Page 8 - Desert Lightning News 4-1-16

8 April 1, 2016 Desert Lightning News

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Mil-Leaders: Closing Guantanamo is security issue

Terri Moon Cronk “Secretary Carter has forcefully stated that safety is his No. 1 priority,”
Lewis said. “He does not transfer a detainee unless he is confident that the
DoD News, Defense Media Activity threat is substantially mitigated and it’s in the national security interests
of the United States.”
WASHINGTON — Significant numbers of Defense Department and
senior military leaders say closing the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay de- Before Obama began efforts to close Guantanamo with an executive
tention facility in Cuba is the single most important action the United order just days after taking office in 2009, former President George W.
States can take to counter terrorism, DoD’s special envoy for Guantanamo Bush had also worked to close it down, Lewis said. Bush also believed the
detention closure said on Capitol Hill today. facility was a U.S. enemy propaganda tool and a distraction for U.S. allies,
he added.
Paul M. Lewis and the State Department’s special envoy for Guanta-
namo closure, Lee Wolosky, discussed in a House Foreign Affairs Com- Close to Closing Up
mittee hearing the reasons President Barack Obama plans to close the “We’re closer to it than many people realize,” he said of closing the fa-
detainee camp. cility, adding that of the nearly 800 detainees who have been imprisoned
there since it opened in 2002, more than 85 percent have been transferred,
The president and his national security team have determined closing the including about 500 by the Bush administration. Numerous nations and
detention facility is a “bipartisan national security imperative,” Lewis said. territories have accepted detainees since 2009, he explained.
The Plan Forward
The president has repeatedly said that the continued operation of the The special envoy expressed gratitude for the U.S. service members
detention facility at Guantanamo “weakens our national security by dam- who work in Guantanamo’s detention operations.
aging our relationships with key allies and partners, draining resources “They have our deepest appreciation for their service and their profession-
and providing violent extremists with a propaganda tool,” he said. alism, which they display each and every day on behalf of our nation,” he said.
Obama’s four-element plan will “continue to transfer [detainees], accel-
The call to close the detention facility is shared by “two presidents, four erate the [Periodic Review Board] process, look for individual dispositions
former secretaries of defense [and] eight former secretaries of state,” Lew- and, most importantly, work with Congress to find a location to transfer
is said. “[It] demonstrates the bipartisan support at the highest level of our everybody from Guantanamo safely and securely,” he said.
national security leadership.” “We believe the issue is not whether to close the Guantanamo deten-
tion facility,” Lewis said. “It’s how to do it.”
And foreign leaders regularly cite the facility as an “obstacle to counter-
terrorism efforts,” Lewis said.

Carter: Transfer Safety is Vital
Safety in transferring detainees is vital to Defense Secretary Ash Carter,
the Pentagon’s special envoy emphasized.

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