[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 11229-11230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        OBAMA GUANTANAMO POLICY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, today the Secretary of Defense and 
the Secretary of State will appear before the Appropriations Committee 
to support the administration's request for funding to execute our 
combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. They will be explaining the 
need to expend more than $80 billion in our efforts to defeat the 
Taliban, al-Qaida, and to preserve our security gains in Iraq.
  The administration's request also includes $80 million to close the 
secure detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Yet rather than appear 
before the Senate to explain why these funds are necessary, and what 
the administration plans to do with the terrorists housed at 
Guantanamo, Attorney General Holder chose to deliver a speech in Berlin 
yesterday in which he reiterated the administration's intent to close 
it.
  During that speech, Attorney General Holder acknowledged once again 
that Guantanamo is ``run in an efficient, professional manner.'' He 
said detainees there are treated humanely. Yet Guantanamo must be 
closed, he said, because it represents, as he put it, a time and an 
approach that we want to put behind us. And keeping this so-called 
symbol open ``makes America less safe'' and makes our friends, 
including Europeans, ``less secure.''
   It is clear from these remarks that the administration is putting 
symbolism ahead of safety. This becomes even more apparent from 
Attorney General Holder's admission that closing Guantanamo will be 
``one of the most daunting challenges'' he will face. He clearly 
realizes what most Americans realize: closing Guantanamo is not a good 
option if no safe alternatives exist.
  In an effort to circumvent this dilemma, Attorney General Holder says 
the U.S. will not only transfer detainees but also release some of them 
and try others in Federal court. Nowhere did the Attorney General 
mention the use of the military commissions process that Congress 
passed on a bipartisan basis at the direction of the Supreme Court. The 
Attorney General's comments present a whole range of new problems and 
potential dangers that some of my colleagues will detail throughout the 
day.
  Attorney General Holder also failed to address recent news reports 
that the administration was considering releasing Guantanamo detainees 
into American communities. On April 2, Senator Sessions sent the 
Attorney General a letter asking him what legal authority

[[Page 11230]]

the administration has to release detainees who have participated in 
terrorist-related activities into the United States. The Attorney 
General still has not responded to Senator Sessions. But it is a 
question the American people want answered right away.
  This weekend I will be attending the Kentucky Derby with well over 
100,000 Kentuckians and other Americans, and if I asked every one of 
them if they thought sending terrorists to our neighborhoods was a good 
plan, I would get more than 100,000 resounding ``noes.''
  Since the administration has not given any indication where it plans 
to put the 240 terrorists currently housed at Guantanamo, the Attorney 
General was asked in Berlin if any of the detainees could be put up in 
hotels. According to the Associated Press report on the meeting, the 
Attorney General joked that ``hotels might be a possibility, it depends 
on where the hotel is.''
  The question of where the terrorists at Guantanamo will be sent is no 
joking matter--and the administration needs to tell the American people 
how it will keep the terrorists at Guantanamo out of our neighborhoods 
and off of the battlefield. Its one thing not to have a plan. It is 
another to joke about not having one.

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