How Congress helped thwart Obama's plan to close Guantanamo

[babylonsister]

How Congress helped thwart Obama's plan to close Guantanamo

By Carol Rosenberg | McClatchy Newspapers

snip//

Many factors worked to thwart Obama's plans to close the camps — from a tangled bureaucracy to fears that released detainees would become terrorists. But Congress' prohibition on resettling any of the detainees in the United States hamstrung the administration's global search for countries willing to take the captives in.

The U.S. refusal to take in the captives "comes up all the time," acknowledged a senior Obama administration official of U.S. efforts to find homes for released detainees.

"Were we willing to take a couple of detainees ourselves, it would've made the job of moving detainees out of Guantanamo significantly easier,'' said the official, who agreed to speak only anonymously because of the delicacy of the diplomacy.

Still, the Obama administration has managed to arrange the find new homes for 38 Guantanamo detainees in 16 countries, including Bermuda, Bulgaria, Palau and Portugal.

Why?

Some countries found the individual stories of men at Guantanamo with no place to go "compelling,'' the official said. "Some wanted to help the United States in general. Some wanted to help Obama in particular.'' Mostly, "because they want to close Guantanamo despite the fact that Congress is awful.''

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/22/107255/how-congress-helped-thwart-obamas.html

[LARED]

1. How is preventing detainees from

resettling in the USA a problem?

[babylonsister]

2. Because our decision influenced other countries. From the article:

In cable after cable sent to the State Department in Washington, American diplomats make it clear that the unwillingness of the United States to resettle a single detainee in this country — even from among 17 ethnic Muslim Uighurs considered enemies of China's communist government — made other countries reluctant to take in detainees.

Europe balked and said the United States should go first. Yemen at one point proposed the United States move the detainees from Cuba to America's SuperMax prison in the Colorado Rockies. Saudi Arabia's king suggested the military plant micro-chips in Guantanamo captives before setting them free.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/22/107255/how-congress-helped-thwart-obamas.html#ixzz1BsBK05Ma

[LARED]

4. I guess I was confused

If resettling means locking them up in a supermax prison in the USA as an option then I am ok with that.

[Kolesar]

5. RW Congressmen found a way to politicize this

Through the typical half truths on Foxnews and RW radio. They spoke as if the terrorists were going to be renting apartments in Muncie.

Jon Stewart slammed this lie quite well.

[Clio the Leo]

3. Thanks for the reminder. nt