The Obama Administration continues working toward its goal of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center by January without much more clarity about what happens to the dozens of jihadis still housed there. A few countries have indicated a willingness to accept some detainees, but it's still possible men considered threats to the United States could be imprisoned or even freed here.
As Fox News reported:
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday blasted President Obama for what Sen. Kit Bond calls a "ready, fire, aim" policy that demands the facility be closed by next year without a plan for placing the remaining prisoners -- or even determining whether they will be freed or put through a criminal trial.
"Like me, Missourians -- all Americans -- are still waiting for Obama to make the case that his decision to release the detainees at Guantanamo is in our country's national security interest; the president has failed to make the case that the release of these terrorist-trained detainees will make us safer; the president has failed to make the case that the release of these terrorist-trained detainees won't pose a threat to American citizens," Bond said in a speech on the Senate floor.
In addition, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy notes that any "acclimation" costs associated with releasing the detainees into society – wherever that may be – are likely to be financed by U.S. taxpayers. McCarthy offers 9 pointed questions for the administration to answer before it releases anyone else or proceeds further on its plans. They include clearly defined standards by which a detainee is "cleared" for release and an explanation of what prompted their original incarceration as enemy combatants.
As McCarthy explains it:
"So to complete the picture, we now have an FBI out beating the bushes — and taking lots of flak for it — to try to find out which radical Muslims in the United States may be embedded jihadists who've gotten paramilitary training from al Qaeda, and we've got an Attorney General and a President who are simultaneously planning to embed in the United States jihadists who've gotten paramilitary training from al Qaeda."
McCarthy's questions merit answers.