Kirk: Gitmo Prisoners Belong in Gitmo, Not in the U.S. with Constitutional Rights

Statement

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) released the below statement today after President Obama announced plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and transfer as many as 60 terrorist detainees to U.S. soil. The administration last month released 16 detainees and today announced plans to release an additional 35 detainees in the next few months.

"A bipartisan majority in Congress will stop the transfer of terrorists to the U.S. and will not allow these prisoners to gain the same legal rights as American citizens. Over the last decade, American taxpayers have spent more than $5 billion to safely and humanely house foreign terrorist detainees captured on the battlefield -- Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, bomb makers, terrorist trainers, recruiters, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and the terrorists involved in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors. I held up Senate passage of the National Defense Authorization Act in 2010 until Congress included the prohibition of Gitmo detainee transfers to the U.S. and blocked the use of Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, and now I stand with Senators Scott, Gardner and Roberts in support of keeping terrorists out of our constituents' backyards."

Source