WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) should include declassification of detainees transfer security assurances in its Guantanamo legislation, US Senator John McCain said on Thursday.
“Enemy combatants, posing risk to the United States of America, members of al-Qaeda, when they’re being transferred, how do you assure the American people, if they are not being incarcerated again, that they won’t reengage,” McCain said. “Since we are going to mark up legislation on this issue next week, declassification of that information, I think could be a part of that legislation.”
Senator McCain, who has been calling to close the Guantanamo detention facility for many years, said it is basic information that US people need to know.
The Guantanamo Bay prison was opened in 2002 in the wake of 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. Since then, the prison has been repeatedly criticized by human rights advocates citing inhumane conditions of confinement, including torture.
In 2009, Obama issued an executive order to review the status of all individuals imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and to shut down the prison. The number of detainees has nearly been cut in half since 2009 but the facility is still open, with 122 detainees remaining imprisoned at Guantanamo.
