the fact that it would be illegal under 
current law to transfer foreign terrorists at Guantanamo into the 
United States. This isn't a case where the President can even try to 
justify the use of some pen-and-phone strategy by claiming Congress 
failed to act. To the contrary, Congress acted over and over again in a 
bipartisan way to reject the President's desire to transfer dangerous 
terrorists to communities in the United States. The President signed 
all these prohibitions and his Attorney General recently confirmed that 
it is illegal for the President to transfer any of these terrorists 
into the United States.
  We will review President Obama's plan, but since it includes bringing 
dangerous terrorists to facilities in U.S. communities, he should know 
that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against 
that proposal.

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