In another example of the Obama administration’s glaring lack of transparency, the search for new locations to move Guantanamo Bay detainees was secretly funded by American taxpayers.
The Pentagon was ordered by the Obama White House to conduct a search of “possible Guantanamo detainee relocation” sites in several U.S. cities using taxpayer funds, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
This direct violation of federal law has led to the launching of a congressional inquiry to find how the taxpayer funds were authorized and by whom in the Obama administration, according to a formal letter to the Defense Department sent by lawmakers on Monday and obtained by the Free Beacon.
According to the Free Beacon:
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt informed lawmakers in a letter late last month that he had discovered documentation showing the Obama administration spent more than $25,000 to scout potential relocation sites in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Charleston, South Carolina, and Florence, Colorado.
Schmidt obtained this information from the Pentagon only after threatening to sue the administration for its refusal to produce documentation on the matter.
“While the amount of money is relatively small—a total of$25,909.53, of which $7,687.20 was spent on the site survey for Fort Leavenworth—the admission raises the concern that the Department of Defense violated the law by knowingly expending these funds while federal law enacted by Congress expressly prohibited the agency from doing so,” Schmidt informed lawmakers in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Free Beacon.
Concerns have been raised in Congress that the president will make good on his promise to close the prison camp despite laws that prohibit the transfer of the terror detainees.
“Americans, and particularly Kansans, understand that President Obama’s desire to bring hardened terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. would make our country less safe,” Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, told the Free Beacon. “In completing these site surveys, the Department of Defense followed neither the letter, nor the spirit of American law. I am proud to stand with my colleagues in condemning this illegal action and encouraging all states to pursue appropriate legal action.”
In Monday’s letter, Pompeo, along with fellow Kansas Republican Reps. Lynn Jenkins and Kevin Yoder, demanded that the Pentagon explain why it broke the law.
“Rather than spending zero dollars on site surveys, as mandated by U.S. law, the Department of Defense has spent over $25,000,” they wrote. “This is following neither the letter, nor the spirit of the law.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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