This week, yet again, President Obama has unveiled a plan that fails to keep the folks of Missouri safe.
This week, yet again, President Obama has unveiled a plan that fails to keep the folks of Missouri safe. Not only does Obama’s plan to close The Guantanamo Detention Center put the national security of our nation in jeopardy, it is against the law.
The unlawful closing of Guantanamo would make it possible for some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists to be housed on American soil – some at facilities that sit on our own Missouri borders. It simply does not make sense to bring these detainees, like the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, into the country they want to destroy. The prisoners housed at Guantanamo Bay are not your ordinary street criminals. These detainees are a group of terrorist masterminds who aim to spread terrorism across the world, no matter the cost.
The numbers don’t lie, of 653 released detainees, 117 have returned to fight against the US. At the very time the President was unveiling his plan to close Guantanamo, Moroccan and Spanish police arrested four members of an Islamic terrorist cell who worked to recruit fighters to the Islamic State. Among the suspects arrested was a former Guantanamo detainee.
I have visited the state of the art prison at Guantanamo Bay and have seen firsthand the hate these prisoners have for Americans and our constitutionally protected freedoms. These detainees should not be given the opportunity to spread terrorism in our own backyard. Housing them in this country creates the opportunity for terrorists to recruit within our borders.
The American people should not be fooled into thinking that the reason behind the president’s proposed closing of Guantanamo is to save taxpayers money or to “close a chapter in our history”. To the contrary, his reasoning is clear: to cement his personal legacy and fulfill past campaign promises at the expense of the security of the American people.
What the president has failed to mention is that closing Guantanamo is illegal under U.S. law. Current law, passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed by this very president prohibits him from spending any taxpayer money on bringing detainees to the United States. As a matter of fact, President Obama has repeatedly signed bills which make the transferring of Gitmo detainees to American soil illegal.
I refuse to sit idly by and allow the president to put our country and us who call Missouri home at risk of terrorist attacks. I will help lead Congress in blocking any attempt the president makes to transfer these terrorists to U.S. soil. Simply put, housing the worst of the worst, those deemed ‘too dangerous for release’ by the Department of Defense, here on American soil makes us all less safe.
###
