[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18035]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 GITMO

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, we also have news this week that the 
President is trying to push through Gitmo and he is trying to change 
Gitmo through some sort of Executive action. We don't know exactly what 
that is.
  He seems to have this flippant attitude about what is going to happen 
at Guantanamo Bay, saying we can move them into the United States more 
cheaply. Well, I would tell you--as a person who has been to Guantanamo 
Bay and has seen that facility and am very aware of what is going on 
there--we are missing one big element. The terrorists do not know who 
the guards are at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Nor do they have access to 
their families.
  And while they are infuriated about Gitmo, I promise you if those 
prisoners are moved into Colorado, Oklahoma or Kansas or any other 
place, the terrorists overseas won't rage about Gitmo anymore, they 
will then rage about Colorado or they will then rage about Illinois or 
wherever those prisoners are being held. They are not mad at Gitmo and 
the treatment there. They are mad that these terrorists, whom they have 
affection for, are being detained by the United States of America. 
Right now all of the individuals who are guarding those individuals and 
keeping them detained will no longer be hidden anymore because 
terrorists could linger around the outside of these facilities and 
contact the different guards that are coming in and out. Suddenly, the 
guards and their family members become exposed and the stakes for those 
individuals are exposed.
  He is not thinking through the real consequences of flippantly moving 
these individuals into the United States. It is a big issue that we 
face.

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