Wolf: Detainees shouldn't be released

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Congressman doesn't want Obama administration to allow Guantanamo Bay prisoners' return to Yemen

By Garren Shipley -- gshipley@nvdaily.com

The Obama administration should think long and hard before releasing detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Yemen, according to a local congressman.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Monday to chastise the White House for a policy the congressman says could risk future attacks on the U.S.

Obama has set a January deadline for closing Camp Delta, the prison built at the naval base in Cuba. But determining what to do with the inmates has proven to be a knotty problem.

Federal officials have reportedly cleared some 26 Yemeni detainees for return to their homelands.

"The administration should immediately terminate the return of detainees to Yemen, and the congressional committees of jurisdiction should investigate and demand a full justification," Wolf said.

"If these detainees are to be transferred, they should go only to governments that are willing and able to try, detain, rehabilitate or monitor them," Wolf said, speaking from the floor.

"Yemen does not meet that standard," he said. "An economic crisis, domestic security challenges and Islamic terrorism are right now threatening to overwhelm the Yemeni government."

Some 15 percent of detainees released have returned to terror activities, Wolf said.

Known terrorists, including some who bombed the USS Cole, have escaped from prison in the country and returned to terror.

"The bottom line is that terrorist detainees should not be sent to Yemen where al-Qaida operates freely and the government appears unable to control their actions and movements," Wolf said.

"The release of any detainee to Yemen represents a potentially serious threat to the United States and U.S. citizens, both military and civilian," he added.

Congress should immediately begin oversight hearings on the administration's detainee release plans, he added.

Wolf was one of a number of Republicans who signed on to legislation earlier this year that would have barred the administration from bringing detainees to a number of U.S. states, including Virginia.

Northern Virginia has been frequently mentioned as one potential destination for detainees, particularly the federal courthouse in Alexandria.

Federal prosecutors have already held one terror trial there -- that of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker" of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.