Friday
Dec192008
Obama Acts: Guantanamo to Close
Friday, December 19, 2008 at 9:42
OK, now I'll join the optimists who expect an Obama Administration commitment --- despite the last, desperate interference of Vice President Dick Cheney --- to shut down Camp X-Ray soon after the Inauguration in January 2009:
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates still technically works for George W. Bush, so the confirmation from the Pentagon indicates that the current Administration is standing aside. More importantly the Department of Defense, which helped launch this illegal and counter-productive regime, is now prepared to shut it down.
The downside of this process is that it will still take months to find and implement an arrangement for the 250 detainees still at the prison. It is unclear how many will be kept under lock-and-key in the American system and if those released can return to their home countries, have to be accommodated in the United States, or will be accepted by a third country such as Portugal.
The Defense Department is drawing up plans to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in anticipation that one of President-elect Barack Obama's first acts will be ordering the closure of the detention center associated with the abuse of terror suspects.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates still technically works for George W. Bush, so the confirmation from the Pentagon indicates that the current Administration is standing aside. More importantly the Department of Defense, which helped launch this illegal and counter-productive regime, is now prepared to shut it down.
The downside of this process is that it will still take months to find and implement an arrangement for the 250 detainees still at the prison. It is unclear how many will be kept under lock-and-key in the American system and if those released can return to their home countries, have to be accommodated in the United States, or will be accepted by a third country such as Portugal.