A change is Guan’o come
Bam vows — again — to close Gitmo prison
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday vowed to “once and for all” close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer most detainees to a facility in the United States, submitting a plan short on specifics and unlikely to make headway.
Obama cast his proposal as a moment to turn the page on a facility that for years has raised nettlesome legal questions and garnered strong opposition from some allies abroad.
“I don’t want to pass this problem onto the next president, whoever it is,” Obama said at the White House. “If we don’t do what’s 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.”
Despite the big ambitions, Obama’s proposed path to closure remained unclear, leaving unanswered the politically thorny question of where in the United States a new facility would be located and whether it could be completed by the end of Obama’s term.
Moving detainees to US soil is currently prohibited under US law and lawmakers have shown little interest in changing that.
“We will review President Obama’s plan but since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in US communities, he knows that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKy.)
House Speaker Paul Ryan (RWis.) said Obama had yet to convince Americans moving detainees to US soil is “smart or safe.”
Even Sen. John McCain (RAriz.), an advocate of closing the prison, called Obama’s report a “vague menu of options,” which does not include a policy for dealing with future terrorist detainees.
Officials said detainees moved to US facilities would not be entitled to expanded rights, such as due process.
The White House has not ruled out the possibility that the president may again attempt to close the prison through executive action — a move that would directly challenge Congress’ authority, though the plan submitted Tuesday does not address that option.
Under Obama’s plan, roughly 35 of the 91 current detainees will be transferred to other countries in coming months, leaving up to 60 who are either facing trial by mili tary commission or have been determined to be too dangerous to release but are not facing charges.
Those detainees would be relocated to a US facility that could cost up to $475 million to build, but would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operatingcost savings. The annual operating cost for Guantanamo is $445 million.
lThe end of the illfated Jeb Bush presidential campaign is a positive development for the nation (“Bid for 3rd Bush presidency ends,” Feb. 21).
Two Bush family members have led our country. The first, George H. W. Bush, looks like a genius in retrospect for the prudence and caution he displayed in foreign affairs.
George W. Bush was a calamity in most respects, plunging us into a war in Iraq that has inflicted, and continues to subject us to, enormous cost in blood and trea sure. The country wasn’t inclined to elect the brother of the man who fumbled his opportunity to lead as he farmed out his administration to individuals like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and his neocon kitchen Cabinet.
Oren Spiegler Upper Saint Clair, Pa.
l Forget his accomplishments and policies. Jeb was never going to be president.
With his poor posture, wonkish effect and doubleblinking eyes, Jeb will go down as political satire. The only thing exciting about him was the exclamation point in his logo.
And although Democrats and the media love Hillary Clinton, will America elect someone who oozes entitlement, radiates dishonesty and laughs like fingernails scraping on a blackboard? No. Pete McArdle
Yorktown Heights