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Tag: guantanamo bay closure
Obama Plans To Transfer 18 Guantanamo Prisoners Before Leaving Office

Obama Plans To Transfer 18 Guantanamo Prisoners Before Leaving Office

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama plans to transfer as many as 18 more prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison before leaving office, a source close to the matter said, further shrinking the inmate population but still far short of meeting his longtime pledge to close the facility.

The Obama administration notified Congress it intends to send the detainees, nearly a third of the remaining 59 held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, the source said.

The notification came just before this week’s deadline, which by law requires Obama to give Congress 30 days’ warning before moving prisoners out of Guantanamo. It will be the last in a flurry of recent transfers aimed at leaving as few inmates as possible for the next administration.

But the transfer plan – first reported by the New York Times – also signifies that despite Obama’s pledge dating back to the 2008 presidential campaign to close the facility, it is all but certain to be turned over to Trump. He has vowed to keep it open and “load it up with some bad dudes.”

The administration wants to move out 17 or 18 of the 22 prisoners who have been declared eligible for transfer in parole-style hearings, the source said, while cautioning that it was still possible one or more of the countries could back out.

If the transfers go according to plan, 41 or 42 prisoners would be left at Guantanamo, including 10 alleged plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks charged in military tribunals. The others have not been charged but are deemed too dangerous to release.

The White House and Pentagon declined to comment.

Obama, who inherited 242 detainees when he took office and has called it a “recruiting tool” for terrorists, has slowly whittled the number down to the lowest since shortly after his predecessor George W. Bush opened the facility to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Under Bush, the prison came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture.

Obama’s efforts to close the prison have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the U.S. mainland. Foot-dragging by Pentagon officials has also been blamed for slowing repatriation and transfers to third countries.

Administration officials have made clear that Obama has no intention of resorting to the legally risky option of using executive action to close the prison before leaving office.

Critics of Guantanamo, however, appeared to hold out hope.

“While welcome, these transfers are not nearly sufficient,” said Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA’s director of Security with Human Rights. “We are demanding and expecting bold moves from President Obama to finally shutter the detention camp at Guantanamo in his final days. He must not leave it to Trump.”

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Dan Grebler)

IMAGE: The front gate of Camp Delta is shown at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in this September 4, 2007 file photo.  REUTERS/Joe Skipper/Files

Obama Signs Defense, Budget Bills Into Law

Obama Signs Defense, Budget Bills Into Law

Kailua (United States) (AFP) – President Barack Obama signed into law the compromise U.S. budget bill recently negotiated by feuding lawmakers and a massive defense measure that takes a step toward ultimate closure of Guantanamo.

After signing the legislation while vacationing in Hawaii with his family, Obama praised the National Defense Authorization Act for allowing accelerated repatriation of terror suspects from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“I am encouraged that this act provides the executive greater flexibility to transfer Guantanamo detainees abroad, and look forward to working with the Congress to take the additional steps needed to close the facility,” Obama said in a statement.

The new law still forbids transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States, a restriction Obama opposes.

“The continued operation of the facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners and emboldening violent extremists,” the president said.

Representative Buck McKeon, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee and is opposed to shuttering the prison, warned that “we can’t turn dangerous terrorists loose on blind faith.”

“Before we can consider that step, the president must first tell us how he would deal with those detainees who are too dangerous to release but cannot be tried, what standards he would use to transfer those he can and how he would deal with new terrorist captures and those dangerous terrorists still held in Afghanistan,” McKeon added.

The bill assures $552.1 billion in military spending, as well as $80.7 billion for overseas contingency operations, namely the war in Afghanistan.

It allows for a one percent raise for military personnel and requires reforms in the way the Pentagon handles some sexual assaults in the military.

The broader budget agreement also signed by the president lays out top-line spending limits for 2014 and 2015, and erases $63 billion in arbitrary spending cuts that were to take effect January 1.

Critically, it reduces the threat of a government shutdown after January 15, the date by which Democrats and Republicans from both chambers will have to craft a series of spending bills under the new limit.

Failure to do so would risk another shutdown like the one that paralyzed Washington for 16 days in October, but this month’s modest deal makes it far easier for lawmakers to negotiate appropriations.

The bill increases the $967 billion cap for 2013 spending to $1.012 trillion next year and $1.014 trillion in 2015, and reduces the deficit by about $23 billion over 10 years.

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski