Hutchison Urges White House To Halt Gitmo Closure Plan

Texas Senator presses White House to first name viable alternative for housing terrorists

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 10, 2009 -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Texas’ senior Senator, today urged the President to reconsider a date-certain closure of Guantanamo Bay until he can assure Americans there is a viable alternative for detaining terrorist combatants.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Sen. Hutchison wrote:

“The Executive Order contemplates five scenarios for handling current detainees: return them to their home country, release them, transfer them to a third country, transfer them to the United States, or transfer them to another United States detention facility. Unfortunately, all of these alternatives pose substantial risk to our national security and place the lives of Americans and our allies at greater risk than continuing the current policy of holding these prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay facility. Of upmost concern, naturally, is the option to transfer these detainees to the United States.

“While sending detainees to the United States is clearly an unsupported choice, and an option fraught with risk, the alternative of sending Guantanamo Bay detainees to prisons in foreign countries or releasing them to their home country is equally a risky option posing potential harm for our country.

“We now know that as many as 61 detainees previously released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield, many of whom are now waging war against Americans. With this knowledge, we should not abandon the security of Guantanamo Bay for the alternative of foreign transfers that could pose harm to our allies.

“I urge you to reconsider your Executive Order closing Guantanamo Bay and reject any option that might transfer these prisoners to any facility on American soil. Before setting a deadline for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the American people must be assured that the transfer or release of detainees will neither harm our national security interests nor increase the risk of harm to American citizens at home or abroad. This assurance cannot be given today.”


On January 22, 2009, President Obama issued an Executive Order to close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility by January 22, 2010. Among the facility’s detainees have been key al-Qaeda operatives, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the attacks on September 11, 2001.