With the U.S. Army planning to try Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for desertion, a Florida congressman focused his fire on the Obama administration exchanging terrorist prisoners this week.
U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who served in the Navy, was a military prosecutor and currently chairs the U.S. House National Security Subcommittee despite just starting his second term in Congress, slammed the Obama administration on Thursday for negotiating to release Bergdahl in exchange for five captured terrorists.
"President Obama's release of five seasoned Taliban terrorists harmed the national security of the United States, DeSantis said on Wednesday.
The Obama administration deceptively lionized the service record of Bowe Bergdahl as a way to distract from the gravity of releasing such hardened terrorists, and it was the outcry from Bergdahl's unit members that demonstrated the problems with the Obama narrative, DeSantis added. Deserting during wartime is an extremely serious offense and Bergdahl's conduct needs to be judged at a court-martial."
DeSantis continued focusing on Obamas policies in regard to releasing terrorists on Thursday when he teamed up with U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to bring out the Guantanamo Bay Recidivism Prevention Act. The bill would look to cut back on terrorists currently held in that facility in Cuba and would cut foreign aid if a country received a detainee from the Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay on or after Feb. 1, 2015, and the detainee subsequently appeared on the administrations detainee recidivist report. DeSantis was stationed at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center when he was active duty.
Both DeSantis and Cotton took aim at Obamas policies in regard to releasing terrorists on Thursday.
President Obama continues to put our nations security at risk by releasing terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, DeSantis said. A recent report has revealed that nearly 30 percent of released detainees return to jihad. This is the dangerous, but foreseeable, outcome of the administrations policy. Congress must take action to protect the homeland and prevent recidivism by holding detainee-receiving nations accountable."
The detainees at Guantanamo Bay are hardened terrorists and their release puts U.S. lives and our national-security interests at risk, said Cotton. Congressman DeSantis and I are committed to ensuring Congress does everything in its power to stop recidivism.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
