Ayotte Statement on Reports Regarding Potential Gitmo Transfer

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today expressed deep concern regarding reports that the Obama administration is set to transfer a large number of additional detainees this week.

"Any Obama administration decision to transfer a large number of Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo to Oman would represent a thinly veiled attempt to undercut the will of Congress and would further endanger the American people.

"While current law bans the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, the administration may attempt to circumvent that prohibition by sending terrorist detainees to the neighboring country of Oman. Yemen is engulfed in civil war, serves as the headquarters for al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate, and one or more of the Charlie Hebdo attackers is believed to have travelled from Oman to Yemen to receive training from AQAP. This potential transfer is all the more troubling in light of the fact that Ibrahim al Qosi, who was released from Gitmo by the Obama administration in 2012, is now reportedly a leader and spokesman for AQAP.

"The administration has not been forthright with the American people about the terrorist affiliations and activities of these detainees or provided sufficient assurances that they will not return to the battlefield, particularly given their possible proximity to Yemen. The administration's failure to tell the American people the truth about these terrorists suggests what we know to be the case: these transfers will make Americans less safe."

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