Administration officials said Sunday that the Obama administration would continue sending overseas some detainees now held in Guantanamo in support of Obama’s pledge to close the prison this year.
Even before the attempted bombing of the Northwest flight, Sessions sent a letter on Dec. 9 to Attorney General Eric Holder, calling on him to suspend the transfer of detainees to the Saudi rehabilitation program. Sessions said he has received no response to his letter.
“We are disappointed that the administration has not acknowledged or responded to this important letter,” said Sessions’s spokesman Stephen Miller. “As the terror plot against Northwest Flight 253 makes painfully clear, sending GITMO detainees to the Saudi ‘rehabilitation’ program puts the lives of American citizens in needless jeopardy.”
What The Hill's headline did not specify and probably should have, is that it is not only Republicans wanting a review of the procedure and transfer of more detainees, but prominent Democrats as well, in fact, The Hill saved that for the last paragraph.
Last week Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called on the administration to suspend the transfer of any more detainees to Yemen. Reps. Bennie Thomspon (D-Miss.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, as well as Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), said the policy of transferring detainees to Yemen should be reviewed, although both said they still supported Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility some time this year.
Emphasis mine.
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