Order On Gitmo And Yemeni Detainees
Floor Speech
Order On Gitmo And Yemeni Detainees
* Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, this Thursday the House Homeland Security Committee will hold an urgent hearing to investigate the admission of uninvited guests to the recent White House state dinner.
* This security lapse certainly merits a full investigation, but it pales in comparison to the gross security lapse that the Obama Administration is committing in releasing scores of detainees from Guantanamo Bay to dangerously unstable countries--including Yemen, Afghanistan, and other al Qaeda strongholds.
* Yet neither the Homeland Security Committee, nor any other committee, has seen fit to hold a single hearing on the release of these detainees.
* In fact, the majority included a provision in FY2009 spending bills explicitly prohibiting the disclosure of any information to the American people.
* If the American people knew who these detainees were, the acts of terror they have committed, or to which countries they were going to be released, they would never stand for it.
* This is a dangerous precedent. Given that more than 74 former Guantanamo detainees have returned to active terrorism, there is real concern about the potential for these remaining detainees to return to a life of terror.
* The American people deserve the facts. I encourage the public to visit the New York Times ``Guantanamo Docket'' Web site to review what scant information about these detainees was released by the previous administration.
* I believe they will find these summaries deeply troubling.
* This Congress has a responsibility and an obligation to the American people to hold hearings, request information, and work with the administration to have an open dialogue over transfer and release policies.
* This has not happened. And 10 months after the administration issued an executive order to close Guantanamo, we have no more information about this than we did when the President took office.
* Of the many unstable countries to which detainees may be sent, I am most concerned about the impending release of 26 detainees to Yemen--a growing haven for al Qaeda in the Persian Gulf.
* It is my understanding that the administration is also preparing to release several other detainees to another country that anyone with a basic understanding of world affairs would agree is unacceptable. Unfortunately, this information has been classified.
* Yemen is undoubtedly one of the most unstable countries in the world today--and the country where al Qaeda has reconstituted its operations over the last year.
* The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, stated in an October Voice of America interview, ``In Yemen, we have witnessed the reemergence of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the possibility that that will become the base of operations for al-Qaida.''
* A number of former Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to Yemen to launch terrorist attacks, including one just 2 months ago.
* On October 13, Saudi police prevented an imminent suicide bomb attack as two al Qaeda terrorists slipped across the border from Yemen.
* One of the would-be suicide bombers, Yousef Mohammed al Shihri, was a former Guantanamo detainee released in 2007 to Saudi Arabia. He quickly left Saudi Arabia for dangerously unstable Yemen where he rejoined al Qaeda.
* In September 2008, another former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Said Ali al Shihri, helped orchestrate the terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, killing 10 guards and civilians.
* Since that time, al Qaeda's posture in Yemen has grown stronger with the merger of the Saudi and Yemeni arms of al Qaeda into one group--al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula--with Yemen as its base for training and operations.
* Yemen is also now home to radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who influenced alleged Fort Hood gunman Major Nidal M. Hasan and who U.S. intelligence believes to be a critical link in al Qaeda's efforts to radicalize Americans and Europeans.
* I have repeatedly urged the President to halt the release of detainees to dangerously unstable countries. The consequences of such releases could cost American lives.
* I implore this Congress to get serious about its oversight responsibility. The American people deserve better.
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