President Obama released a plan from the Pentagon on Tuesday that spelled out ways the United States can close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and send the detainees elsewhere, including to facilities in the United States.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately rejected the proposal, saying bringing “Guantanamo terrorists” to the United States was neither smart nor safe. The plan submitted Tuesday does not address that option, officials said. The U.S. law prohibits transfer of the 9-11 prisoners, but Obama is pursuing what he had pledged during his 2008 candidacy. “I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is”. But the facility has remained open, drawing widespread criticism from human rights groups, foreign governments, and many members of Obama’s own party.
Coats say that the facility at Guantanamo Bay has been a valuable tool in the countries counter terrorism efforts.
“We will review President Obama’s plan but since it includes bringing risky terrorists to facilities in USA communities, he knows that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal”, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.
“We hope this will be the beginning of a sustained conversation”, one official said, conceding “it’s not entirely clear on how that conversation will play out”. “As Congress has imposed restrictions that now prevent the transfer of detainees to the United States, we recognize that this is going to be a challenge”. He also said he realized that public fears of relocating the detainees and congressional opposition to close the detention facility would be hurdles, but urged Congress to give his plan “a fair hearing”.
However, what was most intriguing about the president’s announcement today was not what was said, but rather what was behind him. As Obama spent seven years trying to craft a consensus plan to shut down the prison – the most detailed of which he announced Tuesday morning – the opposition spent seven years rallying politicians and Americans to oppose it.
But Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said last week that returning Guantanamo to Cuba “is not on the table as a part of our discussions”.
A total of 91 suspected militants remain at Guantanamo, a prison that once housed about 700 inmates at its peak and has become synonymous around the world with torture, indefinite detention and orange jumpsuits.
President Obama has suggested the facility be closed since he first took office.
Some 35 prisoners will be transferred from Guantanamo to other countries this year, leaving the final number below 60, officials said.
At its peak in 2003, Guantanamo held more than 670 detainees.
The youngest detainee was 13 years old.
In 2015 the USA spent $450 million to keep Guantanamo operating.
Four other Republicans, Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Ayotte, Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio, a 2016 presidential hopeful, introduced a bill late on Monday that would bar Obama from returning the naval base at Guantanamo to Cuba without authorization from Congress.
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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The notion of having terrorists held in the United States, rather than in some distant place, can be scary.
