What Excuse Remains for Obama’s Failure to Close GITMO?
June 03, 2014 "ICH"
- "The
Intercept" - -
The excuse-making on behalf of President Obama has
always found its most extreme form when it came time
to explain why he failed to fulfill his oft-stated
2008 election promise to close Guantanamo. As I’ve
documented
many times, even the promise itself was
misleading, as it became quickly apparent that Obama
— even in the absence of congressional obstruction —
did not intend to “close GITMO” at all but
rather to re-locate it, maintaining its defining
injustice of indefinite detention.
But the
events of the last three days have obliterated the
last remaining excuse. In order to secure the
release of American POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the
Obama administration agreed to release from
Guantanamo five detainees allegedly affiliated with
the Taliban. But as even stalwart Obama defenders
such as
Jeffery Toobin admit, Obama “clearly broke the
law” by
releasing those detainees without providing Congress
the 30-day notice required by
the 2014 defense authorization statute (law
professor Jonathan Turley
similarly observed that Obama’s lawbreaking here
was clear and virtually undebatable).
June 03, 2014 "ICH"
- "The
Intercept" - -
The excuse-making on behalf of President Obama has
always found its most extreme form when it came time
to explain why he failed to fulfill his oft-stated
2008 election promise to close Guantanamo. As I’ve
documented
many times, even the promise itself was
misleading, as it became quickly apparent that Obama
— even in the absence of congressional obstruction —
did not intend to “close GITMO” at all but
rather to re-locate it, maintaining its defining
injustice of indefinite detention.
But the
events of the last three days have obliterated the
last remaining excuse. In order to secure the
release of American POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the
Obama administration agreed to release from
Guantanamo five detainees allegedly affiliated with
the Taliban. But as even stalwart Obama defenders
such as
Jeffery Toobin admit, Obama “clearly broke the
law” by
releasing those detainees without providing Congress
the 30-day notice required by
the 2014 defense authorization statute (law
professor Jonathan Turley
similarly observed that Obama’s lawbreaking here
was clear and virtually undebatable).
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