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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama can close Guantanamo
At his news conference on Tuesday, President Barack Obama for the first time in years spoke about the controversial detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which he had promised to close when he first took office.
Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe, Obama said, responding to a reporters question. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed. He went on to acknowledge that more than half the detainees have been officially cleared for release.
As if to forestall the obvious next question then why hasnt he closed it? the president blamed the prisons continued existence on Congress. Congress, he said, determined that they would not let us close it.
Though Congress has made closing the prison difficult, Obama is the one who put his legacy on the line by ordering its closure within days of assuming office. Its still in his power to follow through.
In his remarks, Obama began to acknowledge this, pledging to examine every option that we have administratively to try to deal with this issue. He actually has many such options.
The National Defense Authorization Act that Congress passed last year specifically allows the president to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo if the defense secretary certifies that its in the interest of U.S. national security and that measures will be taken to substantially mitigate any risks they may pose.
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Much more: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/05/01/obama-can-close-guantanamo/
Close it now!
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)He's never wanted to close it. He only ever proposed moving it to Illinois. He still asserts the authority to detain people indefinitely, without trial, on his authority alone.
treestar
(82,383 posts)No doubt this is another one of those interpretations twisted by amateurs that something is really that simple.
Where would they go? Which US prison? If Yemen doesn't take them, what, do we drop them off in Somalia?
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)However, the first steps can be taken immediately. He wants Congressional approval so they have his back. Guess what? They will never have his back.
We have held people without charges, trials, or anything else that applies. They aren't even treated as POWs that the US has held.
Some of them will probably die from this hunger strike. I have no sympathy for terrorists, but I have an ethical line that demands these people be given treatment consistent with the minimum values of the US. I also have immense sympathy for those who don't belong there.
Go ahead and continue to make excuses. This President has claimed the power to drone who he chooses from a "book" prepare by the CIA and gawd knows who based on gawd knows what WITHOUT OVERSIGHT. He can damn well extend that dubious power reach to do something else which appears he has legal right to do.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)but as the President, the military takes it's orders from him. Congress be damned.
Drone strikes in Lybia, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, etc.
GITMO is a military facility and under the President's direct command, last I heard the Joint Chiefs took their orders from the President, NOT Congress.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)If he had a care in the world about closing that base he could do it tomorrow,
bigtree
(85,977 posts). . . the issue involved is one of repatriation to their respective countries. That would be in the form of a full release or a release into custody. There are MYRIADS of issues surrounding such repatriations of the over 100 individuals detained and it's just nonsense to come on here with a cut and paste of a couple of paragraphs of an article and pretend it represents Obama's ability to make this happen.
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)This is one article I have read.
There has been more than ample time to iron out the details. He can begin the process with those who do have countries to go to.
I don't expect them to open the gates and turn them loose willy-nilly. Beginning the process and put someone in charge TO KEEP IT MOVING. Those actions will speak louder than anything hat can be said.
Myriads of issues have ways of appearing an disappearing depending on the subject at hand.
bigtree
(85,977 posts). . . and there have been events and setbacks in some of the main countries of origin which have hindered the president's ability.
Just standing on one side (I believe the President's is precisely the same side that you're advocating from) and demanding that he act doesn't begin to cover the details involved.
For one instance, do we send these prisoners back to a country where they are certain to face torture, just to clear our books? Just one of the many considerations . . . Our nation's tenuous relationship with Yemen is another.
The delay is neither deliberate or easily surmountable. There are daunting logistical difficulties, as well as the political and security considerations.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Lost his to-do list in the couch cushions?
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Obama has several options, although it could take a combination of several to clear the camp.
PUT SOMEBODY IN CHARGE
In January, the State Department reassigned the special envoy who had been in charge of trying to persuade countries to take Guantanamo inmates approved for release, Daniel Fried, and did not replace him. That was widely seen as a signal that Obama was giving up on closing the prison any time soon.
Fried arranged for the transfer out of scores of prisoners, but the departures slowed to a crawl after Congress imposed restrictions on them. White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday the administration was considering naming a senior diplomat to renew the focus on repatriation or transferring detainees.
Christopher Anders, the senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said such a "point person" was sorely needed as a first step to manage the administration's effort - but that the person should be from the White House. "For the last three years at the White House, it's been like no one home" on Guantanamo, he said.
USE EXCEPTIONS IN LAW TO LET PRISONERS GO
Obama has blamed Congress for interfering with his plan to close Guantanamo. Starting in 2011, Congress began restricting transfers out, saying the Defense Department first had to certify a number of things, including that the destination country was not a state sponsor of terrorism and would take action to make sure the individual would not threaten the United States.
Starting last year, Congress let some restrictions be waived if it was in the "national security interests" of the United States. Obama has not used the waiver or certification provisions.
"For the past two years, our committee has worked with our Senate counterparts to ensure that the certifications necessary to transfer detainees overseas are reasonable.
The administration has never certified a single transfer," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard McKeon, a Republican, said this week.
The White House could have pushed harder for officials at the Pentagon to process certifications, said the ACLU's Anders.
Wells Dixon, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York organization that has represented a number of Guantanamo prisoners, said Obama could order the Pentagon to begin certifying transfers out. But he also noted potential risks for the president. "There's no political upside" if Obama certifies that a prisoner can leave and then that prisoner later attacks U.S. interests, Dixon said.
SEND PRISONERS BACK TO YEMEN
Congress has prohibited the transfer of detainees to countries with troubled security situations. But the United States could decide that new Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour has taken adequate measures against al Qaeda and made the country stable enough to resume repatriations to Yemen.
Repatriations were halted in 2010 after a man trained by militants in Yemen tried to blow up a U.S.-bound plane in 2009.
Of the 86 prisoners cleared for transfer or release, 56 are Yemenis. The Yemeni government says it wants them home and is building a facility to hold them for rehabilitation.
That option also has a potential danger - if a repatriated Yemeni eventually attacked the United States or its interests.
USE THE PERIODIC REVIEW BOARD PROCESS
Two years ago, Obama signed an executive order establishing extra review procedures for Guantanamo detainees to determine if continued detention were warranted, but the Periodic Review Boards have not been used.
This option looks fairly simple, since it involves carrying out the president's own executive order. But there may have been no rush to establish more reviews boards since prisoners cleared by earlier review boards are still being held.
USE COURT RULINGS TO GET PEOPLE OUT
Dixon suggested the administration could use court rulings to help get prisoners released. Two members of China's Muslim Uighur minority were resettled in El Salvador in April 2012, four years after a U.S. District Court in Washington ruled there were no grounds to hold them.
When prisoners challenge their detention in federal court, the government could decide not to contest the case, paving the way for a court order effecting the prisoner's release, said Dixon. He said that could happen in any of the more than 100 detainee "habeus corpus" cases filed in federal court.
Obama could instruct the Justice Department to stop contesting those cases.
SEND PRISONERS OUT IN A PRISONER EXCHANGE
The United States tried to work out a deal to transfer five senior Taliban prisoners back to Afghanistan in return for U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Berghdal, who has been a prisoner of Taliban militants since 2009.
The talks were suspended last year. But there will be pressure to return the Afghan prisoners when the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan ends in 2014.
This option would depend on how relations evolve with Afghanistan. But the Taliban prisoner release plan also met strong resistance among some members of Congress, especially Republicans, who might object if it resurfaces.