Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - Law of War Detention and the President's Executive Order Establishing Periodic Review Boards for Guantanamo Detainees

Statement

The House Armed Services Committee today heard testimony from senior Department of Defense officials regarding terrorist detainee operations and the President's recent Executive Order granting detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, additional administrative rights. U.S. Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), the committee's chairman released the following opening statement for the hearing:

"Good afternoon. The House Armed Services Committee meets this afternoon to receive testimony on law of war detention and the President's recent executive order.

"As you all know, we are approaching the ten year anniversary of the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001. It has also been nearly ten years since Congress authorized the war in response to those attacks. As we approach that solemn marker, we need to ensure that our men and women in uniform have the legal authorities necessary to target and detain those who seek to harm us. It is time for Congress to show leadership in this area and not continue to leave it to the courts to define our enemies and circumscribe the parameters of the war.

"While I support an administrative review process designed to ensure that continued detention of each Guantanamo detainee is necessary, I have significant concerns about the review process established pursuant to the President's executive order issued last week.

"Detainees currently have nearly unlimited access to lawyers for their habeas cases in federal court. According to personnel at Guantanamo, there were over 1,400 legal visits to detainees in 2010. These cases are taking years to resolve, involve intense resources, and necessitate hard questions regarding how to protect sensitive intelligence sources and methods.

"I'm concerned that by involving lawyers in the administrative review process, what is supposed to be an administrative evaluation of the threat posed by a detainee, will turn into yet another opportunity for lawyers to embroil our military in endless litigation.

"I also fear that because of our concerns related to potential litigation- we're not capturing terrorists whom we need to neutralize and question for intelligence purposes. Without a comprehensive approach to detention we'll continue to lose out on opportunities for critical intelligence gathering.

"This is also true at home where we lack the flexibility needed to conduct extensive intelligence interviews of terrorists like the Christmas Day and Times Square bombers. There may be a number of different solutions to this problem and I'm open to all of them, but something has got to change.

"I was heartened by the President's speech at the National Archives in May 2009 when he said that he was committed to working with Congress to tackle these challenging questions. I've been very disappointed that those have turned out to be empty words and that the President has decided instead to go it alone. I hope in the coming days and weeks we'll see a reversal of this trend. I look forward to addressing these challenging issues with the Administration, my distinguished colleague, Ranking Member Smith, and all members of the Committee.

"Lastly, we cannot allow ourselves to become so caught up in the details of these issues that we neglect our fellow citizens who lost so much nearly 10 years ago. Missing from the President's announcements last week was a commitment to move forward with the prosecution of those responsible for the 9/11 attacks and provide a full and fair airing of the war crimes they committed. We cannot forget about the justice that the victims, their families, and the American people deserve."

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