Oklahoma Lawmakers React to GITMO Deadline Missed

By Dave Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A bold presidential promise has gone unfulfilled. President Obama said one year ago today that he was going to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, a deadline he has clearly missed.

President Obama faced a lot of criticism over his plans to close Guantanamo Bay, and a lot of that came from the Congressional Delegation amid concern some of the terror suspects would be transferred to the United States.

Now, there are new concerns that they could be sent back to their country.

It was the bold promise the president made that angered many in Congress on both sides of the aisle.

"By closing Guantanamo and the president setting a deadline of this January, I thought it was just bad public policy in the first place," Representative Mary Fallin said.

Fallin, a member of the Arms Services Committee, was one of a handful of lawmakers who sent a letter to President Obama, asking that terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay not be moved to Oklahoma. This week, she co-authored legislation asking that GITMO detainees not be returned to their country.

"We are not out of danger as a nation," said Shawnee attorney Terry West. "There is still lots of terrorist activity around the world."

Shawnee attorney Terry West represented one of the suspects, although he never met with him. The Bush Administration sent West's client back to Afghanistan a year later and that's what West took issue with.

"We simply wanted them to be treated, follow the Constitution and follow up with what we said we would do and that is charge them with something and if they're guilty, convict them and send them away," West said.

NEWS 9 Political Analyst Scott Mitchell said it's unlikely that President Obama is focused on the missed GITMO deadline and the potential fallout.

"Everybody's pivoted for this next election, so yeah, he'll be taking some heat from the right on this issue, but I'm not sure that's his biggest problem right now," Mitchell said.

Mitchell believes the biggest issue will be the upcoming terror trials inside U.S. Courts. Friday, the Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force recommended that 36 GITMO detainees face trial in civilian or military courts. It also recommended that 47 others be held indefinitely.