GOP senators want details on former Gitmo prisoners

A group of GOP senators is pressing the nation’s top spy for more details about three former Guantanamo Bay detainees who may have returned to the battlefield.

The trio — who include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Armed Services Committee members Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) — sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on April 14 asking him to elaborate on the findings of a bi-annual report that predicted a number of detainees held at the controversial prison would return to terrorism. 

{mosads}The study said that while there are some ways to deter and delay reengagement, some detainees “who are determined to reengage will do so regardless of any transfer conditions.”

“As our service members continue to defend our nation against enemies wishing to destroy our American way of life, it’s disturbing to see that our own judicial system has allowed terrorist detainees to return to the battlefield. We need to know the extent of the damage caused by these ill-advised decisions so that we can work to prevent them in the future,” Grassley said in a statement.

Graham said the U.S. “cannot continue to supply the enemy with reinforcements” and that Congress “must scrutinize exactly who we are releasing from Guantanamo back to the battlefield, whether subject to a court order or otherwise.”

The lawmakers requested that Clapper provide them the identities of the former detainees, the court cases that led to their release, whether they were approved for release or transfer under other detainee review procedures and whether anyone, including U.S. service members, was killed or injured by the detainees.

President Obama has stepped up his efforts to shutter the controversial facility in an attempt to fulfill a campaign pledge he made in 2008.

Transfers from the facility have reduced the population at Guantánamo to 122 prisoners, the smallest number in years.

Tuesday’s missive is the latest indication that Republicans are not about to let the president move forward on his plan without a fight.

The GOP-controlled Congress in the weeks ahead could include restrictions against closing the facility when it marks up the defense policy and spending bills for fiscal year 2016.

“No American service member should ever have to confront a former Guantanamo detainee on the battlefield,” Ayotte said. “The American people have a right to know about the terrorist activities of detainees who have been released from Guantanamo, as well as the terrorist associations and activities of detainees still there.”