WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today released the following statement regarding President Obama’s Administration’s release of five Yemeni terrorist detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp late last night:

“The release of five Guantanamo detainees this week is outrageous when this Administration cannot be bothered to show up in Paris to stand with the world against terrorism. The Obama Administration is also simultaneously attempting to rewrite history by refusing to use the term ‘extreme Islam,’” Roberts said. “We have an extreme and murderous ideology on our hands, especially in Yemen and until this President is willing to be the leader we need against this global threat, our nation is at risk.

“That is why I was proud to cosponsor a bill yesterday to stop this Administration from further detainee transfers to ensure Al Qaeda, ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and other extremist groups are impeded, where possible, from recruiting more fighters. We face recidivism rates at over 30 percent. Now is the time to put national security above politics.

“Just yesterday the FBI thwarted an ISIL inspired terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. This act of terror, coupled with the terrorist attacks in Paris should be convincing arguments to halt the transfer of detainees.”

Senator Roberts cosponsored S. 165, The Detaining Terrorists to Protect America Act introduced by U.S. Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) John McCain (R-Ariz.) Richard Burr (R-NC) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that prohibits for two years the transfer to the United States of detainees designated medium- or high-risk. It would also ban transfers to Yemen, where dozens of the 127 remaining Guantánamo detainees are from.

Senator Roberts has long fought the transfer of detainees to the mainland. He fought the Obama Administration and stopped a plan to consider housing detainees at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas