Transferring them to federal super max institutions in the United States. This is 40 minutes. Murmuring] good afternoon. Welcome to the heritage foundation. We welcome those who join us on our website on all of these occasions. Wonderful friends inhouse to make a courtesy check that your cell phones have been muted. Appreciated by those recording and to those giving remarks. We will post this on the heritage homepage for your future reference and you are welcome at any time to send questions and comments to our email. Speaker at heritage. Org. Is a senioray fellow of our National Security institutem and the for national and foreign policy. He specializes in National Security legal issues, homeland security, crime control, and drug policy. Prior to joining heritage, he served as Deputy Assistant for Detainee Affairs under both secretary rumsfeld and secretary gates. State,served as a local, federal, and military prosecutor. Recently, he served as the deputy chief trial judge for the marine court trial judiciary. He is currently the Commanding Officer of the Navy Marine Corps reserves appellate activity, Appellate Government division. Please join me in welcoming him. [applause] thank you very much john and welcome to the heritage foundation. Senator cotton we are delighted as i said have you here. Our distinguished guest as you know is a United States senator and he hails from the great state of arkansas. His committees include the Banking Committee and the intelligence committee, the Armed Services committee where he chairs the air, land power subcommittee. He grew up on his familys cattle farm, graduated from hartnell high School Harvard and the harvard law school. After his federal clerkship in pratt practicing private practice he left the law because the terrorist attacks on a country that he served 55 years of activeduty United States army in the infantry. He served in iraq with the hundred and first airborne and afghanistan with provincial construction team. Between his two combat tours he served the old guard at Arlington National cemetery. His military decorations include the bronze star medal, come come. Infantry badge. Between the army and the senate he worked for Mckinsey Company and served one term in the United States house of representatives and he and his bride and i have a 7monthold newborn named gabrielle. I am particularly drawn to a series of speeches and lectures and articles that the senator has written and i would commend them to your attention. All our National Security including one in Foreign Affairs on proxy wars at the interfaith Prayer Breakfast where he gave a wonderful speech and politico. He wrote a piece called what i learned at war and my favorite the 15th annual harbor k. Olson memorial lecture is this novembers federalist societys National Lawyer convention. Back in 20061071 had the privilege of serving in the Bush Administration we had 400 some detainees at guantanamo, 15 to 20,000 detainees in iraq, two or three detainees in afghanistan and today we have none in iraq and afghanistan and 17 different countries. As many of you may recall president bush said he wanted to move to the day when we could close guantanamo and i would conduct the first classified study of how to close guantanamo. Without getting into the details of that he requires for things to be done simultaneously, working on legal political logistical and diplomatic issues. As you know the president promised to close on time on its first year and as you recall the democrats were in control of the house and senate at the time. In 2009 was the year politically when the table was set for the president to spend Political Capital to do that. He failed to do that. In a series of events by the administration not the least of which was bringing ahmed colon he the 1998 east African Embassy bomber to federal court in new york for trial in the series of other events soured the mood on capitol hill on gitmo and it was during 2009 and every year since that the democraticallycontrolled congress and a republican repubs and the house passed a series of restrictions barring a present from bringing detainees to the United States which was part of a socalled closure plan. So we are pleased that senator cotton year to discuss today. Back in 2000 when the president was elected isis was not what they are today and with the threat of isis and the threat of transnational terrorism and where does senator cotton is prepared who i know will be about provoking series of remarks on why his opinion closing guantanamo today makes very little sense. Senator cotton. [applause] thank you very much for the kind introduction and the warm welcome. Next month marks anniversary president obamas fail to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The president places great importance on guantanamos closure. He chose this initiative out of all the issues he faced as the new president the subject of his very First Convention of order. The first of very many executive orders. He states it, he states assigning up in grand fashion in the oval office and before the cameras he spoke in terms about the dire need to close one, mo in one years time. One year. Seven years later president obama is thankfully failed to make good on that bill. Guantanamo is still operating and this is in large part because of the president s empty rhetoric about closing guantanamo has not convinced the American People. At the same time the need to keep our tataris on the battlefield and away from u. S. Shores is enduring and even more pressing in this time of burgeoning terrorist safe havens in north africa. We do not maintain guantanamo as we want to. We maintain it because it is in the best interest of our National Security to do so. In this way one, no its not silly jennies from historical practice. It is in plain terms the humane military prison. The unpleasant but inescapable necessity of any conflict well grounded in the war laws of war. Unfortunately those hostilities have not ended and in fact they have we remain engaged in a long war against radical islamic jihad. It is not a war we started but it is a war we are committed to winning to this long war has no front lines and no specific theaters traditionally understood in the weapons of our opponents are not merely conventional ideological. Islamic state and al qaeda use modern social media encrypted communication