President Barack Obama is bordering on aiding and abetting Islamic terrorism by releasing detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, says retired Lt. Col. Allen West.
Republicans argue that the president's actions, based on a campaign promise to close the facility, are unconstitutional. But West, appearing Wednesday on Fox News Channel's
"Your World with Neil Cavuto" said the releases border on "providing aid and comfort to the enemy and aiding and abetting material support."
Thirty percent of detainees already released from Guantanamo are believed to have returned to the battlefield, leading West to say the United States is only replenishing their leadership ranks and ground fighters who can also be recruiters and trainers.
"Just because you say you are ending combat operations, the enemy has a vote on this and they have not capitulated," West said. "They continue to fight and continue to receive these individuals that we are releasing."
Countries such as Qatar, which received the five Taliban leaders exchanged for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, have not reported to the United States on the men's activities, West noted, adding that the five will be allowed to return to their home country of Afghanistan this year.
And the prisoners left in Guantanamo are the most dangerous, and as long as Islamic terrorists continue to wage war on Western civilization they need to be kept off the battlefield, West said.
"I don't care how long it takes. If they end up in Gitmo for the rest of their lives, so be it," he said. "We are showing abject weakness when we think that we are showing benevolence."