On the recordJuly 12, 2017
I thank Congresswoman Hartzler for her leadership, and I thank her for this opportunity to speak on this misguided amendment. I have visited Guantanamo Bay twice, and I know firsthand the detainees at Guantanamo Bay are the worst of the worst, terrorists who are conspirators of Osama bin Laden, trained mass murderers, and extremists who have a sole intention of killing Americans. We have also seen that releasing terrorists from Guantanamo puts American families at risk. In a report last year, the Director of National Intelligence from the prior administration was clear that at least 116 detainees, nearly one-third, released from Guantanamo have returned to the battlefield to kill American families. As we have seen from the proliferation of terrorists around the world, from Algeria and North Africa, through the Middle East, across to South Asia and the Philippines, the deterrence of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay has never been more important. I urge all of my colleagues to reject this amendment.
