Will anyone disagree with this? President Obama deserves harsh criticism over the Gitmo horror

[ProSense]

65. ACLU: Urgent White House Action Needed to Avert Guantánamo Human Rights Crisis

Urgent White House Action Needed to Avert Guantánamo Human Rights Crisis

By Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project & Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program

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Guantánamo was not a problem that President Obama chose, but it's a problem he now owns and must solve. When the President took office, he promised to close Guantánamo within a year. As he moves further away from that promise, the futures of the detainees appear more hopeless to them. General John F. Kelly, head of the U.S. Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee last month about the Guantanamo prisoners, "They had great optimism that Guantánamo would be closed. They were devastated, apparently, when the president backed off."

An official from the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose delegates recently visited the prison and spoke to some of the hunger strikers, told the Russia Today news site:

What I can tell you is that from our observations those tensions and this anguish that the detainees are experiencing are clearly related to the lack of a clear legal framework in Guantanamo. This has now been having a real impact for detainees for some time – on their mental health, on their emotional health.

And who can blame them? Sixty-five prisoners were released in the first two years of President Obama's first term, but that number plunged to just five during 2011 and 2012 combined, largely because of irresponsible restrictions imposed by Congress in an attempt to prevent Guantanamo from closing. But the Obama administration is also at fault. It has shown no signs of progress towards transferring the 86 detainees cleared for release, which it can still do despite Congressional restrictions. Instead, it recently closed the State Department office designated to work on prisoner transfers. Six prisoners face military commission trials; the Obama administration has slated over 40 of the rest for indefinite detention. It is no wonder that for at least some of the men at Guantanamo, death may appear the only way out. It need not be that way.

Today, the ACLU and a coalition of organizations are calling on President Obama to take two immediate steps to avert the human rights crisis:

• First, the president should authorize the secretary of defense to use existing certification procedures to repatriate and resettle abroad all prisoners who have been cleared for release.
  
  
• Second, the president must appoint a point person in the administration who is responsible for leading the effort to close Guantánamo.

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http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-human-rights-prisoners-rights/urgent-white-house-action-needed-avert

Congress banning the use of funds is a huge problem.