Even Dianne Feinstein says stop the Gitmo transfers to Yemen!

feinsteinHow someone like Dianne Feinstein is even on the Senate intelligence committee is a bit of a head scratcher. I guess it’s kind of like Charlie Rangel writing our tax laws. Regardless, Feinstein doesn’t want any more Guantanamo Bay detainees released to Yemen in the wake of a Christmas Day terrorist attack hatched in that country according to the Hill:

“Guantanamo detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement. “It is too unstable.”

Gee really Dianne? A little late to the party aren’t you?

Feinstein’s warning comes just nine days after the Department of Justice announced the most recent transfer of 12 detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and Somaliland. Six of the 12 were transferred to the government of Yemen.

An al Qaeda wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for last week’s attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight headed to Detroit.

The organization known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said the plot was retaliation for U.S. assistance to Yemen’s military, which has launched air strikes on safe house and training camps in recent weeks that killed as many as 60 al Qaeda members.

In addition, two of the planners behind the Christmas Day bombing plot had been released to Saudi Arabia from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and ended up rejoining terrorist ranks in Yemen, according to a report by ABC News’s Brian Ross.

Feinstein joins a chorus of Republicans who have issued warnings about the release of detainees in the aftermath of Friday’s attempted attack on the passenger jet.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on Tuesday sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to halt the transfer of six Guantanamo detainees to Yemen given the danger they realize that country now poses.

Obama on Tuesday blamed a “systemic failure” in the nation’s security apparatus for the attempted bombing and vowed to identify the problems and “deal with them immediately.” He said a review of the failures would be completed by Thursday.

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, urged Obama to “rethink” his decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in the wake of last week’s attack.

He said reports that two of the planners behind the Christmas Day plot had been released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 should immediately force Obama to call back former detainees recently released in Yemen and elsewhere.

“The president ought to rethink it now,” Bond told The Hill. “The question is, Are we going to take every step possible to keep our country safe? That means stop releasing Gitmo detainees now.”

Obama has so far stood firm in his decision to shutter Guantanamo, arguing its closure would restore international credibility in the U.S. legal system. The president has pledged not to release any detainee who would endanger the American people and set up the Guantanamo Review Task Force to review information about detainees before making a decision on whether to release them.

In the Dec. 20 announcement about the detainees’ release, the Justice Department said the task force had conducted a “comprehensive review” in each of the cases, examining potential threat and mitigation measures. More than 560 detainees have departed Guantanamo Bay for 36 countries since 2002, according to Justice.

When he took office, the president set a one-year deadline to close the prison but earlier this month acknowledged it would slip as he looks for places to transfer the detainees, including the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois

The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Feinstein’s and Bond’s warnings demonstrates heightened concern in the intelligence community about the rate of recidivism for released Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Earlier this year, the Department of Defense confirmed that at least 18 detainees who were released had rejoined the terrorist ranks. The Pentagon suspected another 43 of doing the same.

No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)

December 30, 2009 · Filed Under Gitmo, Homeland Security


Comments