Senator David Perdue Statement On Visit To Guantanamo

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Senate Judiciary Committees, today issued the following statement about his visit yesterday to the U.S. detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba:

“Yesterday, I visited the detention facility at Guantanamo, where I toured the barracks and courtroom and spoke with commanders. One thing was imminently clear to me: it is positively irresponsible to release or transfer the remaining detainees. This flies in the face of reason when the most recent intelligence report shows that the number of former detainees returning to the fight continues to rise. In fact, President Obama’s own Guantanamo Review Task Force has deemed the majority of the remaining detainees as too dangerous to transfer. We can’t allow a political promise to get in the way of our national security. I will do all I can to ensure that President Obama doesn’t empty Guantanamo Bay during his last few weeks in office.”

On his second day in office, January 22, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order directing the closure of the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Recognizing the risk of released detainees returning to terrorist activity, Congress put in place restrictions to prohibit President Obama from closing the facility and transferring detainees stateside. These restrictions remain today but in a last-ditch effort to fulfill his campaign promise, President Obama last week announced his desire to transfer additional detainees from Guantanamo Bay.