Citing 'Tropical Breezes,' Sessions Defends Keeping Guantanamo Open

By Paul Kane

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) today defended the continued detention of al-Qaeda prisoners at the military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, calling it a "logical" site that also provides inmates with "tropical breezes."

Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, supports the bipartisan effort to withhold funds sought by the Obama administration to close the controversial facility. The House is expected to approve tomorrow, by a wide margin, a $96 billion war funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan that does not include the $80 million President Obama requested to close down the detention facility. The Senate Appropriations Committee is also considering a version of the legislation that does not automatically provide the prison-closing funds.

Sessions, who is also a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said he has visited the site and found it to be completely acceptable as a facility for the 240 alleged terrorists there. Transferring the prisoners to a continental U.S. site would not result in any better conditions for the prisoners, and keeping them at such a remote location makes it almost impossible for anyone to break them out, Sessions said.

"They wouldn't be treated any better in the United States, and they wouldn't have the tropical breezes blowing through," Sessions said.

The International Red Cross has conducted interviews with roughly 2,000 prisoners who have come through the Guantanamo Bay site, issuing reports that have raised frequent questions about the medical conditions of the detainees and their access to lawyers.