In Their Rush To Empty Gitmo, Obama Has Helped To Get Americans Killed. Another Failure Of Leadership?

Pentagon Official: American Deaths Have Come From Gitmo Releases

Paul Lewis, Department of Defense special envoy for Guantanamo closure (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By Greg Richter   |   Wednesday, 23 Mar 2016 05:55 PM

Short URL|

Email Article|

Comment|

Contact|

Print|

    A   A

• 0
  inShare

The release of terrorist suspects from the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay have resulted in the deaths of Americans, a Pentagon official told Congress on Wednesday.

"What I can tell you is unfortunately, there have been Americans that have died because of Gitmo detainees," said Paul Lewis, the Pentagon's special envoy for Guantanamo closure, in testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, The Hill reports.

Lewis provided no other details in the public hearing, according to The Hill, but The Associated Press quoted an unnamed Obama administration official as saying Lewis was referring to an Afghan suspect released during the George W. Bush administration.

"When anybody dies, it is tragedy and we don't want anybody to die because we transfer detainees," Lewis said. "However, it's the best judgment and the considered judgment of this administration and the previous administration that the risk of keeping Gitmo open is outweighed — that we should close Gitmo."

Latest News Update

Get Newsmax TV At Home »

California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said he was "disgusted," and added, "As far as I'm concerned, if one child is saved because she would have been blown up by someone who's been released, it's better to keep all 90 of those people in Gitmo."

"There are unfortunately going to be acts of terrorism, probably whether the facility is opened or closed," Lee Wolosky, the State Department's special envoy for Guantanamo closure, told the committee. "The proper analysis is, 'What are the risks of keeping it open in light of the very obvious use of that facility as a propaganda tool,' which, frankly, you should not have to question."

Rohrabacher said he isn't convinced by arguments that keeping the facility open is serving as a recruitment tool for terrorists.

"I think the bigger recruiting tool today is when our government, especially at this administration, is perceived as being weak," he said.

"The Obama administration's confirmation today that former Guantanamo detainees have killed Americans is the single most important reason why the president should cease his misguided efforts to close the facility and release dangerous terrorists," Maine Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte said in written statement.

There are still 91 detainees at the facility, and 36 have been cleared to be transferred. Obama wants to close the facility entirely and move the remaining detainees to U.S. prisons. That plan is opposed by Republicans.

Related Stories:

• Rep. Nunes: Brussels Airport Bombing May Have Targeted Americans
• IS Trains 400 Fighters to Attack Europe in Wave of Bloodshed

© 2016 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Breaking News at Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/guantanamo-pentagon-gitmo-release/2016/03/23/id/720568/#ixzz43pD3Yelo

The West Better Awaken Or It Will Be Too Late! Islam Is On The Move.

Rep. Rohrabacher: ‘What We Are Witnessing is the Destruction of Western Civilization’

By Zachary Leshin | November 5, 2015 | 3:01 PM EST

Migrants from the Middle East crowd onto a train in Budapest, Hungary. (AP photo)

“What we are witnessing is the destruction of Western civilization, not by an armed invasion, but by envelopment,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said Wednesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill on the growing refugee crisis in Europe.

"What we have seen over the past few months is unsustainable, and if not checked, will change the fundamental nature of European countries which are now being inundated," said Rohrabacher, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats.

"What we are witnessing is the destruction of Western civilization, not by an armed invasion, but instead through envelopment. The effects of this will not soon disappear, but instead could well turn out to be an historic change in the nature of many European countries."

"Migrants fleeing to Europe have been an issue of humanitarian concern for several years, but a wave of immigration erupted into a tsunami this summer when the German government announced it would ignore the Dublin Rules and accept all Syrian refugees that made it to the German border," Rohrabacher said.

The Dublin Rules are a European Union (EU) law that establishes which EU member states are responsible for taking in refugees from outside the EU.

“Earlier this week, the United Nations announced that 218,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe just last month. That is more than were recorded in all of 2014. It is expected that around a million asylum seekers of all origins will reach Germany in this year alone,” Rohrabacher noted.

He traced the current refugee crisis to a decision made earlier this year by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to grant political asylum to 800,000 migrants from the Middle East even though "Europe has been struggling to assimilate large Muslim populations."

"Even the most optimistic scenarios say that Europe will have to re-direct billions and billions of dollars from supporting their own citizens to accomodating the needs of these refugees," Rohrabacher stated.

“Europe was not prepared for this tremendous influx of thousands and thousands of other people,” agreed Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX).

“Some countries take various positions on what to do with the migrants: let them pass through, or maybe not even let them come into their country.

“One such example is Hungary, who is trying to protect the national sovereignty of its own country. And the United States, rather than try to understand the situation in Hungary, even last week the U.S. ambassador dressed down the Hungarians for what the State Department believed was not the right course in dealing with migrants,” said Poe.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX). (AP photo)

“Hungary was totally justified in what it is doing to try to stem the flow,” Rohrabacher added.

“And frankly, if our European allies are not willing to stem the flow of large numbers of people who are not native to their territory, they will lose their territory. And let me note, that's true of the United States as well.”

Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) also discussed the need for a better screening process for refugees coming from the Middle East, recounting what the process was like when he immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba: “The influx has been so quickly, so many, that the security issue is very important.

“I remember as a boy when my father was taken away when we first arrived for about four or five days, and my father went through a whole process - 'Did you participate in the Communist Party? Were you involved in the Communist Party?'- back then, and after about four or five days he was returned to us.

“I don't think these countries have any way of screening the people that are going through there like what we went through when I first arrived here.”