The truth is, there is one person who could let the cleared prisoners out if Gitmo tomorrow!

[G_j]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/opinion/nocera-guantanamo-rulings-change-little.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Guantánamo Rulings Change Little
By JOE NOCERA
Published: July 22, 2013

Over the last two weeks, three federal judges have issued rulings on the legitimacy of the recent rough treatment being doled out to the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Under normal circumstances, two of the rulings would add up to a resounding victory for the detainees. But at Guantánamo Bay, where prisoners the government itself acknowledges are not security threats can see no end to their decade-plus imprisonment, nothing is “normal.”

<snip>

And so it goes at Guantánamo Bay. The lawyers representing the detainees make motion after motion, appeal after appeal. It gets them nowhere. With the exception of that one Supreme Court ruling — which had been systematically undercut by the court of appeals — the court system has opted out of dealing with the problem that the Guantánamo prison represents to the country. If the detainees are ever going to get relief, it will have to come from elsewhere.

As I have mentioned previously, some 86 of the 166 detainees at Guantánamo Bay have already been “cleared” by a committee made up of national security officials, meaning they could leave the prison tomorrow without any threat to national security. Recently, the government sent letters to a number of lawyers informing them that their clients would soon be called before a review board that would determine whether they could be added to that list. Although the detainees themselves have largely given up hope of ever getting out — hence the hunger strike — one of their lawyers, David Remes, says, “I keep telling them that it is a lot better to be in Group A than Group B.”

The truth is, there is one person who could get them out tomorrow — if he chose. That same person could stop the military from force-feeding the detainees. I am referring, of course, to President Obama. Yet despite decrying the Guantánamo prison, the president has refused to do anything but stand by and watch the military inflict needless pain and suffering, much of it on men who simply shouldn’t be there. Indeed, in many of the legal briefs filed on behalf of Guantánamo prisoners, the defendant is Barack Obama.

[Safetykitten]

1. Just so you know, he is powerless and is not the king of the country...

I thought I would throw that in there and beat the rush.

[Odious justice]

4. King or not he has the power to do so. As commander in chief, he can release military prisoners or

pardon those charged with fedreal crimes. Really, with a stroke of his pen, they could be free.

[JaneyVee]

2. I agree that whoever is cleared should be released, but isn't part of the problem that

No country has offered them asylum? I thought I read that somewhere. Also, that it costs a lot of money to close GITMO and congress controls spending. And Republicans control congress, and Republicans love GITMO.

[KamaAina]

9. There are places they could go

at least some of them, like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

[OnyxCollie]

3. From Carlos Warner, one of the lawyers defending GITMO detainees:

A Desperate Situation at Guantánamo: Over 130 Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Dozens Being Force-Fed
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/29/a_desperate_situation_at_guantnamo_over

CARLOS WARNER: Unfortunately, they’re held because the president has no political will to end Guantánamo. And it falls on the left. And I’m part of the left. I’m a federal public defender. My wife campaigned for President Obama. But the bottom line is that the left isn’t pushing for the release. He, the president, is blaming this on the right and saying the right has made these restrictions. Well, what the left doesn’t understand, and the right has pointed this out, is that the president has the authority to transfer individuals if he believes that it’s in the interests of the United States. But he doesn’t have the political will to do so because 166 men in Guantánamo don’t have much pull in the United States. So—but the average American on the street does not understand that half of these men, 87 of these men—86 of them, excuse me—86 of the men are cleared for release, meaning that the government has said that not only haven’t they done anything wrong, but they’re not dangerous, that they could be released immediately. And they languish there in Guantánamo while the president is guffawing with, you know, the social elite in Washington.

We’re just asking the president to appoint somebody to start working on the problem. If the president does that, we can make incredible progress in a year. I’ve been in this situation for many years now, and I know where these men can go. And frankly, the executive knows, as well. The State Department knows where these men can be placed. And they were working on those solutions, but the president doesn’t want to implement what the State Department has done.

[G_j]

6. it's truly informative

the read this lawyer's account of the situation. thanks

[Fantastic Anarchist]

7. Thanks for posting.

This is just fucking tragic.

[Jim Lane]

8. A question about the State Department's role

The linked article quotes Carlos Warner as saying: "We’re just asking the president to appoint somebody to start working on the problem."

My recollection is along these lines: The President did appoint someone to start working on the problem. That person, a State Department official, found countries willing to accept many cleared-for-release Gitmo prisoners, and that work resulted in a significant reduction in the number of people held at Gitmo. The problem was that the State Department dealt with all the cases that could be dealt with. The remaining prisoners who'd been cleared for release by the U.S. were those for whom a new country could not be found. Eventually, the State Department concluded that it was at a dead end, and the person who'd been working on the problem was reassigned.

Is that accurate? If so, what should be Obama's next step?

The United States may have gotten itself into an impossible situation. For example, if in 2001 we captured a Yemeni national in Afghanistan, and the current governments of Yemen and of Afghanistan both dislike the guy and don't want him within their borders, and no other country wants to admit him, but it's contrary to American principles to hold him indefinitely at Gitmo -- then we're stuck. We can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, i.e., we can't correct the wrong that was done under Bush.

[G_j]

10. toothpaste

can't be put back in a tube, but it is still unacceptable to knowingly allow ongoing human rights violations to continue, because we are "stuck". No excuses are acceptable when it comes to human rights.

[Jim Lane]

11. But, as a practical matter, what should we DO with the guy?

If there's no government anywhere in the world that will accept him, then it's clear that we should not allow ongoing human rights violations to continue, but it's not clear how we stop it.

I suppose we could throw our military weight around. We could put him on an Air Force flight to Afghanistan so as to bring him into that country against the express wishes of the (sort-of elected) Afghan government. That would make us an international bully. Furthermore, if the guy was in Afghanistan as a guest of the Taliban government, which is no longer in power, what would he do there now? He'd have no friends in government in Afghanistan and no travel documents to gain admission to any other country. He'd probably end up getting shot by Karzai's police.

[RC]

5. Obama, being the Commanding Officer of the military, could return most of those prisoners to where

we kidnapped them from.
Ever notice Obama is either powerless or a getterdone type of guy, designated by the same people?
Congress is always blamed for the first and never credited for the second.
Well, in this case, Obama can do something about it, without the Congress say-so or approval. But he won't.
We have generals living in Million dollar plus villas, at taxpayers expense, but we can't afford a plane ticket and new cheap suit, back to the prisoner's country of origin? Bull Shit!