No Big ‘Change’ Coming on Guantanamo Detainees
Posted November 12th, 2008 at 12.11pm in Protect America.
According to The Washington Post, the Obama administration is planning to “launch a review of the classified files of the approximately 250 detainees at Guantanamo Bay immediately after taking office, as part of an intensive effort to close the U.S. prison in Cuba.” Obama hopes to close GITMO quickly but, like so many of his other promises, reality will pose a problem. WaPo continues: “But the advisers, as well as outside national security and legal experts, said the new administration will face a thicket of legal, diplomatic, political and logistical challenges to closing the prison and prosecuting the most serious offenders in the United States — an effort that could take many months or longer.”
Heritage Senior Research Fellow James Carafano comments:
I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” answer for the detainees at GITMO. Disposition will have to made on a case by case basis. As a result, the administration can make a grand declaration that GITMO is closed, but the end of operations of the detention facility will look more like a whimper than a bang. It may take years to resolve what to do with some of the detainees.
- Author: Conn Carroll
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November 13, 2008 Wayne Whitney, Lawrence Kansas writes:
If these terrorists had been killed on the battlefield instead of captured we wouldn’t be talking about what to do with them now.
If the Congress wants to close Gitmo, I suggest we build a new secured facility on the grounds of the Capital in DC. That would make it very handy for all of the DC lawyers to visit with their new clients.