[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 28949]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ORDER ON GITMO AND YEMENI DETAINEES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 1, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, this Thursday the House Homeland Security 
Committee will hold an urgent hearing to investigate the admission of 
uninvited guests to the recent White House state dinner.
  This security lapse certainly merits a full investigation, but it 
pales in comparison to the gross security lapse that the Obama 
Administration is committing in releasing scores of detainees from 
Guantanamo Bay to dangerously unstable countries--including Yemen, 
Afghanistan, and other al Qaeda strongholds.
  Yet neither the Homeland Security Committee, nor any other committee, 
has seen fit to hold a single hearing on the release of these 
detainees.
  In fact, the majority included a provision in FY2009 spending bills 
explicitly prohibiting the disclosure of any information to the 
American people.
  If the American people knew who these detainees were, the acts of 
terror they have committed, or to which countries they were going to be 
released, they would never stand for it.
  This is a dangerous precedent. Given that more than 74 former 
Guantanamo detainees have returned to active terrorism, there is real 
concern about the potential for these remaining detainees to return to 
a life of terror.
  The American people deserve the facts. I encourage the public to 
visit the New York Times ``Guantanamo Docket'' Web site to review what 
scant information about these detainees was released by the previous 
administration.
  I believe they will find these summaries deeply troubling.
  This Congress has a responsibility and an obligation to the American 
people to hold hearings, request information, and work with the 
administration to have an open dialogue over transfer and release 
policies.
  This has not happened. And 10 months after the administration issued 
an executive order to close Guantanamo, we have no more information 
about this than we did when the President took office.
  Of the many unstable countries to which detainees may be sent, I am 
most concerned about the impending release of 26 detainees to Yemen--a 
growing haven for al Qaeda in the Persian Gulf.
  It is my understanding that the administration is also preparing to 
release several other detainees to another country that anyone with a 
basic understanding of world affairs would agree is unacceptable. 
Unfortunately, this information has been classified.
  Yemen is undoubtedly one of the most unstable countries in the world 
today--and the country where al Qaeda has reconstituted its operations 
over the last year.
  The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, 
stated in an October Voice of America interview, ``In Yemen, we have 
witnessed the reemergence of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the 
possibility that that will become the base of operations for al-
Qaida.''
  A number of former Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to Yemen to 
launch terrorist attacks, including one just 2 months ago.
  On October 13, Saudi police prevented an imminent suicide bomb attack 
as two al Qaeda terrorists slipped across the border from Yemen.
  One of the would-be suicide bombers, Yousef Mohammed al Shihri, was a 
former Guantanamo detainee released in 2007 to Saudi Arabia. He quickly 
left Saudi Arabia for dangerously unstable Yemen where he rejoined al 
Qaeda.
  In September 2008, another former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Said Ali 
al Shihri, helped orchestrate the terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy 
in Sanaa, Yemen, killing 10 guards and civilians.
  Since that time, al Qaeda's posture in Yemen has grown stronger with 
the merger of the Saudi and Yemeni arms of al Qaeda into one group--al 
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula--with Yemen as its base for training and 
operations.
  Yemen is also now home to radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who 
influenced alleged Fort Hood gunman Major Nidal M. Hasan and who U.S. 
intelligence believes to be a critical link in al Qaeda's efforts to 
radicalize Americans and Europeans.
  I have repeatedly urged the President to halt the release of 
detainees to dangerously unstable countries. The consequences of such 
releases could cost American lives.
  I implore this Congress to get serious about its oversight 
responsibility. The American people deserve better.

                          ____________________