I remain frustrated over this issue because people don’t have any idea what’s going on today, here in America. Everyone thinks the fight is over there. It’s not. We have people in this country and detained in Guantanamo Bay that seek to destroy our way of life.
President Obama recently signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay facility within in a year, and that’s why I introduced my bill. This legislation sends a clear message that we don’t want enemy combatants and terrorists housed in our back yard. There is a reason they have been housed off the US mainland; any area they are moved to inland will become a target. I don’t want North Carolina to be targeted by Al-Qaeda because we house their leaders.
Of course the question now is where to send these individuals, which include terrorists such as Al-Qaeda Chief and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Where do we send the people who if released will return to their home countries, achieve high ranks in the Al-Qaeda network and return to their jihadist ways? The answer is that the Guantanamo Bay facility was serving its purpose and shouldn’t be closed without a concrete plan as to where these dangerous prisoners will be sent. These terrorists were captured on the battlefield. They vocally say they hate America and say they want to kill us. We don’t need to make it easier on them by putting them on American soil and trying them under the US legal system. Shutting down this facility and possibly inserting the prisoners of war into our system is against our national interest and against our country’s respect to the laws of war.