Ayotte Questions Top Defense Nominees on Detainee Policy, Timing of Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal

Press Release

Vice Admiral McRaven: A terrorist detention facility would be "very helpful"

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today questioned the President's nominees to serve as Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and Commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan about U.S. detention policy and the need to establish a secure, long-term detention facility for current and future terrorist detainees.

During today's Committee hearing to consider the nominations of Vice Admiral William McRaven and Lieutenant General John Allen, Senator Ayotte asked what the U.S. would do if forces captured al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri or another high-value target outside of Afghanistan. Vice Admiral McRaven agreed with Senator Ayotte on the importance of designating a secure facility to detain and interrogate terrorists. Senator Ayotte has introduced bipartisan legislation, the Detaining Terrorists to Secure America Act, that would keep open the Guantanamo Bay facility for current and future terrorist detainees and permanently limit the transfer of detainees to foreign countries.

Senator Ayotte asked: "Would it not be helpful, ten years into the War on Terror, to have a long-term detention and interrogation facility that would be secure for individuals where we need to gather further intelligence?"

"I believe it would be very helpful," Vice Admiral McRaven replied.

In response to earlier questioning by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Vice Admiral McRaven also testified that detainees captured outside the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters could be released if it was determined that they could not be transferred to a third party country or tried in U.S. courts.

During the hearing, Senator Ayotte also reiterated her concerns regarding the President's plan to withdraw the surge forces from Afghanistan prior to the end of the 2012 fighting season. Senator Ayotte pressed Lt. Gen. Allen to explain the military rationale for withdrawing troops ahead of the end of the fighting season, citing General Petraeus' reported initial recommendation to keep the remainder of surge forces in Afghanistan through the end of the 2012 fighting season.

Last week, referring to the President's Afghanistan withdrawal plan, Admiral Mullen testified to the House Armed Services Committee that "the President's decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept." According to the Los Angeles Times, leading up to the President's decision, General Petraeus argued for a slower drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The military needed time, he said, to secure the eastern part of the country as it had done in the south. General Petraeus reportedly recommended that the U.S. pull as few as 3,000 troops out this year and fully remove the surge troops only by the end of 2012.

"The fighting season in Afghanistan is roughly from April through October and the President has decided on September 2012 as the deadline for withdrawal of the surge forces," Senator Ayotte said during today's hearing. "Is there any strategic, operational, or tactical advantage to a September deadline for withdrawal during the fighting season as compared to waiting through the fighting season?"

Lt. Gen. Allen replied by describing the process by which the military provided their recommendations to the President but did not provide any strategic, operational, or tactical justification for withdrawing thousands of U.S. forces before the end of the 2012 fighting season.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Ayotte has worked to keep open the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility, keep terrorist detainees out of the United States, and limit the transfer of detainees from Gitmo to foreign countries. On June 16, Senator Ayotte successfully worked to include in the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2012 Defense Authorization bill a provision she authored that permanently prohibits funding for the construction or modification of facilities in the United States to house terrorist detainees. The measure was approved by the full Committee. In May, Senator Ayotte introduced the Detaining Terrorists to Secure America Act (S. 944), bipartisan legislation that would keep open the Guantanamo Bay facility for the detention and interrogation of current and future terrorists.

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