Ayotte releases Guantanamo Bay detainees report

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) released an unclassified report on Wednesday summarizing the terrorist activities and affiliations of the 107 Guantanamo Bay detainees who were detained there as of Nov. 25, 2015.

“The Obama administration promised transparency, but this new report shows why they’ve been so reluctant to uphold that promise when it comes to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay,” Ayotte said. “The more Americans understand about the terrorist activities and affiliations of these detainees, the more they will oppose the administration’s terribly misguided plans to release them. The preeminent responsibility of the federal government is to keep the American people safe, yet the Obama administration’s misguided commitment to releasing detainees in order to eventually close Guantanamo unacceptably gambles with our nation’s safety.”

Ayotte said that 93 percent of the individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay had been assessed as a high-risk threat for a return to terrorism. Ayotte said that her report provides the American people with a consolidated, unclassified source of information regarding the dangerous terrorists at Guantanamo Bay who the administration released or plans to release soon.

Prior to Ayotte’s report, the only specific information typically released by the Department of Defense to the public was the detainee’s name and the name of the country to which they would be transferred.

Ayotte is a member of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services.