Hatch says Guantanamo should keep detainees

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says it is "ridiculous" that President Barack Obama has ordered closure within a year of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, and it may attract terrorist attacks if he sends the enemy combatants now held there to the mainland United States.

"Bringing these detainees to the continental United States is tantamount to injecting a virus into a healthy body," Hatch told the Senate in a long speech Thursday.

"Removing these detainees from a secure military facility with an airport, a highly trained security force, a secure infrastructure and located on an island outside the continental United States is, in my opinion, reckless," he said.

Hatch said many of the combatants once held there and released have returned to fight against the United States, including a former detainee now identified as the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Yemen — who is believed to have planned an attack on a U.S. embassy there last year that killed 10 people.

Hatch said 245 enemy combatants are still held at Guantanamo, and said U.S. prisons are full and have no room for them. Also, despite well-publicized early problems, Hatch said recent reports indicate that treatment there is now humane and conditions exceed those of typical U.S. prisons.

Hatch said some Democrats have suggested moving detainees to the Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colo., designed for the nation's worst criminals.

"The capacity of this facility is 490 beds. The current populations is 471. The bureau (of prisons) tries to ensure that this facility is never at full capacity in case of emergency transfers," he said.

Hatch added that other federal high-security prisons were designed to hold 13,448 prisoners but now hold 20,291.

"We are already overcrowded in high-security facilities by almost 7,000 prisoners," he said.

With a new ordered build-up in Afghanistan, it is likely U.S. troops will capture even more people who need detention, Hatch said.

"I think I'm making an overwhelming case that it's ridiculous not to use that facility," he said. "It is perfectly capable, offshore, on an island where we have all the security that we need, when we don't have the capacity to care for them in this country and shouldn't want to anyway.

"I would ask the president to rethink his deadline of closing Guantanamo less than 12 months from now. This is a usable facility that has merit and operational worthiness," Hatch said.

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