Ayotte report details terrorist activities, affiliations of Guantanamo Bay detainees

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) released an unclassified report on Wednesday with information from the Department of Defense detailing the terrorist activities and affiliations of 107 Guantanamo Bay detainees as of November.

Ayotte has opposed plans to close the military prison and pressed the Obama administration for transparency.

“The Obama administration promised transparency, but this new report shows why they’ve been so reluctant to uphold that promise when it comes to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay,” Ayotte said. “The more Americans understand about the terrorist activities and affiliations of these detainees, the more they will oppose the administration’s terribly misguided plans to release them.”

Prior to Ayotte’s release of the unclassified report, the only public information released by the Department of Defense regarding transfers was the detainee’s name and the country to which they were being transferred.

“The preeminent responsibility of the federal government is to keep the American people safe, yet the Obama administration’s misguided commitment to releasing detainees in order to eventually close Guantanamo unacceptably gambles with our nation’s safety,” Ayotte said.  

Ayotte has introduced legislation that would permanently ban the closure of Guantanamo and prohibit the transfer of detainees to the United States.

“Most of the detainees who remain at Guantanamo are the worst of the worst, as demonstrated by the fact that 93 percent of the detainees who remained there as of late last year had been assessed as a high risk for a return to terrorism,” Ayotte said. “This report demonstrates once again why we need a common sense law of war detention policy-focused on the security of Americans and nothing else-that keeps terrorists off the battlefield and gathers the intelligence necessary to prevent future attacks.”

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) said that Ayotte’s report makes it clear that prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay are dangerous enemy combatants who were classified as “high risk” for reengagement as recently as last year.

“In the president’s rush to fulfill his misguided campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay, he is endangering American lives by releasing this prisoners back to foreign countries,” Jenkins said. “That’s why I introduced a bill that would halt all prisoner transfers from Guantanamo Bay through September 2017. These prisoners present a real threat to the safety of Americans. It is time for the President to recognize that threat and abandon his efforts to close Guantanamo Bay.”