Post by Scott Anthony on Jan 17, 2015 1:53:31 GMT
Q I’m going to ask you about another moral dilemma. How can the President release five Gitmo detainees, originally from Yemen, literally a week after terrorists with ties to Yemen -- at least one of them -- trained by al Qaeda in Yemen, killed at least a dozen in Paris? How can the President release five more Gitmo detainees originally in Yemen?
MR. EARNEST: Because there is a unanimous recommendation from his national security team that steps could be put in place to ensure that when these individuals are transferred that we can significantly mitigate any threat that they have to the U.S. or our interests around the world.
Q What are those specific steps? Are you tracking each one of these folks? We understand they’re going to Estonia, they’re going to Oman. How do you specifically make sure they don’t wind up back in Yemen and are retrained and go right back on the battlefield?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Ed, I recognize that my answer may be unsatisfactory, but the fact of the matter is the success of some of those strategies is predicated on us not making those strategies public. But what I can tell you is that the governments that have agreed to take on these detainees have done so after extensive consultation with the United States about steps that they need to put in place to ensure that these individuals don’t pose a threat to the United States.
Q Well, if you can’t publicly say what they are, maybe you can answer: The Republican, Kelly Ayotte, claims that 30 percent of Gitmo detainees already released -- before this release last night -- 30 percent are suspected to or actually did go back on the battlefield. Are those numbers wrong? And if so, what is the real number? Is it 5 percent, 10 percent? How many of these detainees wind up back on the battlefield if you have all these safeguards?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Ed, you’ll recall that when this President took office, he temporarily stopped the transfer of prisoners at Guantanamo so that the intelligence community and our national security community could conduct an individual review of each of their cases to determine who it would be appropriate to transfer to try to resolve all of their cases. That was a painstaking process that took more than a year, as I recall.
And once that process was taken place, there were a number of prisoners who were approved for transfer. Now, they were approved for transfer under specific conditions. And what we have seen over the last several years is that a substantial number of transfers had been carried out under this new policy. And I can tell you that only 6 percent or so of those transfers have been suspected of -- or have been confirmed to have rejoined the fight.
Q You’re saying -- your estimate is about 6 percent of these detainees?
MR. EARNEST: Yes. And I think the 30 percent includes the large number of transfers that occurred before the President instituted this review, essentially transfers that occurred in the previous administration.
Q You’re referring 2007, 2008 --
MR. EARNEST: Yes.
Q -- and some of those wind up on the battlefield. But if it’s 6 percent, isn’t that still a problem? Six percent of these detainees wind up going back into terrorism; could kill people in Paris or Washington?
MR. EARNEST: It is. And it’s certainly why this administration continues to pursue a very aggressive counterterrorism strategy. At the same time, Ed, it would also be unwise to neglect the fact that our -- the prison at Guantanamo Bay continues to inspire violent acts around the globe. So it’s not as if we can avoid violence by just keeping the prison open and keeping them all locked up. We know that that continues to be an active source of inspiration and recruitment for terrorists.
So this is a very difficult policy problem, and it’s only been made more difficult by members of the United States Senate who have thrown up obstacles to the President’s effort to try to close the prison.
MR. EARNEST: Because there is a unanimous recommendation from his national security team that steps could be put in place to ensure that when these individuals are transferred that we can significantly mitigate any threat that they have to the U.S. or our interests around the world.
Q What are those specific steps? Are you tracking each one of these folks? We understand they’re going to Estonia, they’re going to Oman. How do you specifically make sure they don’t wind up back in Yemen and are retrained and go right back on the battlefield?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Ed, I recognize that my answer may be unsatisfactory, but the fact of the matter is the success of some of those strategies is predicated on us not making those strategies public. But what I can tell you is that the governments that have agreed to take on these detainees have done so after extensive consultation with the United States about steps that they need to put in place to ensure that these individuals don’t pose a threat to the United States.
Q Well, if you can’t publicly say what they are, maybe you can answer: The Republican, Kelly Ayotte, claims that 30 percent of Gitmo detainees already released -- before this release last night -- 30 percent are suspected to or actually did go back on the battlefield. Are those numbers wrong? And if so, what is the real number? Is it 5 percent, 10 percent? How many of these detainees wind up back on the battlefield if you have all these safeguards?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Ed, you’ll recall that when this President took office, he temporarily stopped the transfer of prisoners at Guantanamo so that the intelligence community and our national security community could conduct an individual review of each of their cases to determine who it would be appropriate to transfer to try to resolve all of their cases. That was a painstaking process that took more than a year, as I recall.
And once that process was taken place, there were a number of prisoners who were approved for transfer. Now, they were approved for transfer under specific conditions. And what we have seen over the last several years is that a substantial number of transfers had been carried out under this new policy. And I can tell you that only 6 percent or so of those transfers have been suspected of -- or have been confirmed to have rejoined the fight.
Q You’re saying -- your estimate is about 6 percent of these detainees?
MR. EARNEST: Yes. And I think the 30 percent includes the large number of transfers that occurred before the President instituted this review, essentially transfers that occurred in the previous administration.
Q You’re referring 2007, 2008 --
MR. EARNEST: Yes.
Q -- and some of those wind up on the battlefield. But if it’s 6 percent, isn’t that still a problem? Six percent of these detainees wind up going back into terrorism; could kill people in Paris or Washington?
MR. EARNEST: It is. And it’s certainly why this administration continues to pursue a very aggressive counterterrorism strategy. At the same time, Ed, it would also be unwise to neglect the fact that our -- the prison at Guantanamo Bay continues to inspire violent acts around the globe. So it’s not as if we can avoid violence by just keeping the prison open and keeping them all locked up. We know that that continues to be an active source of inspiration and recruitment for terrorists.
So this is a very difficult policy problem, and it’s only been made more difficult by members of the United States Senate who have thrown up obstacles to the President’s effort to try to close the prison.