Hagel Admits GTMO Detainees Joining Terrorists Fighting in Iraq and Syria

Oct 31, 2014
Defense Drumbeat
Fox News Report Highlights McKeon Request for Immediate Suspension of GTMO Detainee Transfers

 

 

You can view the video of Fox's Jennifer Griffin's report

HERE

 

 

 

From Secretary Hagel's briefing at the Pentagon Yesterday. Full transcript HERE

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Q: Mr. Secretary how concerned are you about former GITMO (Guantanamo Bay) prisoners showing up on the battlefields in Syria and Iraq?

And, General Dempsey, how many former GITMO prisoners have you -- do you estimate have shown up on the battlefield in Syria? And is this causing you to rethink the policy of trying to close Guantanamo Bay?

SEC. HAGEL: Well, we know that some of the detainees that have come out of Guantanamo have gone back to the fight, to the battlefield. We're aware of that. And we think that overall the policy of getting to close Guantanamo is clearly in the interests of the United States, as the president has articulated, which when I was in the United States Senate, I supported it.

It's an imperfect world. It's a dangerous world. This is why we pay so much attention to getting commitments from host countries in securing those commitments and doing everything we can within our power to assure that those commitments, not to allow those detainees to go beyond what is required in order to secure them in these different host countries that take them. But we do know that some have joined the fight.

Q: Does the recidivism concern you?

SEC. HAGEL: Yes, of course it does.

 

 

113th Congress