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Obamas Plan for Guantnamo Is Seen Faltering - The New York Times
7/21/15, 9:45 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/us/politics/obamas-plan-for-guantanamype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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Obamas Plan for Guantnamo Is Seen Faltering - The New York Times
7/21/15, 9:45 PM
The last of them was a group of four Yemenis who were resettled in Oman.
That group was the first part of a 10-detainee deal, and Mr. Carter, in June,
permitted an additional six Yemenis to go, completing the deal with Oman. Mr.
Carter has approved no other transfers.
The Guantnamo population is now 116 detainees, of whom 52 are
recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met. Most have been held
for about 13 years. Most of the 52 lower-level detainees are from Yemen; because it
is in chaos, the American government is trying to resettle them, not repatriate
them.
Lee S. Wolosky, the new State Department envoy for negotiating transfer
deals, said in a statement that the government was talking with multiple countries
about the transfer of a large number of detainees from the list.
This process will ramp up further in the coming weeks, as reducing the
detainee population through foreign transfers is a critical component to our
broader efforts to close the detention facility, he said.
But it would be up to Mr. Carter to approve such deals. The deputy secretary of
defense, Robert O. Work, said in a statement that the Pentagon would continue to
work with the national security team and the Congress to close the facility in an
efficient and responsible manner.
Many congressional Republicans oppose closing Guantnamo, and say newly
captured detainees should be taken there, which Mr. Obama has refused to do.
They have also criticized the transfer of lower-level detainees, warning of
recidivism. The government says that as of January, seven of the 115 detainees
transferred under Mr. Obama are suspected or confirmed to have engaged in
militant actions after their release.
In February, at Mr. Carters confirmation hearing, two Republican senators
asked him to commit that he would not succumb to pressure by the White House
over Guantnamo transfers. I understand my responsibilities under that statute,
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/us/politics/obamas-plan-for-guantanamype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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Obamas Plan for Guantnamo Is Seen Faltering - The New York Times
7/21/15, 9:45 PM
and Ill, as in everything else I do, Ill play it absolutely straight, Mr. Carter said.
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees are meeting to resolve
differences between their versions of the annual National Defense Authorization
Act, which includes the detainee transfer restrictions.
The House bill would further tighten the standards, most likely shutting down
any more transfers. The Senate version would largely extend existing restrictions.
The White House has threatened to veto both versions.
The Senate version also sets up a process, proposed by Senator John McCain
of Arizona, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, for closing
the prison: The administration would submit a plan to Congress, and if both
chambers approve it, the ban on bringing the remaining detainees to domestic soil
would be lifted.
Mr. Carter and Ms. Monaco have promised to give Mr. McCain a plan, and
officials said they may do so next week. But the administration has been putting
forward a closing plan for years, and radical changes to it are not expected.
Its plan has been to transfer all lower-level detainees, while bringing those
deemed too dangerous for release to a military prison on domestic soil. Of the
latter group, some would be prosecuted while the rest would be held as wartime
prisoners, with periodic parole-like reviews.
That plan has previously failed to persuade skeptics of Mr. Obamas
Guantnamo policy, particularly in the House.
A Republican congressional staff member said Mr. Obamas critics also wanted
to see, as part of the plan, discussion of how law-of-war detention would be used to
hold and interrogate terrorism suspects captured in the future.
The administration has developed a model of first interrogating new captives
for a period for intelligence purposes, often on a ship, and then transferring them
to civilian courts for prosecution. It considers that model to be one of its policy
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/us/politics/obamas-plan-for-guantanamype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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Obamas Plan for Guantnamo Is Seen Faltering - The New York Times
7/21/15, 9:45 PM
achievements.
A version of this article appears in print on July 22, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the
headline: PRESIDENTS PLAN FOR GUANTNAMO IS SEEN FALTERING .
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/us/politics/obamas-plan-for-guantanamype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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