Dana Rohrbacher: Talk of Transfering Guantanamo Bay Detainees "Disgusts Me"

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Paul Lewis, the Department of Defense's Special Envoy for Guantanamo Detention Closure, revealed that Americans have been killed by detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Regarding the number of Americans killed, Mr. Lewis was unable to answer due to the matter being classified, and didn't relate whether the Americans were killed during the Bush or Obama administration. Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, visibly frustrated, grilled the witness and offered a strong defense as to why the detention facility should remain open, especially in the face of renewed terrorist attacks in Europe.

DANA ROHRABACHER: Let me just suggest that this idea that people throughout the world are so upset with us for keeping a significant number of people who are captured as part of terrorist units and incarcerating them in Guantanamo...that that is such a horror story, that it's a recruitment vehicle. That's what the president is telling us. That's what the administration is telling us.

Let me suggest if that is true, our European allies and some others believe that taking these hardened murderers who murder men, women and children and incarcerating them on Cuba or anywhere else. Let me suggest that that attitude of our European friends may well be changing in the next six months or so when they realize that the slaughter that's taking place in Paris and now in Brussels is part of an international movement to destroy Western civilization and replace it with a caliphate. And when they understand that, my guess is that view that actually it's so bad to keep these people in prison will change as well.

Let me ask you this: we say that about 30 percent or whatever the figure that have been released have returned to the terrorist activities. How many lives have been lost by those terrorists who went back to their terrorist activities?

PAUL LEWIS: I can talk about that in a classified setting

ROHRBACHER: Classified?

LEWIS: Yes, sir.

ROHRBACHER: Is it over 10?

KELLY: Sir, what I can tell you is, unfortunately there have been Americans that have died because of Gitmo detainees.

ROHRBACHER: How many Americans have to die, how many people in Brussels or Paris have to die, civilians...what's the threshold at that point, well, maybe we will keep them under control on Gitmo?

LEWIS: Sir, when anybody dies, it's a tragedy and we don't want anybody to die because we transfer detainees. However, it's the best judgment, and the considered judgment, of this administration and the previous administration the risk of keeping Gitmo open is outweighed...that we should close Gitmo...

ROHRBACHER: So that innocent people who are going to lose their lives because of this, they're just part of the equation?

KELLY: No, sir.

ROHRBACHER: I'm sorry. I want to tell you this much. As far as i'm concerned, if one child is saved because she would have been blown up by someone who's been released, its better to keep all 90 of those people in Gitmo.

This idea that the people of the world, they are so upset with us, it's a recruiting vehicle, that we have kept terrorists who murder innocent people in Gitmo. Well, you know what? I think the bigger recruiting tool today is when our government, especially this administration, is perceived as being weak. I think terrorists are recruited not because we've held other terrorists in prison, but because we look like that we are weak and cannot deal with the challenge.

This disgusts me. Thank you very much.