apps to radicalize individuals across the globe including our fellow americans to spur them to attacks with him. With him to resolve the bitter fruits of his tactics and paris and days ago in california. This is why we need a detention facility like guantanamo. It is a dedicated facility in a remote location where we can house detainees in a global conflict. It is secure from attack and infiltration. It allows us to concentrate trained experts in interrogation one place to extract intelligence of paramount importance and covering and stopping plots against americans. They can be and have been repeatedly visited by the International Red cross and other human Rights Groups or observation in an open regular and transparent manner. And guantanamo enables us to isolate detainees who would otherwise seek to spread their radical ideology beyond their prison walls. President obama and others have pushed to bring the remaining guantanamo detainees to the United States and house them in federal supermax prisons. The ugly truth of president obama doesnt share is that bringing these terrorists to facilities in the u. S. Will have enormous cost in terms of tax dollars and compromise to u. S. Security. The construction of new facilities and upgrades to existing facilities will require close to 1 billion and the prospect of comingling terrace with formal prison populations raises a serious risk that hardened criminals will also be radicalize. If released from prison and if not release they will be able to indicate their therell and ideology to others. If new facilities are not to be constructed we face the problem of supermax prisons are at full capacity. That means in order to accept guantanamo detainees other highly dangerous criminals will have to be transferred from supermax facilities to lower security prisons. In the end moving guantanamo detainees to the United States will create a federal prison population that is more dangerous, more jihadists and much more costly to keep. We will also degrade what terrorists abroad with no doubt consider guantanamo which will become targets for attacks and jailbreak attempts as general john kelly testified this year to congress. Is make someone wonder if terrorist threat have grown why havent we taken the commonsense course. This is the course of keeping bad guys where they are and where they belong while also sending more terrace to guantanamo. The president has done the opposite embarked on ideological and quixotic pursuit on guantanamos closure also searching for an answer to closing the facility permanently his temporary solution is then to empty it via releasing them back to the battlefield and establishing random arbitrary numeric at the facility. Lets examine the shortsighted policy in more depth. At times in recent years u. S. Leaders have been tempted to move off the war footing to declare premature narrow victory and return to a pre9 11 economy. President obama has in large part succumb to this temptation. In fact hes campaigning for reelection on it. He insisted that al qaeda was on the road to defeat and the tide of war was receiving and that we should nation build at home. The president s commitment to this desperate fantasy even in the face of the islamic rise in the spread of al qaeda affiliates has led him to recount the danger of releasing guantanamo detainees to join the fight. Unfortunately those dangers are all too real. In 2007 the u. S. Released a former taliban commander who claim to have been a simple bread delivery men. In the interim he reestablished himself as a warlord in southern afghanistan one who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State in a group of insurgent fighters. Over the years u. S. Or says thankfully they killed him but only at risk to themselves. Another such dangers example is the story of a guantanamo detainee who was recently transferred to the united kingdom. This was done without the concurrence of then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey. Why did general dempsey disagree with this transfer . I have asked the pentagon and im still awaiting an answer. But it is no secret that he was a dangerous terrorist before he was captured was a noncompliant detainee while it guantanamo band would likely continue to cause trouble if freed. I traveled to bk recently and British Intelligence and Law Enforcement officials told me that they are stressed to the breaking point trying to handle british fighters returning from syria and iraqi battlefields. On top of that barack obama has added significant pressure and strain on our relationship. The roof and armor cases are nearly two. 653 detainees have been released from guantanamo. Each is gone through stringent measures designed to evaluating their dangerousness before release and to arrange for appropriate on a train after their release. Yet despite these measures 196 are confirmed or suspected of having returned to the battlefield, a 30 recidivism rate. That 30 figure is made even more stark when measured against the recidivism rate guantanamo detainees who have not been released which is of course zero 170 detainees remain at guantanamo today. Many if not all there are are the worst of the worst, detainees the dangers their own countries will not accept them. If we release them all the historical recidivism rate we are looking at possibly 32 more terrace able to plot, finance, organize, recruit and execute terrorist operations against the United States. And of course since these are the worst of the worst its reasonable to expect a much higher recidivism rate. Ive had the privilege of serving as senator from arkansas elected to represent the people of my state first and foremost to keep them safe. Ive also had the honor of serving two tours in iraq and afghanistan where my fellow soldiers and i faced terrorist daily said given the choice between one policy that will put a least 32 more terrace in a position to threaten our troops on the battlefield and another policy that completely eliminates the possibility thats an easy choice to make and it should be for any policymaker. Proponents of closing guantanamo offer many arguments to the contrary. A central claim is that the facility is used as a recruiting tool by terrorists. On space the claim may make some intuitive sense but its foundation is flimsy grounded more in conjecture and annette does then