U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, delivered the following remarks today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in opposition to the president’s reported plan to transfer certain terrorists held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Thomson, Illinois:
I was here at the Capitol on September the 11th. I watched the smoke rise from the Pentagon. I walked in the ashes of Ground Zero one week later. Terrorism is not theoretical to me. That’s why, like most Americans, I was astonished to read this morning’s press reports that the Obama Administration is about to transfer over seventy known dangerous terrorists from the military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay outside the United States to a prison inside the United States in the heartland of America, in the state of Illinois.
By moving known terrorists to American soil, the Obama Administration is putting international public relations ahead of public safety. How does closing Guantanamo Bay make us safer? How does moving over seventy known terrorists, to a facility in my beloved heartland of this country, make our families more safe? And how does it even make sense? Mr. President: rescind this order; reconsider your decision, put the safety and security of the American people ahead of international public opinion.
NOTE: To view the remarks online, click here.