Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to commend the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Inouye, for this amendment he has offered. President Obama is formulating a plan in terms of the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and any appropriation at this moment would be premature. We should wait until the administration submits that plan and then try to work to implement that plan on a bipartisan basis.

What I find incredible are the Members of the Senate who are coming to the floor and basically suggesting that the Guantanamo detention facility should stay open indefinitely; that there is no reason to close Guantanamo. I don't understand that thinking. Wasn't it President Bush of the Republican Party who called for closing Guantanamo? I thought he did. In fact, he did. I don't recall the Republican Senators standing up at that point and objecting when President Bush said that was his goal, to close Guantanamo.

Mr. INHOFE. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. DURBIN. No, I will yield when I am finished.

When President Obama was elected, he made it clear that we were going to have a clean break from some of the policies of the past and we were going to try to reestablish America's position in the world--a position of leadership and respect. I think that is a goal Americans heartily endorse, both political parties and Independents as well. The results of the November 4 election last year indicate that.

When President Obama took office and said that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility would be phased out over a 1-year period of time, when he said we were going to do away with some of the interrogation techniques that had become so controversial, I felt it was a statement of principle and it was, practically speaking, important for our Nation to do.

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a historian who died a couple of years ago, wrote histories of the United States beginning with the age of Jackson through F.D.R. and John F. Kennedy. Before he died, he said:

No position taken has done more damage to the American reputation in the world--ever.

The tragic images that emerged from Abu Ghraib and the stories that came out afterwards, unfortunately, left an impression in the minds of people around the world that was mistaken--an impression that we were not a caring, principled people.

I think President Obama's decision to move forward toward the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was the right decision, but it wasn't just President Obama who came to that conclusion. Closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is an important national security priority for our Nation. Many national security and military leaders agree that closing Guantanamo will make us safer.

Let me give a few examples: General Colin L. Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of State under President Bush, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and former Republican Secretaries of State James Baker, Henry Kissinger, and Condoleezza Rice.

The two most vocal supporters of keeping Guantanamo open are former Vice President Dick Cheney and talk show host Rush Limbaugh. With all due respect, when it comes to the national security of the United States of America, I will side with Colin Powell and John McCain over Vice President Cheney and Rush Limbaugh.

According to experts, Guantanamo Bay, unfortunately, has become a recruiting tool for al-Qaida that is hurting America's security.

Let me give one example. Retired Air Force MAJ Matthew Alexander led the interrogation team that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the al-Qaida operation in Iraq, and this is what he said:

I listened time and again to foreign fighters, and Sunni Iraqis, state that the number one reason they decided to pick up arms and join al-Qaida was the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the authorized torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay. .....It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse.

This is not a statement that comes out of some leftwing publication. It is a statement by a retired Air Force major, Matthew Alexander.

I visited Guantanamo Bay in 2006. I left proud of the good job our soldiers and sailors were doing there. They are being asked to carry a heavy burden of the previous administration's policies.

For many years, President Bush announced publicly that he wanted to close the Guantanamo detention facility, and there were no complaints from the Republican side of the aisle when President Bush made that suggestion. But President Bush didn't follow through.

Now President Obama has taken on the challenge of solving this problem that he inherited from the Bush administration.

I listened here as the previous speaker talked about the dangerous people at Guantanamo. There is no doubt that some of them are dangerous and have to be regarded as such, and releasing them would not be in the best interest of the security of the United States. But having said that, since Guantanamo was opened initially, the Bush administration released literally hundreds of detainees who were brought there, many of whom were later determined by the Bush administration not to be any threat or guilty of any wrongdoing. They were sent back to their countries of origin or to other countries that would receive them.