in peer coproof. Researchers have looked at the claim show it to be wanting. The number of times guantanamos mansion and al qaeda and Al Qaeda Affiliated propaganda pales in comparison to iraq, afghanistan, uab strikes and deepened the dispute between india and pakistan from kashmir. Moreover mentions of guantanamo and terrorist propaganda have trended downward through his ears particularly in the materials that they were terrorist groups like the Islamic State. And to extend guantanamo is mentioned is usually only one amidst a laundry list of supposed it against the muslim world. This is not surprising. The motivations of radical jihad as a murmur to larger than the specific issues and grievances. The ideology is premised on a narrative of spiritual as well as an earthly world. They attack us now for what they believe we have done to them or to muslims around the world. They attack us because we are infidels and civilization stands in the way of a realization of a new global caliphate in their warped views. The president or anyone for that matter seriously believes that the closure of guantanamo would convince terrace to disarm or grievously undermined their recruitment efforts could with the Islamic State stop this bloody march against the middle east and north africa if detainees are housed in various locations rather than a single one . The notion is quite simply absurd. Terrorist attacks terrorists attacked us before there existed a detention facility and they will try to attack us regardless of its closure. The terrorist grievance were not guantanamo be the presence of u. S. Military bases in muslim nations. If not jerusalem the grievance would be the loss to christendom. Jihadist and cannot be placated unless we are prepared to give up the whole of civilization. Once it began to pull the string of appeasement to radical ideology conquest will find it never stops. Beyond this recruit an argument critics also describe guantanamo as a zone where the government does not abide by the strictures of applicable u. S. And International Law and the conditions are deplorable. The New York TimesEditorial Board blasted the facility in a place of legal limbo on the edge of the constitution. And reductive fashion critics assert operating guantanamo shocks the conscience that autonomous simply not who we are this hyperbole is not true and it has never been true. Since the first 18 the detainees were housed at guantanamo the United States require of you review of tribunals and since that Time Congress establish rules for military commissions practice along the guidelines and updated by the Supreme Court. Detainees are entitled to the constitutional risk of haiti is corpus to challenge what has been called the great rift and armies of the best lawyers in the United States providing free representation to the detainees, often all the way to the Supreme Court. In fact the number of lawyers devoted to detention cases far exceed the number of detainees. The same cannot be said of the normal american prison population. Guantanamo is a law free zone. At no time in any war in all of history let alone u. S. History have military detainees enjoyed such a depth and breadth of residual rights. At no time that they perceive such a heightened level of care. Anguish pronouncements about the condition at guantanamo are hard to square with the extraordinary for its made to treat detainees in a humane fashion. Efforts to go far beyond International Law. International red cross has made 111 negative visits to the facility since it opened monitoring conditions in speaking with detainees. 100 medical staff including specialized medical linguists are dedicated to the detainees held there they provide Services Including radiology surgery dental and Mental Health services. Detainees enjoy up to 12 hours of recreation a day with access to academic classes, wide array of media religious services in various group activities. To the extent there is any legal or humanitarian deficiency at one time ill its hard to understand how housing detainees indefinitely in her the nations facilities or in u. S. Supermax prisons alternatives proposed by the president would improve their conditions. If houston supermax prisons the procedural rights would not change and a relatively cushy treatment would likely be much more circumscribed and as for detentions facilities abroad the u. S. Cannot contrary guarantee the donations would offer legal rights or humanitarian treatment. In most cases legal rights would be far worse. Furthermore any humanitarian assessment of guantanamo must also take into account the actions the president has taken to make closure more feasible. Battlefield methods of questionable tactical failure, one geared toward minimizing efforts of detainees. The president has greatly accelerated the use of strikes by unmanned aerial far outpacing the strike rate of president george w. Bush. Those ears tears were occasionally captured are generally held by thirdparty countries and facilities to security and conditions fall far below International Standards what is the worldclass standards of guantanamo. And the president has moved to captured terrorists in the u. S. Civil criminal Justice System where they enjoyed heightened procedural rights. From a tactical perspective these methods can make impossible or greatly limit our ability to interrogating gather intelligence from terrace under organizations. While he strongly supports uab strikes on known terrorists were necessary i do not support an method of avoiding the burden of capturing and interrogating the terrorists which is far more preferable. You cannot easily obtain valuable intelligence from terrace who are dead held that the powers are protected by selfincrimination and make no mistake the interrogation of detainees at one time a hiss yielded a measurable benefits. Information obtained by detainees from detainees at guantanamo have been described by the ca is the late information they both agencies recognize the importance of the courier for Osama Bin Laden a crucial understanding that led to the bin ladens secret hideout in pakistan and the u. S. Raid to kill them. It is this kind of information we are losing by not making greater use of onetime amount. The president may not acknowledge the internal contradictions to close on time now that the American People and their elected