Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) is pushing a bill to prevent former Guantanamo Bay detainees from returning to the battlefield as President Obama attempts to release more prisoners and to close the facility by the end of his presidency.
The bill would deny foreign aid to countries that accept Guantanamo detainees if the freed prisoners re-engage in militant activity. Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) introduced legislation with the same language in the Senate.
"It creates a disincentive for [countries] to accept these people unless they’re really sure that these folks aren’t going to be a problem," DeSantis told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview.
A former military prosecutor at Guantanamo, DeSantis remembers when there almost 800 detainees there during the George W. Bush administration. While the majority were released before Obama became president, the president is considering options to transfer the nearly 150 prisoners who remain. U.S. law currently bars Obama from transferring the detainees to facilities in the United States, but he could seek to override Congress with executive action.
In the meantime, DeSantis said Obama has ignored security concerns with his efforts to move the prisoners to other countries.
"He really wasn’t campaigning [in 2008] to just release them all, but since he can’t bring them to the United States, he wants to close Gitmo so bad that he’s willing to just release them all," he said.
Among those detainees who were no longer deemed a threat and were cleared for transfer during the Bush administration, several returned to militant groups, DeSantis said.
The remaining prisoners are even more likely to once again take up arms against the United States, DeSantis claimed, noting, "These are people who nobody would have ever suggested would not go back to the fight."
"It’s a deliberate decision [by Obama] to release people who are going to be harmful to our national security," he added.
According to the latest figures from the office of the director of national intelligence, 123 former Guantanamo detainees—about 29 percent—have either returned to the battlefield or are suspected of having done so. Some later died or were recaptured.
CNN reported in January that one of the "Taliban Five"—the five former Guantanamo detainees who were swapped for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl—was suspected of attempting to rejoin the militant group. The five detainees were transferred to Qatar, raising questions about the ability of many countries to prevent former prisoners from returning to the battlefield.
Transferring more detainees overseas involves additional complications. Of the 79 current prisoners who have been cleared for transfer, 58 are Yemeni nationals. They are not likely to be released to their home country any time soon, as recent fighting between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels has killed hundreds in Yemen.
DeSantis said he was also concerned that House leadership would not allow lawmakers to amend a bill that enables Congress to hold an up-or-down vote on a final nuclear deal with Iran. He had planned to offer several amendments, including one requiring Iran to provide full access to all its military sites and to pay reparations for U.S. soldiers who were killed or injured in Iraq.
Iran regularly supported Iraqi insurgents during the war.
DeSantis called a potential Iran deal a "radical change in policy" and noted that Tehran could receive as much as $50 billion in sanctions relief immediately after reaching an agreement. The deal would also leave parts of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure intact.
"If you went back 18 months when we passed enhanced sanctions in the House, when Iran was buckling, and you asked someone privately from Iran, ‘What do you guys really want,’ they would want to keep their nuclear program and they want to get the sanctions relief," he said. "And that’s basically what’s going to happen."