By LOLITA C. BALDOR and KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Obama says the detention center at Guantanamo Bay undermines America's national security and needs to be closed.
Obama says the detention center is counterproductive in the fight against terrorism because it's used as propaganda to recruit terrorists and drains military resources.
The White House released Obama's plan to close the facility on Tuesday, but the plan faces stiff opposition from the GOP-led Congress.
The plan calls for transferring remaining detainees to the United States and seeks up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. It does not specify where in the U.S. the detainees would go.
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Reaction to announcement
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) issued this statement:
“With the threat of ISIS and other terror groups to the nation only growing, the President’s insistence on fulfilling an ill-conceived campaign promise to bring hardened terrorists to American soil is reckless, naïve, and bewildering.
“Bringing these detainees to the U.S. would not only violate current law, it would defy the will of Congress and the American people who do not want dangerous, radical terrorists in their backyards.
“Between negotiating a bad deal with Iran and the ongoing threat of a terrorist attack here in the U.S., it’s disappointing to see the President continue to prioritize his political agenda at the expense of the American people.”
