Obama Returns To Bush Era On Guantánamo
Two distressing pieces of news emerged last week regarding the Obama administration’s plans to close Guantánamo, and both were delivered by defense secretary Robert Gates in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Discussing what would happen to the remaining 241 prisoners, Gates announced that the question was “still open” as to what the government should do with “the 50 to 100 — probably in that ballpark — who we cannot release and cannot try.” He also announced that the much-criticized Military Commission trial system, suspended for four months by Barack Obama on his first day in office, was “still very much on the table.”
Both admissions indicate that, when it comes to Guantánamo, it is beginning to appear that the much-vaunted change promised by Barack Obama on the campaign trail has actually involved nothing more than imposing a closing date on Guantánamo, but maintaining the Bush administration’s approach to the men still held there.
Discussing what would happen to the remaining 241 prisoners, Gates announced that the question was “still open” as to what the government should do with “the 50 to 100 — probably in that ballpark — who we cannot release and cannot try.” He also announced that the much-criticized Military Commission trial system, suspended for four months by Barack Obama on his first day in office, was “still very much on the table.”
Both admissions indicate that, when it comes to Guantánamo, it is beginning to appear that the much-vaunted change promised by Barack Obama on the campaign trail has actually involved nothing more than imposing a closing date on Guantánamo, but maintaining the Bush administration’s approach to the men still held there.
posted by temporal at 5/05/2009
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