(Defense One) – The Obama administration
intends to transfer up to 10 detainees from the Guantanamo detention
center to other countries this month, a senior defense official told Defense
One. These would be the first since transfers came to a pregnant pause
in January.
“You’re likely to see some progress in June,”
the defense official said Wednesday. “I just talked to the National Security
Council and State [Department], so we can say maybe up to 10 — no specific
timeframe, but in the near future. And then we’re actively engaged with a
number of countries in additional negotiations regarding the 57 that are
eligible. But sometime this summer, maybe June, up to 10.”
Of the prison’s 122 detainees, 57 have been
cleared for transfer to other countries by the Pentagon as part of an
interagency review.
Last year, the Obama administration sped up
transfers in a race to empty the detention center before the Republican-led
Congress could block attempts to close it. Those transfers came to a halt in
January. In April, the Washington Post reported they might start again,
and today, the official told Defense One that some June
transfers are likely.
These would be the first prisoners to leave
Guantanamo under new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. In February, he replaced
Chuck Hagel, who clashed with the administration over his recalcitrance to
approve transfers. Ultimately, Hagel transferred 44 Guantanamo detainees — more
than half of those in the weeks before he stepped down in November. Still, that
was ten times more than his predecessor, Leon Panetta, who transferred
just four.
Carter wants to close Guantanamo. “He has also
said that he wants to take a holistic approach,” the official said. “So he
wants to focus on the 57 who are cleared for transfer, but he wants to see what
we’re doing with the rest of those. So he’s thinking about all 122, not just
the 57.”
The official said Carter was working hard on
the issue. “I think it’s fair to say he’s fully engaged in all things
Guantanamo — transfers, dealing with the Senate and the House and the Hill,
talking with the White House on a regular basis,” the official said.
For Carter and others in the Obama
administration, the official said, “There has been a lot of oversight and
follow-up on the Hill, explaining why a specific transfer meets the statute;
why somebody, who hypothetically is in Guantanamo because they’re not a choir
boy, that threat can be substantially mitigated.”
On Wednesday, the Senate began considering the
2016 defense authorization bill, or NDAA, which over the years has become
the main battleground for the fight to keep or close the prison.
Both existing versions of House and
Senate NDAA would extend current restrictions on transferring
prisoners to the United States, and restore stricter provisions stripped out in
past years. In some cases, they would also add new obstacles, essentially
blocking many of the third-party transfers. The House version
would withhold 25 percent of Carter’s budget as punishment for what
House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry,
R-Texas, characterized as foot-dragging on providing documents
related to the detainees swapped for Bowe Bergdahl.
The Senate Armed Services Committee inserted a
compromise provision drawn up by Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen.
Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.: the president can close the prison if he can draw up a
plan that gets Congressional approval; if not, stricter restrictions go
into effect.
“This legislation contains a bipartisan
compromise on how to address the challenge of the detention facility of
Guantanamo Bay,” McCain said in his opening statement on the floor Wednesday.
“President Obama has said from day one of his presidency that he wants to close
Guantanamo, but six and a half years into his administration, the President has
never provided a plan to do so.”
SASC Ranking Member Jack Reed, D-R.I.,
voted against the bill and spoke against it on the floor. “One problem is the
familiar, oft-debated and very complicated challenge of Guantanamo,” he said.
“While we have had some carefully crafted compromise language in this bill,
there are other provisions that reverse progress, particularly on the overseas
transfers of detainees.”
The White House has threatened to veto the NDAAs
as drafted, arguing they not only move backward rather than forward on closing
the facility, but that portions are unconstitutional infringements on
the executive.
“The bill also continues unwarranted
restrictions, and imposes onerous additional ones, regarding detainees at
Guantanamo Bay,” the administration policy statement on the
Senate NDAAreads, repeating the veto threat. “These provisions undermine
our national security by limiting our ability to act as our military,
diplomatic, and other national security professionals deem appropriate in a
given case.”
The administration also specifically rejected
the provision touted by McCain, who has long supported closing the facility,
saying, “This process for congressional approval is unnecessary and overly restrictive.”
http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2015/06/expect-10-guantanamo-transfers-within-weeks/114424/
http://www.teaparty.org/obama-release-10-guantanamo-prisoners-101849/?promocode=tpo-1748212&utm_source=newsemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tpo-1748212
Comments
Obama
wants to clean out Guantanamo and give it back to Cuba before he leaves office,
so he can say he kept his promise. The Cubans will set up a Russian missile
base there. This deal is so bad, even McCain is objecting.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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