Obama's Gitmo

From the BBC:

"Guantanamo Bay: Obama in prison closure push"

 

The White House has presented to Congress a plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, one of the president's long-standing goals. He wants to transfer the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed to terror suspects being held on US soil and is expected to block the move. The prison costs $445m (£316m) to run annually and closing it was a 2009 promise from President Barack Obama. Human rights campaigners have repeatedly complained about the prison in Cuba, which has held 780 detainees since it opened in 2002.

    

There are four main components in the White House plan:

• Transfer 35 detainees to foreign countries who have been designated to do so
• Do periodic reviews of remaining detainees to see if their detention is still necessary
• Continue to use legal tools to deal with remaining detainees
• Working with Congress to establish a location in the US to hold detainees who will not go to foreign countries

It estimates the move would save up to $180m (£128m) a year in cost savings. Guantanamo Bay is located on an American naval base in south eastern Cuba. Former US President George W Bush opened it to accommodate foreign terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks on the US. The Obama plan does not specify where in the US detainees would go. But the Pentagon has considered 13 different locations in the US, including seven prisons in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, and six other places on military bases.

 

 

^ It seems Obama is just trying to do as much damage as he can before he leaves. The US has the most military bases of any country around the world. Why should we close the prison on Gitmo just to move them to the US? It's clear Obama has a bromance with Cuba right now and that seems to be the only reason. There are many promises Obama made that he hasn't kept (ie not recognizing the Armenian Genocide as a genocide - especially on the 100th anniversary of the killings, etc.) And there are promises Obama has kept that has hurt us (ie. Obamacare and removing all US soldiers in Iraq which allowed ISIS to gain power in Iraq and Syria and attack us forcing US troops to return.) Can't Obama just go on one of his vacations and leave things alone until his term ends? Then his successor can fix his mess. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35643961