One-third of the detainees released from the Guantanamo Bay prison are either expected to or have been proven to jump back into the jihadist fights, and President Barack Obama has allowed some dangerous operatives to go free, Rep. Ed Royce said Wednesday.
"This is our worry," said the California Republican, who chairs the House Foreign Relations Committee, on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "It cost American lives. We know that."
When prisoners have had a background of violent jihadists, and when there is a situation of attacks by jihadists in Europe and the United States, Royce said, he does not understand why Obama would want to "basically allow everyone to leave Guantanamo Bay."
"The American public and a bipartisan consensus in Congress do not want these individuals transferred back into the United States to be held here" said Royce. "And in addition, most of us feel in Congress that Guantanamo is the right place to hold trials."
The administration, though, made a political promise in 2011 that it would shut down Guantanamo, said Royce, and now it is rushing to do that before Obama leaves office in January.
"There are another 20 they just cleared for transfer," Royce said. "The problem is the countries they are sending them to, like Uruguay or the UAE [United Arab Emirates], which has a porous border and are not able to hold them or monitor them."
In addition, not as many people are being captured and questioned as in the past, Royce said, because the administration has taken the position where they do not want to take prisoners and debrief them.
"As a result, we are getting less information and intelligence about the threats," said Royce, noting that radical Islamic terrorism is spreading.
"You will notice the focus here has been to close down Guantanamo," said Royce. "The focus should have been on an early defeat of ISIS. It should have been on using our air power early in that effort to hit ISIS as their fighters were coming out of Raqqa. But the administration said at the time, this is the JV team. These are a bunch of guys in pickup trucks."
Also, said Royce, the administration refused to authorize the use of air power for five months, allowing ISIS to overtake territory.
"I wish the same obsession they show in trying to close down Guantanamo was visited instead on a policy of taking down ISIS," said Royce.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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