Rep. King Blasts Obama: His Obsession with Emptyin
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In one of his first acts as president in 2009, Barack Obama signed an executive order calling for the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Since then, the federal government has transferred at least 146 detainees out of the prison, and into the custody of several countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
This week, the White House announced plans to transfer 12 Yemeni and three Afghan detainees from the prison in the near future.
Tuesday on Outnumbered, #oneluckyguy Congressman Peter King blasted Obama’s decision, calling him dangerously “obsessed” with closing the terrorist penitentiary.
“The president’s obsessed with closing down Guantanamo,” King, a Long Island, N.Y. Republican, said.
“It’s dangerous to let these people go. He seems obsessed with getting as many out as he can.”
“He’s sending them to the U.A.E.—we have a hard enough time monitoring people [in the United States] that are on probation: never mind sending them to the [Middle East].”
King, who preceded Texas Republican Mike McCaul as the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he has visited Gitmo and disagreed with the notion the prison was a “stain on America.”
“They have soccer courts there…there’s one medical personnel for every three [detainees]. Everyone gets a copy of the Koran—and an arrow pointing toward Mecca,” King said.
“17 percent of them have gone back to the battlefield. That means 17 percent are capable of killing Americans.”
“Again, the president seems driven with the goal of ‘getting them out’,” King said, explaining that the prison’s closure represents a “great liberal cause.”
“It feels like a scary time for Americans,” host Sandra Smith said.