{"id":21822,"date":"2016-02-24T09:03:41","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T17:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/obama-gitmo-undermines-security-must-be-closed\/"},"modified":"2016-02-24T09:03:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T17:03:41","slug":"obama-gitmo-undermines-security-must-be-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/obama-gitmo-undermines-security-must-be-closed\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama: Gitmo undermines security, must be closed"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 President Barack Obama\u2019s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba slammed into a wall of Republican opposition on Tuesday, stopping cold Obama\u2019s hope for a bipartisan effort to \u201cclose a chapter\u201d that began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited proposal, which was requested by Congress, is Obama\u2019s last attempt to make good on an unfulfilled campaign promise by persuading Congress to change the law that prohibits moving detainees accused of violent extremist acts to U.S. soil. Fourteen years after the facility opened and seven years after Obama took office, the president argued it was \u201cfinally\u201d time to shutter a facility that has sparked persistent legal battles, become a recruitment tool for Islamic militants and garnered strong opposition from some allies abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to pass this problem onto the next president, whoever it is,\u201d Obama said in an appearance at the White House. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do what\u2019s required now, I think future generations are going to look back and ask why we failed to act when the right course, the right side of history, and justice and our best American traditions was clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the big ambitions, Obama\u2019s proposed path remained unclear. The plan leaves unanswered the politically thorny question of where in the U.S a new facility would be located. It offered broad cost estimates. The White House described it as more of a conversation starter than a definitive outline.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders in Congress showed no interest in having that conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will review President Obama\u2019s plan but since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in U.S. communities, he knows that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Obama had yet to convince Americans that moving detainees to U.S. soil is \u201csmart or safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is against the law \u2014 and it will stay against the law,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Even Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war and an advocate of closing the prison, called Obama\u2019s report a \u201cvague menu of options,\u201d which does not include a policy for dealing with future detainees.<\/p>\n

Obama has \u201cmissed a major chance to convince the Congress and the American people that he has a responsible plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether that chance ever existed. Momentum to close the facility has slowed dramatically under Obama\u2019s tenure. Congress remains deadlocked on far less contentious matters, and the issue has little resonance on the presidential campaign trail.<\/p>\n

Still, for Obama, the facility stands as painful reminder of the limits on his power: His first executive order sketched out a timeline for closing the prison, but was ultimately derailed by Congress.<\/p>\n

The White House has not ruled out the possibility that the president may again attempt to close the prison through executive action \u2014 a move that would directly challenge Congress\u2019 authority. The plan submitted Tuesday does not address that option.<\/p>\n

Instead, the proposal reflects the administration\u2019s strategy of shrinking the population, hoping the cost of housing the diminished population would ultimately make closure inevitable.<\/p>\n

Under the plan, roughly 35 of the 91 current detainees will be transferred to other countries in the coming months, leaving up to 60 detainees who are either facing trial by military commission or have been determined to be too dangerous to release but are not facing charges.<\/p>\n

Those detainees would be relocated to a U.S. facility that could cost up to $475 million to build, but would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. The annual operating cost for Guantanamo is $445 million. The U.S. facilities would cost between $265 million and $305 million to operate each year, according to the proposal.<\/p>\n

The plan considers, but does not name, 13 different locations in the U.S., including seven existing prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, as well as six other locations at current correctional facilities on state, federal or military sites in several states. It also notes that there could be all new construction on existing military bases. The plan doesn\u2019t recommend a preferred site.<\/p>\n

Naming a site would have certainly further antagonized some members of Congress. Those representing South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado already have voiced opposition to housing the detainees in their states.<\/p>\n

Advocates of closing Guantanamo say the prison has long been a recruiting tool for militant groups and that holding extremists suspected of violent acts indefinitely without charges or trial sparks anger and dismay among U.S. allies.<\/p>\n

Opponents, however, say changing the detention center\u2019s ZIP code won\u2019t eliminate that problem.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s proposal faced criticism even from those who endorse closing the detention center. His initial campaign pledge was widely viewed as a promise to end the practice of detaining prisoners indefinitely without charge, not to bring that practice to the U.S., said Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA\u2019s Security and Human Rights Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the president proposes, even if it doesn\u2019t come to fruition, the administration is changing the goal posts on this issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Barack Obama\u2019s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba slammed into a wall of Republican opposition on Tuesday, stopping cold Obama\u2019s hope for a bipartisan effort to \u201cclose a chapter\u201d that began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The long-awaited proposal, which was requested by Congress, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21822"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}