Feinstein, Durbin press for closing Gitmo, call prison an ‘abomination’

“Guantanamo has devastated our reputation as a champion of human rights, weakened our international partnerships and remains a powerful recruiting tool for terrorists,” the senators wrote in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. “This is unacceptable … It is time to close Guantanamo.”

{mosads}The lawmakers drew attention to a months-long hunger strike by detainees to protest their indefinite detention. At the strike’s peak, more than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay were taking part, and many are being force-fed twice a day by a tube inserted through the nose.

The force-feeding “violates international norms and medical ethics,” Feinstein, the  Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, and Durbin, chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, wrote.

But the pair said the blame for those conditions lay squarely on the administration and Congress for failing to act, not the military.

“Military personnel at Guantanamo face challenging conditions but operate with professionalism and dedication,” the senators wrote. “It is not our military that has failed; it is our policymakers.”

The practice has been widely criticized, including by President Obama, who in May detailed new efforts to close Gitmo.

The senators called on the administration and Congress to expedite efforts to transfer 86 detainees that have already been cleared for transfer, and urged the White House to begin the “long-promised” periodic review board hearings to evaluate the remaining detainees. 

They also advised Congress to pass provisions in the 2014 Senate defense authorization bill that would streamline procedures for transferring detainees abroad and to prisons in the U.S.

While Feinstein and Durbin have been vocal proponents of closing the facility, there has been bipartisan opposition to moving the detainees.

The House has voted several times to deny funds for constructing a new prison for the terror detainees on American soil and to ban the transfer of prisoners to the United States.