Replies

http://www.samjohnson.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=128970

Keep suspected terrorists out of America
by Congressman Sam Johnson

Washington, May 22 -

Two days after taking the oath of office, President Obama signed an executive order closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in one year. His recent speech sparked more questions than answers. I have grave concerns about shutting down the prison without a future plan for where these jihadists will go. I believe this could directly threaten the security of the American people. The shroud of secrecy and lack of information four months after this announcement are big red warning flags in my book and Americans want, need and deserve some answers.

This prison, often called Gitmo, holds hundreds of the world’s most dangerous terrorists – among them 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who gladly participated in the gruesome beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, among other horrors. Walid bin Attash was reportedly behind the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen. Ramzi Binalshibh was identified as one of the planners of 9/11 and was supposed to be a 9/11 hijacker but for the fact he was denied entry into America. I guess it’s not surprising then that five detainees have described themselves as “terrorists to the bone” and stated in a court filing that they describe their role in the 9/11 attacks as a “badge of honor.”

Furthermore, on March 11th CBS detailed how a detainee recently released from the facility became the operations commander of Taliban forces attacking U.S. and NATO forces in southern Afghanistan. There also have been news reports that 1 in 7 detainees who were processed and released from Guantanamo Bay returned to the fight.

If those individuals were deemed safe to release from custody yet returned to terrorist activities and killing Americans, what does that say about how dangerous the detainees still at Guantanamo Bay must be? If other countries won’t take their own jihadists – why should we?

These suspected terrorists simply cannot be transferred just anywhere. Yet nearly four months after issuing the order, the White House has not told the American people or the Congress the exact future of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay starting next January.

As a former Prisoner of War for nearly seven years in Vietnam, more than half of that time in solitary confinement, I consider myself one of the few Americans who knows exactly what it’s like to be held in another country against your will for years. Based on my experience, I think releasing these detainees within America – with a welfare check to start a new life – as suggested by Attorney General Eric Holder - will produce dangerous and deadly results and defies common sense.

The American people can’t afford to take the White House at its word that these detainees, many who were captured at terrorist training camps, are not a threat if housed and tried in our communities.

Call the White House at 202-456-1414 and the Attorney General at 202-514-2001 and make your voice heard. Tell them you vehemently oppose releasing terrorists from Guantanamo Bay and transferring them to the United States. I also ask you take the online poll on my website, SamJohnson.house.gov or call my office at 972-470-0892 to let me know where you stand on this critical issue.

I fear that this Administration may have taken on too many large projects at once and needs to slow down and really think this through. Moving jihadists to America surely can wait.

Editors Note: Johnson, a co-sponsor of the Keep Terrorists Out of America Act and the No Welfare for Terrorists Act of 2009, represents portions of Dallas and Collin Counties.