WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today stressed that the delay of the Administration's report on closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center is a case of campaign rhetoric meeting national security realities.

 

"Closing Guantanamo Bay, which houses some of our deadliest terrorist-enemies, is much more difficult when facing the national security realities of keeping Americans safe rather than just rhetoric on the campaign trail," said Bond.

 

As part of the President’s Executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay facility by January 2010, a six-month report was due out on the Administration's plans to release or transfer the remaining terrorist detainees, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators.

 

Senator Bond has repeatedly called on the Administration to explain to the American people why the Guantanamo Bay prison must be closed on an arbitrary, politically-driven timetable with no backup plan for the deadly terrorists housed there.

 

Although Bond sent a letter to President Obama on May 1, asking for details on the status of and plans for these detainees, he has yet to receive any response.  The Senator is also still waiting for the Administration to explain the specific measures that will ensure that detainees released to Bermuda and Palau are monitored and do not try to enter the United States.   

 

"I am hopeful that as the new President and his team become familiar with all the details surrounding this matter, they come to grips with the difficult challenge and reconsider the original Executive order."

 

###