Ahead Of Debt Limit Vote, Durbin Continues To Call For Closure Of Guantanamo Bay

Floor Speech

"Let me suggest: If my colleagues want to cut wasteful spending in [the] federal government, I know one place to start [Guantanamo Bay]… In the 21 years since Guantanamo first opened, American taxpayers have wasted more than $7 billion on that facility… Now, for what great purpose are American taxpayers paying more than half a billion dollars every year to keep Guantanamo open? Is it to keep America safe? Or to detain convicted terrorists and threats to America? Guess again. Because right now, 16 of the 30 remaining detainees--more than half--have already been approved for release. That means we are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars every year to detain men who should have already been released.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

To state the obvious: we are failing the victims of 9/11 and their families by continuing this charade. These military commissions, which was supposed to be the court of law, have not and [are] unlikely to deliver justice.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Leila, Colleen, and Ted Olson are not alone in calling on the Biden Administration to finally deliver a shred of justice to the victims of 9/11 and their loved ones through guilty pleas. Just last week, Leila and several other children and grandchildren of victims who died on 9/11 wrote to President Biden. In their letter, they implored him to salvage, "whatever justice can still be had for the parents and grandparents we lost. [Do] not to let the process drag on any longer.'

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

But their hopes were crushed when the prosecution team recently indicated they are [now planning to return] to pretrial litigation.. This was devastating news for children like Mr. Miller's daughters… Pretrial purgatory will not deliver justice to these families and the loved ones they lost. The only way to do that is by securing guilty pleas in the 9/11 case. And let's be honest: This will not be the full measure of justice that these families deserve. Sadly, that is no longer possible. Because these families were robbed of true justice when the Administration at the time decided to torture and abuse detainees in our nation's custody, and throw them into an untested legal black hole rather than trusting America's time-tested system of justice.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

If you want to stand for liberty and the rule of law, be honest with the American people. Guantanamo Bay is a blight on our national conscience. And it has been for a long period of time. It is time for us to accept the reality--it is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars, but it is an injustice that must end."

Source