Obama Team Disagree on Gitmo Detainees

A day before President Barack Obama lays out his vision for closing Guantanamo Bay prison, two of his top officials Wednesday offered sharply different views about bringing the prisoners onto U.S. soil.

The Pentagon No. 3 official, Michele Flournoy, said the only way the United States can get European nations to accept some of the 240 detainees at the military prison is by agreeing to bring some of them to the United States as well.

But FBI Director Robert Mueller warned Congress that releasing some of the Gitmo prisoners in the United States would raise concerns that they might radicalize others, raise money

for terrorist groups, or carry out attacks.

“The concerns we have about individuals who may support terrorism being in the United States run from concerns about providing financing, radicalizing others," Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee. There is also “the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States.”

Mueller also raised concerns about bringing prisoners to the U.S. and holding them in maximum security prisons, noting that in some gang leaders have run their organizations while in prison. “It would depend on the circumstances,” Mueller said about imprisoning Guantanamo Bay inmates in the U.S., he added. - Politico Story