Obama sends Gitmo closing plan to Congress

‘ The politics of this are tough,’ president admits

WASHINGTON • President Barack Obama Tuesday sent Congress a l ong- awaited plan for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, beginning a final push to fulfill a campaign promise and one of his earliest national security policy goals in the face of deep skepticism from many Republican lawmakers.

Unveiling the plan, the president made clear his frustration at how what was once a bipartisan goal shared by both his predecessor, George W. Bush, and his 2008 Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, had become a partisan dispute.

He urged Congress to give his plan a “fair hearing,” saying the prison wasted money, raised tensions with allies and fuelled anti-American sentiments abroad.

“I am very clear- eyed about the hurdles to finally closing Guantanamo — the politics of this are tough,” Obama said. “I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is. And if, as a nation, we don’t deal with this now, when will we deal with it?”

Congress required Obama to present a plan as part of the most recent defence authorization bill, and its basic approach echoed the strategy the administration has been pursuing for seven years.

Obama has refused to add any more detainees to the 242 he inherited, instead chipping away at the population. His plan would bring 30- 60 detainees deemed too dangerous to release to a prison on U.S. soil, while transferring the remaining 91 detainees to other countries.

Of those 91, 35 are on a list of those recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met, 10 are charged or convicted by the military commissions system, and 46 have neither been charged with a crime nor approved for transfer.

But t he proposal did provide some new cost estimates. It said upgrading a prison would r equire US$ 290 million to US$ 475 million in one- time construction expenses, but cost US$65 million to US$85 million less annually to operate than keeping detainees at Guantanamo does. If the detainees do stay at the U. S. naval base in Cuba, the Defence Department will need to spend about US$ 225 million to replace or upgrade aging structures.

The president’s plan faces steep obstacles. Congress has enacted a statute that bars the military from transferring detainees from Guantanamo onto domestic soil for any purpose, and congressional Republicans have shown little interest in lifting that restriction.

Many Republicans have argued t here is nothing wrong with continuing to operate the Guantanamo prison and that bringing wartime detainees into the United States would create security risks. Lawmakers in the three states where the Pentagon studied sites have voiced strong objections to the notion.