McConnell leads charge against decision to close Guantanamo

Fourteen times since April 20, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stood up to speak on the Senate floor about the same topic: President Barack Obama’s plans to close the detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In each speech, McConnell has criticized the Obama administration for its decision.

“The administration has no plan to safely close this secure detention facility,” the Kentucky Republican said in Senate remarks on Thursday. “And closing Guantanamo without a safe alternative would be irresponsible, dangerous and unacceptable to the American people.”

In the middle of a global economic recession, increasing unemployment, a weakened financial system, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a shaky Pakistan and other international conflicts, McConnell and the Republicans have latched on to a potentially potent political issue to use against the popular president and his allies in Congress.

“The Republicans are trying to lay the groundwork for claiming an issue … by trying to stir up concerns about Democratic national security credentials,” said Sarah Binder, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Democrats say McConnell and the GOP, plagued by low poll numbers and last year’s political defeats, are desperate. Their attacks represent “fear mongering,” said Ryan Rudominer, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

But Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, defends the GOP’s criticisms, saying the party is reflecting the fact that Americans are justifiably worried about where Guantanamo detainees will end up.

“This highlights the fact that the Democrats continue to lose credibility on national security, or any credibility they once had is quickly evaporating,” he said.

Tribunals revived

Obama announced Friday that he is reviving the much-criticized military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay and promised changes to the system that could jeopardize his timetable for closing the prison by January.

Obama said the changes were designed to give detainees stronger legal protections, such as a ban on evidence obtained under cruel duress, The Associated Press reported.

Obama’s announcement means the trials of 13 defendants in nine cases will be restarted no sooner than September. Five of the 13 are charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The Associated Press reported the rest of the 241 Guantanamo detainees will likely either be released, transferred to other countries, tried in civilian U.S. federal courts or, potentially, held indefinitely as prisoners of war with full Geneva Conventions rights.

The Senate this week will consider a supplemental war spending bill that includes $80 million to close Guantanamo by January and transfer the detainees elsewhere. But the money would be made available only after the administration issues its plan — and it would only pay for prisoner transfers to other countries.

A House-passed bill contains no money to close Guantanamo.

The Obama administration has not detailed where it wants to put the detainees, but officials are assuring the public and Congress that Americans won’t be endangered.

“We are not going to put at risk the safety of the people of this country,” Attorney General Eric Holder recently told a congressional panel.

Republican campaign

As the most powerful Republican in Washington, McConnell has raised Guantanamo not only in Senate speeches but also in news conferences, interviews and even a speech at the recent Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in Louisville.

At the same time, House Republicans have introduced legislation intended to stop Obama’s plan to shutter Guantanamo. The GOP bill, called the “Keep Terrorists Out of America Act,” would require governors and legislatures to approve any relocation of Guantanamo inmates to their states.

The Republicans’ bill has been backstopped with a video ad from the House Republican Conference, showing the Sept. 11 attacks and pictures of suspects detained at Guantanamo.

“How does closing Guantanamo Bay make us safer?” the ad asks.

Meanwhile, the NRCC has launched an assault on specific Democrats over Guantanamo, including Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District.

“Chandler Fails to Protect Kentuckians from Getting Terrorists as Neighbors,” read the headline on a recent news release from the committee.

Chandler said the GOP’s “baseless accusation barely deserves comment.”

In a statement, Chandler said he voted not to include money for Guantanamo’s closing in the House spending bill “until at least such time as a detailed plan is proposed and vetted in Congress that ensures the safety of our citizens and swift justice and prosecution for the prisoners.”

GOP tactics questioned

Other Democrats also have expressed concerns about closing Guantanamo without knowing where the 241 foreign nationals imprisoned there will go.

Even so, the GOP’s tactics don’t appear to reflect a serious engagement on the issue, said the Brookings Institution’s Binder. Rather, she said, “Republicans are trying to stir up concerns about the Democrats’ national security credentials.”

It’s too early to say whether the tactics will work, Binder said, but “as long as the economy is front and center in most Americans’ minds, (Guantanamo is) a tough issue to get traction on.”

John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a military information Web site and think tank based in Alexandria, Va., said he believes stirring up fears about the Guantanamo detainees is foolish.

“I think that issue was relevant many years ago when we thought they (terrorists) were coming out of manhole covers,” Pike said.

Poll results mixed

National polls on closing Guantanamo are mixed.

A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll last month found that 33 percent of Americans thought the Cuban facility should be shut down, while 53 percent said it should stay open.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll taken in February, right after Obama ordered the Guantanamo closing, found that half disapproved of the decision, while 44 percent approved.

But a poll by the Pew Research Center in February found that Americans support Obama’s move 46 percent to 39 percent, and a Washington Post-ABC News Poll in January showed 53 percent supported closure, while 42 percent opposed it.
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