One particular case I am aware of involves a young man who was from Gaza. He was turned over as a suspected terrorist and sent to Guantanamo. He was sent there at the age of 19. He languished in Guantanamo for 6 years, never being charged with any wrongdoing. Just last year, his attorney was given a communication by our Government that said: We have found no evidence of wrongdoing by this man who is your client, and he is free to leave as soon as we can determine which country will accept him. A year and 3 months have passed since then. He still sits in Guantanamo. He came there at the age of 19; he is now 26. Is that justice in America? Is that an outcome we applaud? Do we want to keep Guantanamo open so he can continue sitting there year after year? Of course not. We want to detain those who are dangerous and bring to trial those who can be charged with criminal wrongdoing. We want to release those who are innocent and of no harm to the United States.

The President is taking the time to carefully plan for the closure of Guantanamo in a way that will protect our national security. One thing is eminently clear, and it is almost painful for me to have to say the words on the Senate floor, and if anybody suggests otherwise, I cannot imagine they would do it in good faith, but I will say them anyway. This President of the United States will never allow terrorists to be released in America.

This President has set up three task forces to review interrogation and detention policies and conduct an individualized review of each detainee who is currently held at Guantanamo. These task forces are staffed by career professionals with extensive experience in intelligence and counterterrorism. They will make recommendations on how to close Guantanamo and what our interrogation and detention policies should be. We should give these national security experts the time to conduct a careful review and make their recommendations.

The Obama administration's approach is in stark contrast to the previous administration, where policies were made by political appointees with no background in counterterrorism. They ignored concerns expressed by FBI agents and military personnel with years of experience in dealing with al-Qaida.

When the President issued his Executive order, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said:

We support President Obama's decision to close the prison at Guantanamo, reaffirm America's adherence to the Geneva Conventions, and begin a process that will, we hope, lead to the resolution of all cases of Guantanamo detainees.

That is a responsible statement. I applaud my Republican colleagues for stepping up and acknowledging that this President is trying to do the right thing. It doesn't benefit the debate for people to come here and create a specter of fear, that somehow this President--or any President--would be party to releasing dangerous people into the United States.

Last week, Senator Lindsey Graham said:

I do believe we need to close Guantanamo Bay. I do believe we can handle 100 or 250 prisoners and protect our national security interests, because we had 450,000 German and Japanese prisoners in the United States. So this idea that they cannot be housed somewhere safely, I disagree.

But some Republicans have decided to turn Guantanamo into a political issue on the floor. Some have even gone so far as to claim the President wants to release terrorists into the United States. This is an absurd, offensive, and baseless claim.

Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are criticizing the President, but the sad reality is that they have no plan to deal with the Guantanamo problem.

Richard Clarke, President George W. Bush's first counterterrorism chief, said the following last week:

Recent Republican attacks on Guantanamo are more desperate attempts from a demoralized party to politicize national security and the safety of the American people.

Let me address one specific claim--that transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons will put Americans at risk.

Last week, Philip Zelikow, who was the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission and counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, testified before the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Zelikow told me that it would be safe to transfer Guantanamo detainees to U.S. facilities and that we are already holding some of the world's most dangerous terrorists in the United States.

Here are a few examples of those currently being held in American prisons: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui; Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber; and numerous al-Qaida terrorists responsible for bombing the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

If we can safely hold these individuals, I believe we can also safely hold Guantanamo detainees. I don't know if this will be part of the President's recommendation or plan. We are still waiting for that.

I should make it clear in this debate that no prisoner has ever escaped from a U.S. Federal super-maximum security facility.

President Obama inherited this Guantanamo problem from the previous administration. Solving it will require leadership and difficult choices, and it will take some time.

I think the decision by Senator Inouye to remove this money from the supplemental is the right decision. The supplemental covers the next 4 months. During that period of time, the President will come out with his plan, and we can work forward from there.

The President is showing that he is willing to lead and make hard decisions. I urge my Republican colleagues to pay close attention to their colleagues, Senators McCain and Graham, who I think have been reasonable in discussing this issue. We should not play politics with national security.

Give the Obama administration a chance to present their plan for closing Guantanamo. As Colin Powell, John McCain, and many others have said, closing Guantanamo is an important step toward restoring American values and actually making America a safer country.

I yield the floor.

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