New TV Ad Opposes Closure of Gitmo: MAF Leaders Joined by Families of Victims of 9/11 Attack

WASHINGTON DC – Move America Forward, the nation’s largest grassroots, pro-troop organization, today released a television commercial condemning President Obama’s order to close the camps at Guantanamo Bay.

The new commercial, which was presented at a press conference at the National Press Club, opposes re-locating terrorists to U.S. sites, including Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Camp Pendleton California, and the Navy Brig at Charleston, South Carolina. Citizens are asked to sign a petition at www.moveamericaforward.org opposing Obama’s plans.

 

 

“President Obama doesn’t have plans for the terrorists who have been safely kept at Gitmo. His policy is reckless and dangerous to Americans,” said MAF Chairman Melanie Morgan. “He has talked about sending them back to their home countries or may even bring them to the United States. This is pure madness and totally unnecessary.”

Joining Morgan at the podium were Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), Families of Victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Gold Star mother Debbie Lee.

“President Obama’s decision to shut down Guantanamo Bay could have a devastating impact on our national security and is simply unacceptable,” Inhofe said. “I am working hand in hand with the Oklahoma delegation and through my position on the Senate Armed Services Committee, to prevent these terrorists from coming to my state or any state on American soil.”

Inhofe, on February 3, introduced legislation that would prevent Obama’s Administration from transferring Guantanamo detainees to American soil. Inhofe is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Guantanamo Bay.

“I’m very concerned that the President’s order to close the detention camps is part of a disturbing pattern of risky decisions,” Morgan said. “From restricting interrogation techniques to asking the Pentagon to make huge budget cuts, Obama has clearly demonstrated that he doesn’t know the stakes we face in our war with radical jihadists.”
Move America Forward also visited the terrorist camps at Guantanamo Bay during the Christmas holidays and saw firsthand the conditions of the prisoners and the professionalism of U.S. troops.

“I believe it is important for the American people to know the real value of this installation and its contribution to the security of the United States,” Sen. Inhofe said. “The military detention facilities at GTMO meet the highest international standards and have a fundamental part in protecting the lives of Americans from terrorism.”

Gold Star mom Debbie Lee went to Guantanamo Bay with MAF, and she is dismayed that Obama insists on closing the prison even though he has never even visited the facilities himself.

“My son, Marc Alan Lee, gave his life in Iraq fighting the terrorists over there. Now, President Obama’s policy risks bringing those terrorists here,” Lee said. “It’s dangerous to Americans and our troops; no terrorist should ever have to be captured twice.”
Scores of former Gitmo detainees have already been freed and have returned to terrorism. One of the released prisoners, Said Ali al-Shihri, 35, is believed to have been involved in the bombing of the US Embassy in Yemen that killed an 18-year-old American citizen.

Several 9/11 families also came to show their support including; Debra Burlingame, Hamilton Peterson, Geraldine Davie and Lorraine Beliveau.

Burlingame’s brother, Charles “Chic” Burlingame, was the pilot of the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11. Debra is a member of 911familiesforamerica.org, and is very critical of Obama’s plan to shutter Gitmo. Debra met with President Obama with other families of terror victims earlier this week where Obama tried to explain his reasoning for closing Gitmo and putting the trials to a halt. She was not swayed by the President’s arguments.

“At the meeting, President Obama acknowledged that Gitmo was not like Abu Ghirab. Nevertheless he insisted that the camps at Gitmo had to be shutdown because they were ‘symbols’ to the rest of the world,” revealed Burlingame. “I was disturbed that he recognized this, yet still chose to place world opinion over the truth about Gitmo and our children’s safety.”

The U.S. Senate already passed a resolution in 2007 94-3 stating, “Detainees housed at Guantanamo should not be released into American society, nor should they be transferred stateside into facilities in American communities and neighborhoods.”

“It is frightening that President Obama would ignore the will of the Senate and of the American people,” MAF chairman Morgan said. “What our Commander in Chief should do is overturn his previous order and change his focus to protecting America from the very grave threats to our safety, not creating new ones.”

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