Republican rips release of Gitmo detainees

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration’s decision to transfer five detainees from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Kazakhstan.

“Based on their links to al Qaeda, it is very likely that one or more of them will return to terrorism against the U.S. and our allies,” Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, predicted in a statement.

{mosads}In making the argument, Ayotte noted “public reports at least three of them were members of or had fought with al Qaeda and one of them was a military adviser to Osama bin Laden who battled U.S. and allied forces at Tora Bora” in Afghanistan.

The administration must “explain openly” its reasons for transferring a detainee who was previously assessed as a “high risk” to return to terrorism, she said.

“A failure to do so suggests the administration is more interested in emptying Guantanamo so that it can close it, rather than protecting the national security interests of the United States and the lives of Americans,” she said.

Ayotte’s comments come as President Obama has accelerated the detainee transfer rate from the controversial detention center in Cuba.

Two other prisoner transfers occurred earlier this month. Six detainees were moved to Uruguay and four to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of prisoners below 130.

Obama promised to shutter the facility as a candidate but has found actually doing so difficult in the face of unified GOP opposition.

Ayotte claimed that 30 percent of former Guantanamo prisoners have gone back to terrorism, making it “difficult to understand the Obama administration’s national security rationale for transferring detainees who were members of al Qaeda and affiliated groups.”

“When there are reports that former detainees … are ‘free men’ within hours or days of their transfer, it only underscores the recklessness of the administration’s policy,” she said. “The safety of Americans, not the fulfillment of a misguided campaign promise, should guide national security decisions.”