U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson joined Senate colleagues this week to co-sponsor two resolutions that would prevent President Obama from his current plan of closing the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility.
The first resolution has a number of sponsors, brought by Senator Steve Daines (R- Montana) and joined by Isakson, as well as Senators Moran (R- Kansas), Gardner (R- Colorado), Cotton (R- Arkansas), Roberts (R- Kansas), Inhofe (R -Oklahoma), Kirk (R- Illinois), Boozman (R- Arkansas), Ernst (R- Iowa), Scott (R- South Carolina), Vitter (R- Louisiana), Hatch (R- Utah), and a couple presidential candidates, Marco Rubio (R- Florida) and Ted Cruz (R- Texas).
The resolution takes aim at ISIS and expresses the “sense of Senate that individuals captured by the United States for supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant should be detained at United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” So not only does this resolution argue for not closing Guantanamo and finding a new location for its existing detainees, it argues adding new detainees.
The resolution argues that since following 9/11, the government determined that Guantanamo would house individuals who had “engaged in, aided, or abetted, or conspired to commit, acts of international terrorism.” According to the resolution, members of ISIL captured by the United States meet such criteria and these individuals should be held at Guantanamo.
The second resolution focuses more on the logistics and problems that arise with the proposed closing of the detention facility. Sponsored by Senator Roberts, and co-sponsored by Scott, Gardner, Isakson, Moran and Blunt (R- Missouri), the resolution notes that President Obama has failed to find a suitable site in the U.S. to relocate terrorists currently held at Guantanamo. The resolution takes issue with President Obama’s intention to close the facility through executive order. It further outlines concerns that detainees transferred to the United States will provide detainees with the rights and protections granted under the Constitution. There is also the potential worry that prisoners could be released into the United States, particularly the proposed relocation sites at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Supermax in Colorado or the Navy Brig in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Our number one priority should be keeping our homeland safe and secure from the threat of radical terrorists, including those from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,” said Isakson. “Unfortunately, the president appears more focused on releasing terrorists to fulfill his political promise to close Guantanamo Bay prison than on going after the very terrorists he should be sending there. We must continue to utilize this critical detention facility in the fight against global terrorism. We must keep those who wish to do us harm off the battlefield, and, especially off of American soil.”
At the moment, President Obama appears unmoved by any protests from Congress but the record of those released from Guantanamo will make things difficult. Under presidents Obama and George W. Bush, 676 men have been released from Guantanamo. Of those, 118 are suspected of “re-engaging.” Only 91 inmates are left at Guantanamo but a 17% recidivism rate will make finding a new location for those particularly difficult.
