Biden Reportedly Making Moves To Begin Closing Guantanamo Bay--And Trying To Avoid Obama's Mistakes

[brooklynite]

Source: Forbes

TOPLINE President Biden has quietly launched efforts to begin closing Guantanamo Bay in pursuit of his goal to shutter the controversial U.S. military prison in Cuba by the end of his term, NBC News reported Wednesday.

People familiar with discussions about Guantanamo’s future told NBC News that Biden is taking a different approach than former President Barack Obama, who was stymied by congressional opposition from closing the prison for suspected terrorists. 

Instead of an aggressive push to close the facility initially planned by Biden officials, the new administration is hoping to quietly transfer out the handful of remaining terrorism suspects held there to foreign countries, according to the report.

The Biden administration will then sign an executive order directing the facility’s closure and will attempt to persuade Congress to permit the transfer of the rest of the prisoners to U.S.-based detention facilities, the anonymous sources told NBC News.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/06/09/biden-reportedly-making-moves-to-begin-closing-guantanamo-bay-and-trying-to-avoid-obamas-mistakes/?sh=702bd5e45904

[greenjar_01]

1. As Commander-in-Chief, Biden can order all US military to immediately abandon the post

Trump established court precedent that the Commander-in-Chief can also divert slated funds from one project to another based solely on whether he or she deems there to be an emergency regardless of the wishes or funding specifications of the Congress(border wall rulings). Therefore, Biden can immediately order all Guantanamo funding to cover the emergency housing crisis he deems to be happening among non-deployed US personnel (i.e., on US bases).

Detainees will revert to the responsibility of the Red Cross, avoiding the moronic laws about not transferring them to the US.

That's it. No more extra-judicial detention.

It's not that hard. If there's going to be an imperial Presidency, use it for good.

I mean, Khalid Sheik Mohammed then goes back to Peshawar and they get to handle him, but so what?

[SeattleVet]

2. Noooo! Keep it open and available to hold the tRumpanzee insurrectionists...

and the people that planted the seeds and encouraged the behavior. (In other words, the entire tRump family and all of their associates, and any of the congresscritters that voted against impeachment and the January 6th Commission!)

[BunnyMcGee]

6. You beat me to posting this same thought

Great Minds and all that...

[Sherman A1]

9. Precisely

My thoughts as well.

[Red Mountain]

3. I'd rather keep the base

and close the prison. It was conceived of as an end run against our laws and international laws regarding pows.

The Cheney era should die with it.

[ShazamIam]

4. Obama has been out of office 5 years now, but Forbes can't resist another dig. Obama's "mistake,"

is spelled, Republican Congress.

[Paladin]

5. Great move. Get it done, Mr. President. (nt)

[certainot]

7. well, since limbaugh's not there to sell club gitmo t-shirts and coffee mugs it might

work

[AZLD4Candidate]

8. How about the backlog of American citizens filing to bring their spouses to the country, Joe?

Does the American government like separating Americans from their families?

Some thing are more important. . .reuniting families separated at the border and reunited families with the spouses seems to be more important.

Closing Gitmo could be an act of the Commander-in-Chief. Reuniting families could be an act of the Chief of State. Both could be done quickly if you felt it was important.

If I sound bitter, I am a bit bitter, Mr. President. Your CBP refused to allow my foreign wife to rejoin me, subjected her to anti-Chinese bigotry, treated her worse than we treat inmates in prison, then sent her home even though she has a husband in Arizona waiting to start her green card. There are 500,000 Americans in my position being separated from their families.

No one's family should ever be separated, Mr. President.