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Dr. Boozman's Check-up

The New York Times recently finished a project in which it found 691 detainees have been transferred from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) since 2002. Only 80 remain at the detention camp. Of those transferred from the detention center, 400 have been gone back to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The Obama Administration now believes that 12 detainees that have been released are responsible for the death of six Americans in Afghanistan. This is a troublesome fact that cannot be ignored.

According to a recent article by the Washington Post, a senior Pentagon official spoke to lawmakers and acknowledged that former Gitmo inmates were in fact responsible for the deaths of the Americans.

This is a clear indication that removing prisoners from Gitmo threatens our national security.

As the Senate continues debating the National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA), maintaining Gitmo must be part of the discussion.

The state-of-the-art facility is more than serving its purpose for detaining the worst of the worst, obtaining valuable intelligence from them and keeping these terrorists who are bent on destroying America from returning to the battlefield.

Transferring detainees is not a viable solution and the Obama administration needs to abandon its intention to decrease the number of prisoners at Gitmo.

That’s why I cosponsored an amendment to the NDAA introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) based on legislation I support, the Protections Against Terrorist Transfer Act of 2016.

This would provide Congressional oversight of the transfer or release of Gitmo detainees. It would prohibit the transfer or release of any individual detained at Gitmo to the custody of any foreign country unless the Secretary of Defense certifies to Congress that the individual no longer poses a continuing threat to the security of the United States, its citizens and its interests.

I support adding Sen. Moran’s amendment to the NDAA because this will ensure that the individuals detained at Gitmo will not return to the battlefield.