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Gitmo Closure: One Battle Obama Will Lose
The president meets an insurmountable stumbling block.
February 25, 2016
Ari Lieberman
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He claims that continued maintenance of Guantanamo harms partnerships with U.S. allies and that the issue of Guantanamo continuously arises in talks with world leaders who express angst over its existence. Obama was careful not to divulge which world leaders he was referring to but we can speculate. Perhaps the anguish came from the corrupt and tyrannical leaders of the House of Saud. That would be somewhat comical. Or maybe it was Obama’s good pal Erdogan of Turkey, whose nation has the dubious distinction of jailing and detaining more journalists than China or Iran. The United States does not need to be lectured by despots.
Lastly, Obama claims that Gitmo runs “contrary to our values” and, “is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of the rule of law.” I’m not really sure what he means by this argument. The detainees at Guantanamo are fed, clothed and otherwise treated humanely and to the extent possible, their religious beliefs are accommodated. Their treatment on U.S. soil would be no different.
Throughout his term of office, Obama has released or transferred nearly 150 Guantanamo detainees. Five high-level detainees were released in a blatantly illegal prisoner exchange for disgraced U.S. army deserter, Bowe Bergdahl. Of concern, is the rate of recidivism and many of those released have either joined or are suspected of joining entities that are hostile to the United States.
Moreover, transfer of high-level detainees to the U.S. mainland, even if legal would create additional security headaches and would impose an additional burden on the states that house them. Those facilities would also create an attractive target for terrorists. Guantanamo conversely, is on an island, completely secure from such threats.
Polls consistently show that the American people are dead-set against Obama’s plan to nix Guantanamo and by wide margins. But even if Obama could somehow sway the populace, he would still face significant legal hurdles to enforcing his convoluted agenda. Indeed, both Secretary of State Ash Carter and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have acknowledged that under current law, Obama’s plan could not be implemented without congressional approval.
But this president has demonstrated a penchant for conducting himself in the most unscrupulous manner. On everything ranging from the Affordable Care Act to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Obama has lied, cajoled, bullied and otherwise circumvented the law to ram his agenda down the America’s throat. With respect to Guantanamo, the White House has already refused to rule out unilateral action to enforce closure of the facility. But as indicated by Obama’s own high-level cabinet members, this is one showdown that the president cannot hope to win without congressional approval, and that prospect seems highly unlikely.
Gitmo Closure: One Battle Obama Will Lose
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