Senator: Obama’s Gitmo argument is ‘ridiculous’

President Obama is trying to downplay the national security risk of closing the Guantánamo Bay prison by focusing on the money that would be saved, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Monday.

“It’s ridiculous, because if you think about the people who are being held at Guantánamo, they are very dangerous terrorists,” Ayotte said Monday afternoon on Fox News’s “Happening Now.”

“He is trying to empty Guantánamo, and it is going to impact our national security,” she said. 

{mosads}In an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Obama reiterated his intention to close the controversial detention facility before leaving office, twice referencing that the U.S. spends “millions” on each prisoner held there.

“It is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world, the fact that these folks are being held. It is contrary to our values and it is wildly expensive. We’re spending millions for each individual there. And we have drawn down the population there significantly,” Obama said.

Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, said the president’s emphasis on cost is misplaced.

“We’re putting ourselves in danger, we’re putting our allies in danger, and so this cost issue is a red herring when it comes to protecting our country [from] terrorists, and it’s really an excuse that he’s using right now,” Ayotte said. 

“He doesn’t have a plan when it comes to making sure that those who are released don’t get back in the battle.”

Figures released by the Pentagon last year showed it cost taxpayers annually $2.7 million per Guantánamo detainee, compared to about $80,000 to house a prisoner at a high-security federal supermax prison, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Obama’s remarks Sunday came a day after the Pentagon announced it had transferred four detainees from the naval base in Cuba to their home country of Afghanistan, bringing the total number of remaining prisoners at the facility to 132, including 64 who have been cleared for transfer but await accepting host nations. 

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) bashed the president for releasing the detainees on Monday, saying that it would “embolden terrorists.” He said there are 104 confirmed and 74 suspected cases of transferred detainees returning to the battlefield.

Ayotte, referencing the recent transfer of the four detainees, said almost 30 percent of the prisoners who leave Guantánamo are suspected or are known to have reengaged in terrorist action against the U.S. She said 84 of the 132 remaining prisoners are from Yemen, a hotbed of terrorist activity.

“Yemen is the headquarters of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The administration has made some indication that they could consider transferring people back to Yemen,” Ayotte said. 

“Yemen is the wild, wild west. So the big question is: have they put in sufficient conditions to ensure that the people won’t get back into battle?”

Some Guantánamo detainees are being prosecuted by the military, including suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“What price can we put on the fact that these people are secure in Guantánamo?” Ayotte said. “Do we really want them on American soil? I think the American people clearly don’t.”