GITMO IN FOCUS

All – U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) continues hisaggressive work to stop President Obama’s dangerous plan to relocate international terrorists currently held in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba to domestic sites on US soil, including one in Hanahan, South Carolina. Just yesterday, President Obama’s Defense Secretary Ash Carter admitted that Congress must change the law in order to move Guantanamo-perhaps ruling out the use of an Executive Order to do so. Secretary Carter’s new admission comes after others in the administration, including the Attorney General and military leaders, have said it would be illegalto even try based on current law.

President Obama has been met, and make no mistake, will continue to be met with strong, principled opposition from Senator Scott on every front on this terrible plan. Senator Scott remains vigilant and committed to ensuring that no detainees are moved to ANY domestic site. Frankly, President Obama might as well just let this one go because it’s not happening as long as Senator Scott is a member of the United States Senate and representing the great people of South Carolina. – Sean L. Conner, Press Secretary to Senator Scott

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Ash Carter: Congress must change the law to move Guantanamo prisoners to U.S.
Rebecca Shabad
CBS News
February 29, 2016

Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Monday made it clear that Congress will have to change the law if the government wants to move some remaining detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison to a facility on U.S. soil.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Carter said that safety is his top priority and there has to be alternate detention facility created for the detainees.

“Now, that can’t be done unless Congress acts, which means that Congress has to support the idea that it would be good to move this facility or the detainees to the United States,” said Carter, who reiterated that closing Guantanamo Bay would save the U.S. a lot of money.

Carter went on to say that the closure plan, unveiled by the White House last week, could not be fully implemented until Congress takes action.

“So it is good if it can be done, but it cannot be done under current law. The law has to be changed,” he said. “That is the reason to put a proposal to put in front of Congress.”

[…]

Last fall, President Obama signed a defense policy bill that barred the administration from transferring detainees to U.S. soil.

At a congressional hearing in November, Attorney General Loretta Lynch acknowledged that the law is clear.

“With respect to individuals being transferred to the United States, the law currently does not allow that,” she told the House Judiciary Committee. “Certainly it is the position of the Department of Justice that we would follow the law of the land in regard on that issue.”

[…]

Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, blasted the president’s plan and largely declared it dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.