A message to Congress from National Security and Terrorism Experts:

     Blocking the government from bringing any Guantanamo detainees to the U.S.

is unnecessary and harmful to our national security. 

          We do not presume in this statement to address all of the complex issues surrounding the detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay.

 

  However, the undersigned national security and counterterrorism experts agree on the following:

• Closing Guantanamo will be a net benefit to our counterterrorism efforts.
• This will likely require bringing some terrorists to the U.S.for trial, detention, or, if appropriate, resettlement.

• America should not be afraid to bring Guantanamo detainees to the U.S.

   Transferring some Guantanamo detainees to the U.S.will aid the fight against terrorists. 

            For millions of people around the world, Guantanamo represents the excesses of post-9/11 policies and reportedly has been a recruitment boon for violent extremists.  Closing Guantanamo will eliminate an ongoing source of propaganda for terrorists’ efforts to generate sympathy and recruit supporters.

        America has a long history of bringing terrorists to justice in our courts.  Some Guantanamo detainees can be prosecuted for crimes in US courts, undermining the terrorists’ myth that they are “holy warriors” and revealing them instead as criminal thugs.  De-glamorizing terrorists in this way undermines their recruitment efforts.

          Nearly 60 detainees were already cleared for release by the last Administration, some as long as six years ago, but remain in Guantanamoawaiting agreement from any nation to admit them.  Countries have indicated an unwillingness to resettle non-threatening detainees if the U.S.blocks any from coming here.  Finding ways to resettle some detainees in the U.S. is essential to closing Guantanamo.

Americais capable of holding terrorists securely in U.S.prisons.  

            As a recent Justice Department fact sheet noted, there are currently 216 inmates in federal prisons for crimes related to international terrorism, including the masterminds of the first World Trade Center bombing, the terrorist who plotted to bring down multiple US airliners, and terrorists who planned to blow up bridges and tunnels in New York.  No terrorist has ever escaped from a U.S.prison.

          America is strong enough to bring terrorists to justice, detain those who should be detained, and release those who should not be detained.

Congress, trust the strength of our system and steadfastness of the American people.

Signed,

William Banks is the Director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism and the Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Law at Syracuse University College of Law.

 M.E. (Spike) Bowman spent 40 years in national security and intelligence, including serving as Senior Counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and as Deputy Director of the National Counterintelligence Center.

Frank Cilluffo served as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and is now the Director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University.  Prior to Mr. Cilluffo’s White House appointment, he spent eight years in senior policy positions with the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Major General Albert C. Harvey chairs the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security and is a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Ret.).  He is a Partner at Thomason, Hendrix, Harvey, Johnson & Mitchell in Memphis, TN.

 Robert Hutchings was Chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council.  Currently, he is Diplomat in Residence at Princeton University, where he has also served as Assistant Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Brigadier General David R. Irvine was Deputy Commander for the 96th Regional Readiness Command and spent 18 years on the faculty of the Sixth U.S. Army Intelligence School.  He served 4 terms as a Republican legislator in the Utah House of Representatives and is now practicing law in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Michael Jacobson served as Counsel on the 9/11 Commission and Senior Advisor in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury.  He is now Senior Fellow, Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 Dr. David Kay was the head of the Iraq Survey Group.  Prior to that, he served as a weapons inspector in Iraq and as the United Nations Chief Weapons Inspector from 1991 to 1992.

 Brigadier General Mark T. Kimmit served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs and Deputy Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy. He served for over 30 years as an officer in the United States Army, including as Deputy Director of Strategy and Plans at U.S. Central Command and Deputy Director of Operations and Chief Military Spokesman for Coalition Forces in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

 Matthew Levitt was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Treasury Department and is now Director of Stein program on counterterrorism and intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 John MacGaffin held senior positions with the CIA and FBI and has been involved in matters of intelligence collection, law enforcement, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and security for over 40 years.  Currently, he is a senior advisor to the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Transnational Threats Project.

 Daniel Marcus was General Counsel of the 9/11 Commission and Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice.  He now teaches National Security Law at American University Washington College of Law.  

 Ronald Anthony Marks served as a senior CIA official and as Intelligence Counsel for U.S.

Senators Bob Dole and Trent Lott.  Mr. Marks is currently the Senior Vice President and Director of Washington, D.C. operations for Oxford Analytica

 Paul Pillar served as Deputy Chief of the Director of Central Intelligence’s Counterterrorist Center and as National Intelligence Officer for the Near East.

 Suzanne E. Spaulding was Executive Director of the National Commission on Terrorism, Assistant General Counsel at CIA, Minority Staff Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and General Counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She is now a Principal with Bingham Consulting Group.

 Jonathan Winer served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement and as counsel to Senator John Kerry.

 Philip Zelikow served as Counselor of the Department of State, executive director of the 9/11 Commission, on President Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and as co-director of Harvard’s Intelligence and Policy Project.  He is currently White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia.