Armed Services chair: Obama ‘hellbent’ on closing Guantanamo

A top GOP lawmaker said President Obama is “hellbent” on closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and vowed that Congress will block him from releasing more detainees.

“It just seems like the president is hellbent on getting as many people out of there as he can regardless of the consequences,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told reporters Thursday.

{mosads}Thornberry said the president was releasing detainees “left and right to all sorts of countries,” and cited the growing unrest in Yemen.

“It does seem like he is intent on carrying out that campaign promise regardless of the consequences for the country and I am very concerned about the increased danger to the country,” he added. 

“Remember, it is only the restrictions that Congress has placed into law that has prevented all these folks from already having been shipped back to Yemen.” 

As chairman, Thornberry will craft the 2016 defense policy bill in the lower chamber that authorizes the Defense Department’s activities.

The current funding bill, as well as in prior years, places restrictions on detainee releases. Among its provisions, it requires the Defense secretary to sign off on detainee transfers after certifying that they won’t again pose a threat to the U.S. and that countries who receive them will ensure they don’t engage in terrorism.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who will oversee the annual defense policy bill in the Senate, last week co-sponsored legislation by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to restrict any transfers, including to Yemen. 

The president has begun a push to close the detention facility for suspected terrorists, releasing 27 detainees since the midterms, more than in 2011 to 2013 combined.

He is planning to reduce the population to a number at which the administration can argue the cost of continuing to detain them at the facility is unsustainable.

The president renewed his vow to shutter the facility in Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

“As Americans, we have a profound commitment to justice, so it makes no sense to spend $3 million per prisoner to keep open a prison that the world condemns and terrorists use to recruit,” the president said.  

Thornberry criticized that strategy.

“The country from which the greatest number of people at Guantanamo originate is Yemen, and they want to empty the place out,” he added. 

The majority of the 122 remaining detainees are from Yemen, an al Qaeda hotbed where the pro-U.S. government collapsed on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that the events in Yemen have “to be factored in” when determining how to handle Yemeni detainees, but he said the administration could release them to other countries.

The administration last announced the release of five Yemenis to Estonia and Oman on Jan. 14.  

Thornberry said if the president comes up with an acceptable plan, he could work with him to close the facility. McCain has made similar remarks.

“I don’t believe Guantanamo needs to be open forever. I think the president needs to come up with a plan that he can gain support of the American people,” Thornberry said. 

“But when Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and the White House, he couldn’t do that, and I haven’t seen much progress other than hectoring since.”