In their bid to keep the military prison at Guantanamo Bay open indefinitely, Republican lawmakers have already blocked detainee transfers to certain countries that are known hotbeds of extremist activity like Yemen. On Wednesday, one GOP lawmaker suggested we should go a step further and prevent releases to countries with politics that offend America’s right-wing sensibilities.
During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) pressed the State Department’s Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure, Lee Wolosky, about the late 2014 transfer of six Gitmo detainees to Uruguay.
Rep. Smith focused his criticism on the political leanings of Uruguay’s Interior Minister, Eduardo Bonomi, who was designated to oversee the detainees upon their release.
“Is it your view that this particular minister—an avowed leftist—is trustworthy?” Smith asked. He questioned if the minister is committed to ensuring that the former detainees “do not link up with international terrorist networks” or threaten US embassy personnel or Americans in Uruguay.
Wolosky responded that while he hasn’t personally met Bonomi, he disagreed with Rep. Smith’s line of questioning.
“When we look at countries to resettle detainees in, we do not base it on personalities,” Wolosky stated. “We base it on the government as a whole, the capabilities of the government as a whole, and the willingness of the government.” He added that transfer decisions are also based on “specific security assurances” provided by the recipient country.
Based on the latest reporting from Uruguay, the six detainees resettled there are more interested in getting their lives back together and reuniting with their families than engaging in terrorism. Last April, four of the former prisoners held a demonstration outside the US embassy in Uruguay demanding a better living arrangement and the opportunity to bring their families to their new country of residence.
There are currently 91 individuals still imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. More than a third of them (36) have been approved for transfer out of the facility—some since 2010. Another ten detainees are in some phase of the military tribunal system. The remaining 45 have not been charged with a crime, but the government has not approved their transfer.
Since 2015, the Pentagon has moved 25 prisoners out of Guantanamo and into the custody of ten different countries. In total, more than 50 nations of many different types have accepted former Guantanamo detainees, including Canada, Denmark, Germany, Somalia, and Egypt.
Wolosky testified to the committee that of the 144 prisoners released by President Obama, fewer than 5 percent have reengaged in violence.
President Obama submitted a plan in February to close the military prison camp before he leaves office. The blueprint, however, depends on Congressional Republicans lifting the statutory transfer bans on bringing detainees to the US for further detainment or trial—a move that the GOP has thus far resisted.
