It’s been seven years since Barack Obama made one of his first pledges as president – to shut down the Guantánamo Bay prison. Now, it finally might be happening.
Mr. Obama’s chief-of-staff Denis McDonough said in an interview Sunday the commander-in-chief will make good on his promise by the end of his second term.
“The president has said from the beginning of this administration that we will close Gitmo because it’s bad for our national security and because it’s too costly,” Mr. McDonough said on “Fox News Sunday.”
First, Obama will look to Congress to approve his long-awaited plan and iron out the details, he explained. If Congress fails to act, as it did in 2010, the White House will consider another plan of action. There are currently 104 detainees left at the prison.
Two days after his inauguration in 2009, Obama signed an executive order to transfer Guantánamo’s remaining detainees and permanently close the facility in Cuba within the year. In 2010, Congress blocked the proposed transfers, curtailing Obama’s ability to meet his deadline.
Currently, Guantánamo prisoners are permitted to be transferred to other countries but not within the US. In order to leave the prison, detainees must have approval from a team comprised of agents from six government departments, and then be signed off by the defense secretary.
When PBS’s Frontline reached out to the Department of Defense in July, spokeswoman Henrietta Levin said the department is committed to closing the facility.
“Unfortunately, this process can be slowed unnecessarily by burdensome legislative provisions,” she said, of a system that could only be adjusted with the approval of Congress.
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SOURCE: Cathaleen Chen
Christian Science Monitor
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