Opposition Grows to Transferring Gitmo Detainees to Yemen

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Terrorism

(AP)

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has joined Republicans in calling for a halt to planned transfers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen in the wake of revelations of ties between the Christmas day bombing attempt and terrorists in that country.

"Guantanamo detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time," Feinstein said in a statement. "It is too unstable."

Last week the Department of Justice announced that it had transferred six detainees to the government of Yemen. As the Washington Post notes, former Gitmo detainees in Yemen "have led and fueled the growing assertiveness of the al Qaeda branch that claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing."

There are 80 Yemenis left at the Guantanamo facility, almost half the remaining prison population. The Obama administration has already acknowledged that it will miss its one-year deadline for shuttering the prison; the emergence of Yemen as a flashpoint will likely further complicate their efforts.

Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter, exchanged e-mails with a radical Yemeni-American cleric. The accused murderer of an Army recruiter in Arkansas in June had spent time in the country. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole was stationed in Yemen when it was the target of a suicide attack in 2000.

In September, General David Petraeus said that Yemen has been the dark spot in the U.S. fight against al Qaeda and that the country had become the headquarters of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

On Tuesday, as The Hill reports, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) sent a letter to President Obama asking him not to transfer detainees to Yemen. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), meanwhile, said doing so "threatens the safety and security of the U.S. people." Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) has said the administration should "rethink" the policy.

Two of the former detainees tied to the al-Qaeda branch in Yemen were released under the Bush administration to Saudi Arabia and then traveled to Yemen, according to the Post.

"The Bush administration made a mistake - they experimented," Bond told The Hill. "Why you wouldn't learn from your mistake is beyond me. Why the administration would continue to do things that have proven to be disastrous is incomprehensible."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by justdatrooth December 31, 2009 2:07 AM EST: Obama has just one more day to resolve all legal cases at Gitmo and close the facility. He PROMISED to close it by jan 2010, that's tomorrow. As usual, Obama is unmasked as a liar, renegging on virtually every promise he's made.; Reply to this comment


by sunday42 December 30, 2009 3:50 PM EST: Actually we should send the entire administration, the Senate, the House and the Supreme court to Yemen. Read the constitution and start from scratch.; Reply to this comment


by sunday42 December 30, 2009 3:46 PM EST: How about we transfer the entire Obama administration to Yemen?; Reply to this comment

by markj2 December 30, 2009 3:26 PM EST

This POTUS is so arragent and stupid he always thinks he knows best what to do. But it has been proven he doesn't know squat and is a clueless amature. When is Congress going to get fed up with this BS and IMPEACH this fool before he destroys America. Between all his advisor's and Czars there isn't one of them that has an ounce of common sense. They all want to re-make America in the image they have, but they fail to realize that WE THE PEOPLE will never allow it to happen.

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by nottellin1 December 31, 2009 1:05 AM EST: Sadly, we the peoploe are allowing it to happen.


by smac761 December 30, 2009 3:21 PM EST: How about putting them before a firing squad and ridding the world of these plagues? This DOJ needs to be recalled. They are not cabable of employing common sense and are not defending the welfare of this country.; Reply to this comment


by nowhiningallowed December 30, 2009 2:57 PM EST: How about not transferring any of these Gitmo terrorists to any nation, including our own...leave them where they're under constant watch by the military...don't allow any of them to set foot on especially our soil...don't even sully the sanctity of our Constitution by even allowing them to have a trial in NYC...what's it going to take, perhaps another terrorist attack outside of what occurred at Ft. Hood and on Christmas Day?; Reply to this comment