Obama Plans to Transfer 17 More Gitmo Detainees

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast/The NYT

Officials in President Obama’s administration plan to tell Congress of his intention to transfer 17 or 18 of the final 59 detainees still held in the prison at Guantánamo Bay, according to a report in The New York Times. People in that group will go to Oman, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Obama will likely fail to achieve his campaign promise of emptying and closing the entire prison. About 178 prisoners have so far been released under his presidency. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will keep the detention center open and “load it up with some bad dudes.”

READ IT AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

###

Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/20/obama-may-transfer-17-gitmo-detainees.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl

[Abouttime]

1. Release them all

Gitmo is a horrible stain on the history of the USA, these prisoners have been tortured and held without due process.
Release them all and turn over the base to the rightful owners, the people of Cuba.

[hughee99]

3. The detention center is a small part of the base at Gitmo. Even if they closed that down completely

they're not giving up the base itself. While people remember Obama's promise as one to "close Gitmo", what he actually promised was close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

[zipplewrath]

6. Yeah but

We then learned he had no intention of "closing" the detention center, but merely to move it. He asserted, and still does, that some of them can never be released, nor put on trial.

[hughee99]

8. Yes and this should be the problem people have with "gitmo" IMHO.

Whether the base is open or closed isn't the issue, it's the indefinite detention, wherever it may be done, that should concern people.

I've seen numerous threads and posts over the last 7 years about how the republicans are blocking President Obama from closing the camp, but once someone brings up this issue, they don't seem to want to talk about it anymore.

[zipplewrath]

9. Because it is "indefensible"

By that I mean there is no way to explain how he campaigned on closing it, and practically from the start worked on just moving it. One can attempt to defend having these detentions, but then it is hard to explain how and why "closing" Gitmo was/is so important. And you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that thought that when he said "close" on the campaign trail, he meant "move". It was one of the many issues upon which Obama campaigned that was easy on the stump, but I suspect he never really thought much about until he was president. A bit like health insurance mandates actually. They were a punch line on the campaign trail, and indispensable as president. Actually, the war in Afghanistan is the same way. His campaign line was all about finishing the war. But it never came up that his definition of "finishing" was to start by tripling the number of troops and then drag it on until after he was gone.

Really, he can be painted into this corner too on torture. He ran on ending torture. He wrote an order to "end" a practice that had ended a couple of years before he was sworn in. He forbid it while he was president, but he made no effort to make the ban permanent, and really by not punishing anyone involved with any torture committed anywhere, he's really laid the groundwork for how it can be done again. By "having their backs" he's set the stage for future administrations to resurrect the activity, with no consequence what so ever. By classifying the photos, he obstructed the outrage that could have actually brought about permanent change. Like I say, easy on the trail, hard in the office.

Trump's gonna learn that the hard way too.

[Cha]

2. Thank you, President Obama

Thanks Don

[DallasNE]

4. Most, If Not All, Of These Prisoners

Have been held there for 14 years. None have come before a Judge for trial in all of those years, mainly because they can't because there is no untainted evidence against them. Some of them are really bad dudes too. And torture is a big part of this dilemma. Bush really, really screwed the pooch.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Wish it was closed

Wish it was gone. Trump's aim is to grow this prison 10 fold so he can house and torture journalists who criticize him.

[Bayard]

7. This is the answer?

Just to export them to countries where the torture is worse, or they'll just be immediately shot?