"There's no reason to build this in Guantánamo unless you want to do things you don't think you could get away with on the U.S. mainland. It's easy to put tents in Florida. But they're putting them in Cuba. Ask yourself why."
90 senators, including Bernie Sanders, rejected Obama’s 2009 funding proposal that would’ve closed the camp. And with good reason. Obama’s move would’ve simply moved the prison onshore while continuing the indefinite detention without trial, potentially legitimizing the practice further and providing a clearer legal precedent.
Yes, he technically tried to “close Guantanamo Bay” but in a way that wouldn’t adress the actual reasons people want it closed.
“A number of important questions remain unanswered regarding the rather complicated issue of not just how you close down the facility, but what you do with the prisoners,” he said in part. “In order to answer these questions, President Obama has appointed a high-level committee of top administration officials who will be issuing a report in the coming months. I think that it is prudent to review that plan they develop before we spend $80 million in taxpayer money.”
This was issued in 2009. It’s obstructed (by the same institutions not obstructing Trump right now), and Obama slowly releases inmates over the next couple of years. What you’re linking to there is a “final” plan in 2016 to close it after the prison population of Gitmo had been reduced from 800 to 91.
A final plan that never happened because Trump took office.
And what would have happened if he did it sooner? They would have kept stalling out out? I believe no matter when he did it out would have needed approval
That first article quotes Obama trying to close it. From the sounds of it congress attached keeping the base open as a rider to another defense funding bill. That’s a common tactic I think
Who else remembers past Presidents campaigning on closing Gitmo, then dropped the subject after getting elected?
Because it’s a very popular issue with the voting public but the voting public doesn’t have any recourse if you renege on your campaign promises.
Luigi begs to differ
Obama signed an executive order to close it, but Congress and the legal system slowed it down.
90 senators, including Bernie Sanders, rejected Obama’s 2009 funding proposal that would’ve closed the camp. And with good reason. Obama’s move would’ve simply moved the prison onshore while continuing the indefinite detention without trial, potentially legitimizing the practice further and providing a clearer legal precedent.
Yes, he technically tried to “close Guantanamo Bay” but in a way that wouldn’t adress the actual reasons people want it closed.
Sanders’ statement:
“A number of important questions remain unanswered regarding the rather complicated issue of not just how you close down the facility, but what you do with the prisoners,” he said in part. “In order to answer these questions, President Obama has appointed a high-level committee of top administration officials who will be issuing a report in the coming months. I think that it is prudent to review that plan they develop before we spend $80 million in taxpayer money.”
Where is congress and the legal system now?
Still there… proving, once again, that racism and the love of money is indeed embedded in America’s everything
“They go low, we go high”
Oh come on you know damn well where it’s at.
in the shitter
Only took him 7ish years to get around to it though. Probably something to have done sooner?
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2016/02/23/president-obamas-plan-close-Guantanamo-about-closing-chapter-history
He did start the process sooner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13492
This was issued in 2009. It’s obstructed (by the same institutions not obstructing Trump right now), and Obama slowly releases inmates over the next couple of years. What you’re linking to there is a “final” plan in 2016 to close it after the prison population of Gitmo had been reduced from 800 to 91.
A final plan that never happened because Trump took office.
And what would have happened if he did it sooner? They would have kept stalling out out? I believe no matter when he did it out would have needed approval
Then make them be the ones to block it from being shut down. Not try to do it right before leaving office.
And maybe not sign the bill to upgrade it…
https://www.courthousenews.com/obama-signs-bill-expanding-guantanamo/
Plus not like he even closed it with his closing EO
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/obama-gitmo-plan-reaction-219696
That first article quotes Obama trying to close it. From the sounds of it congress attached keeping the base open as a rider to another defense funding bill. That’s a common tactic I think