representatives in congress thankfully do. The u. S. Congress by veto proof majorities have voted to prohibit the transfer of guantanamo detainees to u. S. Shores. Just last month the president signed the National Defense authorization act which contained an amendment i offer to strengthen the reporting requirements for guantanamo detainee transfers by giving congress more insight into how detainees are monitored that after their transfer it. Its shocking in many instances the u. S. And countries accepting guantanamo detainees do not enter into formal written agreement as to how detainees with the house and from returning to the battlefield. Juanita no luck look no further than the press reports of the transfer for detainees to uruguay just last year. These terrace were given housing a few short blocks away from u. S. Embassy and word repeatedly show up at u. S. Facilities. Should any american be forced to show up at their place of work along with hardened terrorists and to train al qaeda unfortunately with this president a newly passed statute never fully resolve the matter. President obama shown a disturbing penchant to ignore the laws to reach for unilateral executive actions that are Constitutional Order the will of the mac in people. The transfer of five pardon taliban commanders in exchange for Sergeant Bowe bergdahl was as the gao concedes violating the 30day congressional notification and president obama has raised thinlyveiled threats to do so again or to close guantanamo to bring terrorists to u. S. Soil. We should be clear to present issue such an order would be the most brazen assertion of executive power in over a century and spark a grave constitutional crisis. Even those members who support the closure of guantanamo would likely rise in opposition to what can only be seen as an extraordinary extralegal usurpation of congresss power. According to doctrine the presence power is at the lowest ab in defiance of a prohibition. For such action to survive initial scrutiny to present much much must possess exclusive authority to take action. In a few cases in which this conflict has arisen its a hard call thats not so here. The constitution empowers congress not the president the power to make rules concerning captures on land and water and explicit preservation of authority to the legislative branch. Further congress possesses clear power to control u. S. Borders and make rules regarding immigration and naturalization including rules governing the movement of detainees to u. S. Soil. To claim that congress has no power in these areas would be ludicrous. The opposite is true. This is why a recent Supreme Court appellate precedence in the guantanamo context to the d. C. Circuit indicates the president cannot trump legislation regarding wartime transfers of detainees in u. S. Soil. President obama regularly invokes his constitutional law as he mulls whether to buy the clash between the political branches that will do much damage to the legal fabric of our republic that but i would hope the president would consider a two classroom full of law students a day after such an executive order was issued, it would be a demoralizing lecture when i would be unable to ground action in current law and would reveal the cavalier willingness of the president in him so many plays a much hope to circumvent the Constitutional Order to achieve political ends. Or for that matter present obama can hearken back to his Campaign Speeches in 2008 about president bushs supposed to excesses. Media coverage of guantanamo often focuses on the plight of the 17010 he is to remain there. Commentators have been in custody and in the number heres a live check to them. There is put forth by detainees lawyers about how the detainees are simply lowlevel cooks caught up in the geopolitical tides of a war on terror that they hardly understood and were not responsible for. These commentators have the privilege of living in blissful ignorance they were having at the burden or the duty of reading classified files in detainees that laid bare the horrible atrocities in which they participated. Further these detainees are by no means protagonists in the drama surrounding guantanamo. They are not the sole actors. My mind focuses on others. I think of the members of the u. S. Armed forces to everyday maintain guantanamo. Earlier this year i had the opportunity to meet a congressional delegation to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility where we visited were we visited with these fine men and women. On a daily basis they must ignore the verbal assaults of detainees in addition to grotesque physical affronts. To those on the front lines serving at Guantanamo Bay we thank you for your service. I think also the soldiers who braved death to capture these terrace and many them being released to take up arms against their brothers. I think of innocent lives taken and destroyed by these terrace on 9 11. The terrorist attacks predated that fateful day and a war that unfurled and continues to this day. I think of individuals who would be killed and societies who will be destabilized. The recidivist reveries from guantanamo and the recidivist the president may release in the future. President members of congress and American People consider guantanamo is these people who we should remember. We must recognize the wider scope of the long war the jihadists are raging against us and for songs that wars going on until the time they finish and win this war Guantanamo Bay must remain open. Thank you, god bless you and god bless the United States. [applause] he has to run off and do his duty as a senator and vote for or against something that we thank you v nextngress has until wednesday to pass a longterm spending bill. Talks about that deadline as well as other issues facing congress. He shares his experience working with paul ryan. Paul ryan is a bright, able, also he calls himself a movement conservative. Which means he is a believer. Although both he and speaker weiner are conservatives, it is accurate to say mr. Ryan is more ideological. Whether or not that will provide him the kind of flexibility a leader knees needs to make compromises, we will see. Good thingssome happen over the last two weeks. We passed an Education Bill in a bipartisan fashion. That was largely done was bigger boehner was speaker. We passed a highway bill which, while not