Four
Republican senators are calling for cutting foreign aid to Ghana if two former
Guantanamo Bay prisoners who were transferred there escape or return to
terrorism.
The move marks a renewed effort by security-minded lawmakers to
use the power of the purse to effectively pressure other countries considering
taking Guantanamo detainees.
In the case of Ghana, the country earlier this month
accepted two
detainees from Guantanamo Bay, part of the Obama administration’s latest wave
of transfers out of the prison camp. But the senators, in a letter Wednesday to
key committee leaders, warned that Ghana may be ill-equipped to handle the
prisoners.
“The [Ghana] prison system is plagued by decay and mismanagement,”
Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; and Steve
Daines, R-Mont., wrote in the letter.
They said they’re concerned about the government’s “capacity to
hold, monitor and ensure these terrorist detainees do not reengage in terrorism
against the United States and our allies.”
In the letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad
Cochran, R-Miss., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the senators asked that an
upcoming appropriations bill include language cutting aid to Ghana by $10
million per detainee “in the event either of these detainees escapes from
confinement or reengages in terrorism” while in their custody.
The request could pose yet another complication as President Obama
seeks to bring down the number of detainees at Guantanamo and ultimately
shutter the camp, a goal many in Congress oppose. In the process, the
administration has had to deal with countries that don’t typically take terror
detainees, like Ghana.
The inmates in question, Yemeni detainees Mahmoud Omar Mohammed
Bin Atef and Khalid Mohammed Salih al Dhuby, were transferred on Jan. 6.
Bin Atef is an admitted member of the Taliban and fought for Usama
bin Laden, while al Dhuby trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The two inmates were the first of a group of 17 detainees expected
to be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay
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