Joe Pitts, February 6, 2009

As one of his first moves as President, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order calling for the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to be closed within a year. This had been one of his campaign promises as a candidate and he was quick to pay back the liberal wing that had turned out so fervently to get him elected.

However, Mr. Obama is now President and not a candidate. His promises must now be turned into actual policies. Unfortunately, the order he signed regarding Guantanamo looks much more like a vague campaign promise than a real government policy. The reality is there are some very dangerous terrorists being held at Guantanamo who want to bring harm to the United States in any way possible. The President included no plan in his executive order that explains what will be done with these terrorists.

The key question is where do you put these terrorists if they are not at the facility at Guantanamo? Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you release them back to the battlefield where they were captured? Which countries will take on the responsibility of repatriating and rehabilitating these men?

My fellow Pennsylvania Representative, Jack Murtha, said he would have no problem bringing them to his district. I don’t know about his constituents, but I know mine would not feel the same way.

The fact is, most Americans do not want terrorists brought into their communities. There is no good reason to willingly bring these dangerous men into the United States. I do not want them in Pennsylvania, or anywhere in the United States for that matter.

Bringing these terrorists onto U.S. soil would provide them additional rights under the U.S. Constitution. These are enemy combatants. They do not wear the uniform of a foreign nation. They are terrorists. They kill innocent civilians in the name of their radical ideology. Yet they are not civilian criminals, and our civilian justice system is not equipped to handle their cases. Our troops do not read Miranda rights in the middle of the battle field. They are not trained to collect physical evidence for use in a U.S. civilian court. These men should be tried by the military in military tribunals, not civilian courts. Yet Obama has instead halted these very tribunals that have taken years to construct.

Though the Pentagon has acknowledged some of the detainees no longer pose a threat to the United States, many of these men are hardened terrorists who wish nothing more than destruction upon America. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks is one such man. His trial by way of military tribunal was already moving forward. Instead, Mr. Obama’s Executive Order halted all such trials, even though Mr. Mohammed himself has objected to further delays.

Just a day after the President signed the order, the New York Times published a disturbing article about Said Ali al-Shihri, a Yemeni terrorist who had been released from Guantanamo back into the custody of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis accepted custody in 2007 and put him through a terrorist "rehabilitation program."

Upon completion of the program, he disappeared from his home in Saudi Arabia and is now suspected of involvement in a September 2008 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Yemen’s capital.

Obama’s plan to close down Guantanamo in twelve months does not explain how he plans to deal with the nearly 100 other Yemeni nationals held there. Will they be repatriated to Yemen, a poor and thus far unreliable partner in the fight against terrorism? Will they be sent somewhere else? Which government will take responsibility not just for their rehabilitation, but also for their actions afterward? What is going to keep Said Ali al-Shihri’s return to terrorism from happening again?

The Guantanamo issue is complicated with real consequences for the United States and our allies. This is not the kind of situation that lends itself well to sound bites or one-line campaign promises.

Guantanamo Bay was certainly not of Obama’s making, but then again many of the pressing issues before him were not either. Now, however, it is his responsibility as President of the United States. It will require a far more serious and sophisticated response than the one he offered during his first week in office. The American people deserve more specific plans to address these pressing issues.

Congressman Joe Pitts, a Republican, represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, which includes Lancaster County and parts of Chester County and Berks County.